Opened on September 22, 1964. Closed July 2, 1972 after 3,242 performances — 7.8 years. 👑 Broadway's longest-running show from June 17, 1972 until December 8, 1979. 9 Tony Awards in 1965, including Best Musical; A Special Tony Award in 1972 for becoming Broadway's longest-running musical; Revivals in 1976 (167 performances), 1981 (53 performances), 1990 (241 performances), 2004 (781 performances), and 2015 (431 performances) Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on "Tevye the Dairyman" and other short stories by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a Jewish milkman in the fictional village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his people's traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village. Wiki link