History Theatre / FiddlerOntheRoof

** Tevye leaves his animals in the care of the local priest, and tells them "He's not a bad sort, if you take care of him, he'll take care of you."

** Three girls, three marriages [[spoiler:that undo their father's expectations.]] They have ''more'' girls than that, of course, but only three have plot-important roles; the others are not yet of marriageable age. And in the stories, Tevye has seven daughters.

%%* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong

* SlidingScaleOfAdaptationModification: The film adaptation is a Type 4 (Near Identical Adaptation); it cuts out a few musical numbers, but is otherwise identical to the original musical.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Golde, Motel and Shprintze all die in Sholem Aleichem's original stories (Shprintze drowned herself after her intended marriage was blocked by the groom's uncle; Golde died of an unspecified illness and Motel of tuberculosis[[note]]Keep in mind that the original stories were written and published over the period of ''twenty years'' (1895 to 1914) and set "in present" (each story is actually framed as Tevye relating to Sholem Aleichem all the events which had happened since the preceding story). Hence people dying "off-screen" between the stories, which was more a reflection of relatively short life expectancy in the rural Russian Empire.[[/note]]). Here they survive to the end.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Golde, Motel and Shprintze all die in Sholem Aleichem's original stories (Shprintze drowned herself after her intended marriage was blocked by the groom's uncle; Golde died of an unspecified illness and Motel of tuberculosis[[note]]Keep in mind that the original stories were written and published for ''twenty years'' (1894 to 1914) and set "in present" (each story is actually framed as Tevye relating to Sholem Aleichem all the events which had happened since the preceding story). Hence people dying "off-screen" between the stories, which was more a reflection of relatively short life expectancy in the rural Russian Empire.[[/note]]). Here they survive to the end.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Golde, Motel and Shprintze all die in Sholem Aleichem's original stories (Shprintze drowned herself after her intended marriage was blocked by the groom's uncle; Golde died of an unspecified illness and Motel of tuberculosis[[note]]Keep in mind that the original stories were written over ''twenty years'' and SetInPresent. Hence people dying OffScreen between the stories, which was more a reflection of relatively short life expectancy in the rural Russian Empire.[[/note]]). Here they survive to the end.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Golde, Motel and Shprintze all die in Sholem Aleichem's original stories (Shprintze drowned herself after her intended marriage was blocked by the groom's uncle; Golde died of an unspecified illness and Motel of tuberculosis[[note]]Keep in mind that the original stories were written over ''twenty years'' and SetInPresent, hence people dying OffScreen between the stories. It was more just a reflection of relatively short life expectancy in the Russian Empire.[[/note]]). Here they survive to the end.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Golde, Motel and Shprintze all die in Sholem Aleichem's original stories (Shprintze drowned herself after her intended marriage was blocked by the groom's uncle; Golde died of an unspecified illness and Motel of tuberculosis). Here they survive to the end.

* LifeSavingMisfortune: Probably. The edict that evicted the Jews forced them to leave Western Russia shortly before World War I started.

* BilingualBonus: In the Yiddish production, some Russian is thrown in for good measure, especially for the Constable and Fyedka, to remind us that this play takes place in Russian Empire. It would be much more natural - for Fyedka at least - to speak Ukrainian than Russian though.
* BittersweetEnding: The Jews of Anatevka may have been forced to leave Russia entirely, but at least they got out alive, and in time to avoid UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Civil War]]. Apart from those eight years of warfare wrecking the economy and killing a tenth of a population of the entire Empire, the latter was known for its ''even more'' violent pogroms against Russian Jews committed by the the Reds and Whites (the Greens opposed them, but were too weak to stop them happening). On the other hand, those of them who went to Poland not only would've had the frontlines move through the country thrice (once in the World War, twice in the Polish-Soviet War), but [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany later, well]]... As for Tevye and his family, his three daughters are married (not in the way he expected, though) but he may very well never see Hodel or Chava ever again. And the fiddler follows them away, as does the traditions it symbolizes. Thus Tevye finds a balance between the changing world and tradition.[[note]]Though in some productions, Tevye leaves the fiddler behind.[[/note]]

* BilingualBonus: In the Yiddish production, some Russian is thrown in for good measure, especially for the Constable and Fyedka, to remind us that this play takes place in Russia.

* AdaptationNameChange: Anatevka was called Boyberik in the original stories.

Set in the fictional ''shtetl'' of Anatevka, in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement Pale of Settlement]] of the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russian Empire]] (in what is now [[UsefulNotes/Ukraine Ukraine]]), just before the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions Revolution of 1905]], it tells the story of Tevye, a Jewish milkman with five daughters: Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Schprintze, and Bielke. The plot centers on Tevye and Golde's efforts to find husbands for their daughters, but their daughters break tradition by marrying for love rather than having their marriages arranged by Yente, the town's matchmaker.

Set in the fictional ''shtetl'' of Anatevka, in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement Pale of Settlement]] of the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russian Empire]], just before the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions Revolution of 1905]], it tells the story of Tevye, a Jewish milkman with five daughters: Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Schprintze, and Bielke. The plot centers on Tevye and Golde's efforts to find husbands for their daughters, but their daughters break tradition by marrying for love rather than having their marriages arranged by Yente, the town's matchmaker.

* ParentalMarriageVeto: The play portrays the breakdown of this tradition. Tzeitel and Motel accept that they need Tevye's consent to marry, but Perchik and Hodel announce their intention to marry with or without Tevye's consent, and ask only for his blessing. Finally Chava marries outside the faith even at the cost of Tevye disowning her.

* ParentalMarriageVeto: Tevye refuses to let his daughter marry outside the faith. When she insists, he disowns her.

* * SpellMyNameWithAnS: The Yiddish version transliterates most of the characters' names a little differently (Tzeitel is Tsaytl, Hodel is Hodl, Chava is Khave, etc).

* CategoryTraitor: Tevye considers [[spoiler: Chava]] to have passed the MoralEventHorizon for wanting to marry a guy who isn't Jewish, [[spoiler:effectively telling her [[IHaveNoDaughter he has no daughter]] when she comes asking for his acceptance of her marriage]]. This is both TruthInTelevision and ValuesDissonance, as the fragility and small numbers of the Jewish faith — especially in the film's setting of pre-revolutionary Russia, where Jewish communities (as seen in the musical) were under constant threat of attack from the Christian majority — means that each marriage is an important part of the preservation of the religion. Marrying out of the faith for even many modern Orthodox Jews would be the ultimate betrayal as marrying a Gentile who doesn’t first convert to {{UsefulNotes/Judaism}} is stringently forbidden by Halacha.

Set in the fictional ''shtetl'' of Anatevka, in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement Pale of Settlement]] of the Russian Empire, just before the Revolution of 1905, it tells the story of Tevye, a Jewish milkman with five daughters: Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Schprintze, and Bielke. The plot centers on Tevye and Golde's efforts to find husbands for their daughters, but their daughters break tradition by marrying for love rather than having their marriages arranged by Yente, the town's matchmaker.

* BittersweetEnding: The Jews of Anatevka may have been forced to leave Russia entirely, but at least they got out alive, and in time to avoid UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Civil War]]. Apart from those eight years of warfare wrecking the economy and killing a tenth of a population of the entire Empire, the latter was known for its ''even more'' violent pogroms against Russian Jews committed by the the Reds and Whites (the Greens opposed them, but were too weak to stop them happening). On the other hand, those of them who went to Poland not only would've had the frontlines move through the country thrice (once in the World War, twice in the Polish-Soviet War), but [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany later, well]]... As for Tevye and his family, his three daughters are married (not in the way he expected, though), and the fiddler follows them away, as does the traditions it symbolizes.[[note]]In some productions, Tevye leaves the fiddler behind.[[/note]]

** Fyedka's "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... zaaaa, vaaaaa, sha zdarovia" in "To Life." It is not uncommon for betting to be going on backstage about when the actor will pass out. (Answer: not before he gets his applause, dammit!)

* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: A bit downplayed, especially considering that historically all the characters (except the Russians) would have been speaking Yiddish as a ''first'' language. The original script has exactly two Yiddish phrases: "Mazel tov" ("Congratulations") and "L'Chaim" (famously explained in the song, "To life", a toast). More recently, though, an [[https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/fiddler-on-the-roof-in-yiddish off-Broadway production]] of the show translated entirely into Yiddish has been staged in New York to positive reviews.

* NiceJewishBoy: Motel. Though in perhaps a bit of an aversion, [[JewishMother Golde]] would prefer her daughter to marry a rich older man like Lazar Wolf.

* PlayingGertrude: In the film, 36-year-old Topol plays the 50-something Tevye, with 21-year-old Rosalind Harris as one of his teenage daughters. She eventually played Golde opposite him onstage instead.