Literary wisdom has it that comedies end in marriage, and tragedies in death. By this measure, the musical Fiddler on the Roof, which premiered on Broadway sixty years ago this past Sunday, on September 22, 1964, is a comedy. Based on the collection of Yiddish short stories Tevye and His Daughters (1905), the musical follows the life and troubles of the pious milkman Tevye, made iconic by Topol’s portrayal in the 1971 film version, in the fictional town of Anatevka. It is a hard thing to be a Jewish peasant in imperial Russia, and harder still to be a peasant with six daughters to marry off and little dowry to speak of. Though the local matchmaker Yente tries her best to make matches for Tevye’s three oldest daughters, each girl of marrying age finds love on her own terms. The bulk of the musical follows Tevye’s exasperation at life never going as he expects, and Golda, his wife, scolding him for it. But like any good Shakespearean comedy, by the end of the musical Tevye’s three oldest daughters are married.

Life in Anatevka is a perilous dance, like that of a fiddler on a roof.