History Theatre / FiddlerOnTheRoof

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

** Motel asks Tevye not to yell at him twice when he’s asking to marry Tzietel. The third time, he starts yelling back at Tevye, earning Tevye’s respect in the process.

** Hodel falls in love with Perchik, a stranger from out of town who begins to tutor Tevye's youngest daughters in exchange for room and board. Perchik is a Marxist and has much more liberal ideas than the tradition minded people of Anatevka. When he and Hodel decide to get married, their engagement breaks tradition even more than Tzeitel and Motel's does as they make it clear that while they would like Tevye's blessing, they are not looking for his ''permission''. Still, Tevye ultimately does give Hodel his blessings as he realizes the world is changing whether he likes it or not.

** Chava. She doesn't seem to have friends unlike her older sisters, and she prefers reading to talking. She meets Fyedka when he stops two other men from picking on her, and she struggles throughout the play to tell Tevye about [[spoiler: her friendship-turned-romantic-relationship with Fyedka]].
** Motel at the start of the show. Chief among his reasons he hasn’t asked to marry Tzietel yet? He’s afraid Tevye will yell at him. He [[GrewASpine grows a spine]] during the first act, though.

* MeaningfulEcho: Tzietel tells Motel even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness early on, when Motel is working up the courage to ask Tevye to marry Tzietel. When Tevye later berates him for being “just a poor tailor,” Motel snaps that even a poor tailor is entitled to some happiness. Especially in the movie version, Tzietel looks pleased that he took what she said to heart.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted- Tzeitel's great-grandmother, who appears in the Tevye's "dream", is also named Tzeitel. Justified, as the younger Tzeitel was named for her great-grandmother.

* 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 more natural - for Fyedka at least - to speak Ukrainian than Russian though.
* BittersweetEnding: The Jews of Anatevka may have been forced to leave Russian Empire 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]]

* ArrangedMarriage: The story takes place in an early 20th century Slavic Jewish community where Old Traditions (Arranged Marriage) were rapidly clashing with New Ideas (marrying for love), discusses this as a tradition; the original books suggested that it was a good idea, while the musical adaptation was more neutral on the subject. [[spoiler:Each of Tevye's teenage daughters ultimately ended up with the man she wanted, but each suffered the consequences: Tzeitel lives in abject poverty with Motel, rather than the relative comfort she would have had with Lazar Wolf; Hodel winds up in Siberia and Chava is disowned.]] The practice was to keep marriages within the Jewish community, but the musical points out that this is why the system fails.

* AffablyEvil: The constable, who is polite and respectful - even speaking to Tevye like a friend - when not being forced to carry out antisemitic orders from his superiors. His Cossack soldiers apparently have no problem dancing with Jewish villagers during one wedding celebration and then riding back into the village a few weeks later to sack it during another wedding.

* PetTheDog: To Lazar Wolf's credit, he's offended on Tzeitel's behalf when he [[OneDialogueTwoConversations believes]] that [[ItMakesSenseInContext Tevye calls her his "old milk cow."]]

* BlatantLies: Perchik sings, "I used to tell myself that I had everything." Even though his primary character trait has been bitter, militant, smouldering resentment about the reality that his material resources are limited in comparison to "the rich," and he is actively making immediate plans to go get himself arrested over his passionate feelings on the matter.

* BigBeautifulWoman: Golde is not this, but Tevye wishes she could be. In the song "If I Were A Rich Man", he sings about "My wife, my Golde, looking like a rich man's wife with a proper double chin." [[note]]This is probably more about the life of abundance and leisure he wishes to give her than about his personal preferences, though, as it isn't until later in the show that the two of them even consciously realize that yes, they ''are'' in love and attracted to one another.[[/note]]

** Don't mention it to Fruma Sarah, either. Also, don't take Fruma Sarah's pearls. (Although that was a fake dream, so who knows.)
** In a rare heartwarming example, Motel finally stands up to Tevye when he calls him a poor tailor, refusing to let his low status be the justification for keeping him and Tzeitel apart.

As a stage musical, ''Fiddler on the Roof'' was an international success, with multiple productions breaking records in Europe, South America, Africa, and Australia. It was a particularly big hit in Israel (for obvious reasons), and is the longest running musical ever produced in Japan (for... [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff less obvious reasons]]?). It remains a popular choice for high schools and community theater to this day, as well as multiple revivals on and off Broadway.

Set in the fictional ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtetl 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.

!!It provides examples of:

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.

* AffablyEvil: The constable, who is polite and respectful - even speaking to Tevye like a friend - when not being forced to carry out antisemitic orders from his superiors.