Highland Park the launching pad for fascination with "Fiddler on the Roof"

Growing up in Highland Park, Alisa Solomon sang along to the Broadway cast alum of Fiddler on the Roof in the living room of her family’s Highland Park home. She first saw the play performed in 1967, in a touring production starring Luther Adler, at the McVickers Theater in downtown Chicago. Today she’s the author of the award-winning book Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof and she’ll be at Chicago’s Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership to launch a celebration of five decades of Fiddler.

The musical Fiddler on the Roof debuted on Broadway in 1964. In the fifty years since, it has become an undisputed cultural icon. Its songs have been performed at sacred ceremonies and incorporated into hip-hop hits. It has been lauded as a finely wrought theatrical work, winning nine Tony Awards, spawning four Broadway revivals, and becoming the first musical production in history to surpass 3,000 performances. Along with the film version that followed, the influence of Fiddler on the Roof has been global and cross-cultural, ranging from rural U.S. high schools to the Toyko stage and from scholarly studies to The Simpsons.

On Sunday, April 6 at 2 pm, Dr. Solomon, a professor of Journalism at Columbia University and longtime drama critic for the Village Voice, will set the stage for Chicago’s celebration of “Fiddler at 50” with a program titled Fiddler’s Fortunes: The Mighty Afterlife of a Broadway Musical. She will reveal where the astonishing power of Fiddler comes from and why this beloved musical, based on a story collection from 1894 by Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, is still relevant today. Tickets are $18 for members of the public, $10 for Spertus members, and $8 for students. Wonder of Wonders will be available for purchase and Dr. Solomon will be signing books following the program.

Later that afternoon, on Sunday, April 6 at 5:30 pm, the lavishly produced, critically acclaimed MGM film adaptation will be shown on the big screen. As a gift to the community, Spertus Institute presents this screening for free in its Feinberg Theater. Advance reservations — which are mandatory — can be made at spertus.edu.

On Monday, April 7 at 6:30 pm, Spertus will hold a rare screening of the 1939 Yiddish-language film Tevye, a  non-musical adaptation of the Sholem Aleichem story that inspired Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye was the first non-English language movie to be named “culturally significant” and selected for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress. A post-screening discussion will be led by arts critic Andrew Patner. Tickets are $18 for members of the public, $10 for Spertus members, and $8 for students.          

All the programs take place at Spertus Institute, 610 S. Michigan Avenue. Discount parking is available for $10 with Spertus validation at the Essex Inn, two blocks south of Spertus. Tickets can be purchased online at spertus.edu or by phone at 312.322.1773.

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary, Spertus Institute has prepared an array of Fiddler on the Roof online resources, including a historical timeline, essays, Fiddler trivia contests, and more. These resources can be found at spertus.edu/Fiddler.

Spertus Institute offers dynamic learning opportunities, rooted in Jewish wisdom and culture and open to all. Graduate programs and workshops train future leaders and engage individuals in exploration of Jewish life. Public programs — including films, speakers, seminars, and concerts — take place at the Institute's Michigan Avenue facility, in the Chicago suburbs, and online. For more information, please visit spertus.edu.           

Spertus Institute is a partner in serving the community, supported by the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.