Based on the short stories of Sólem Aléchem, with the special permission of Arnold Perl. The New York Stage performances were produced by Herold Prince. The original New York Stage performance was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.
One of the most famous musicals of all time was presented on Broadway in 1964. On October 10, 1986, after the renovation, the Szeged National Theater also opened the season with this play.
The story takes place a hundred years ago in a Ukrainian village inhabited by Jews and Russians. Tevje, the milkman, and his wife, Golde, are guardians of a world defined by the rules of community and religion. However, their daughters want to take their lives into their own hands, they want to marry for love. The eldest daughter, Cejtel, goes to a poor tailor, Mótel, even though her father promised her hand to the old but rich butcher. Hódel connects his life with Percsik, a Marxist Jew from Kiev. And Háva marries a Russian boy, Feyka.
Meanwhile, the Jewish community has to face increasingly strong anti-Semitism, pogroms and finally having to leave everything behind and leave the land of their ancestors.