Overview

In the half-century since its premiere, Fiddler on the Roof has become a supremely potent cultural landmark, beloved by audiences the world over. Now, in a history as captivating as its subject, award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman, the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem, was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone, not only for Jews and not only in America. It is first a story of the theater, as Solomon follows Tevye from his humble appearance on the New York Yiddish stage, through his adoption by leftist dramatists as a symbol of oppression, to his Broadway debut and his starring role in a major Hollywood picture. And it is a cultural story, of a show that spoke to the deepest conflicts and desires the world over: the fraying of tradition, generational tension, the loss of roots. Entertaining and original, Wonder of Wonders reveals the profound legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition.

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9781250058706

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Reviews

A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice As rich and dense as a chocolate babka--so crammed with tasty layers that you have to pace yourself... As brilliant a piece of reporting as I've read this year. --The New York Times Book Review Exuberant. --The Wall Street Journal An illuminating and detailed history. -- The Jewish Daily Forward Glorious... A thrilling, must-read book... In more than thirty years of reading, writing and thinking about theater as an actor, critic and fan, I've never read a book on the subject that taught or moved me as much - reflecting Solomon's ability to weave gobs of meticulous research into a compelling, beautifully written story. --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The aptly-titled Wonder of Wonders is the richest, deepest, most far-ranging, continuously and delightfully surprising book about a single work of theatrical art I've ever encountered. An intellectually serious, playful, and insightful account of popular art's power to shape memory and transmute history into universal myth, it is a soul-stirring joy to read, and only Alisa Solomon could have written it. --Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America I expected that this book would revive many treasured memories, which it certainly did. What I didn't expect to find was the fascinating history of Sholem-Aleichem's Tevye's Daughters or the riveting and unexpectedly moving account of Fiddler 's fortunes after the end of the musical's Broadway run. I have always been proud of Fiddler, but never more so than after reading this astonishing book. --Sheldon Harnick, lyricist, Fiddler on the Roof Alisa Solomon was put on earth to write this exceptional and essential book. A world-class theater critic, a learned Yiddishist, a trenchant journalist, and just a plain wonderful writer, she has brought all her skills to bear in tracing the history of the Tevye stories that became Fiddler on t

Author Information

Alisa Solomon teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she directs the Arts & Culture concentration in the MA program. A theater critic and general reporter for The Village Voice from 1983 to 2004, she has also contributed to The New York Times, The Nation, Tablet, The Forward, and other publications. Her first book, Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. She lives in New York City

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