Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

A history of the most universally beloved musical which began under a cloud of doubt by its creative team — the composer-lyricist team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, as well as adapter Joseph Stein — who wondered whether this tale of a Russian dairyman and his five challenging daughters, based on the stories of Sholom Alecheim, wasn’t really “too Jewish” for Broadway. In fact, it became one of Broadway’s longest running musicals, translated and performed all over the globe. This talk explains how the show evolved and transcended the English language, most recently becoming a hit again off-Broadway in Yiddish.