'Is this the little play I carried?': 'Fiddler on the Roof' turns 60

(JNS) - As the Good Book says ...

The musical "Fiddler on the Roof" first proclaimed Shalom Aleichem to Broadway audiences in 1964, with Zero Mostel belting out the iconic "If I Were a Rich Man" song as Tevye the Dairyman, the father of seven daughters (five of whom have roles in the play). Bea Arthur played Yenta in the production, whose Boris Aronson-designed sets evoked Marc Chagall's shtetl paintings.

Sixty years later, Tevye's misquotations muddying the Torah, coupled with his witty megalomania, have reverberated through the halls of American theaters in countless productions. The play is...