Even Off-Broadway, ‘Fiddler’ Is a Joy for All

The comedian Alan King (born Kniberg) told a great story about taking his mother to see “Fiddler on the Roof” during the original Broadway run. Mama Kniberg, who had grown up in the Russian shtetls before immigrating to the New World, not surprisingly loved it. When they discussed the show afterward, King asked her, “Well, Ma, was this what it was really like in the old days in the old country?” She answered: “Pretty much, although I don’t remember quite so much singing and dancing.”