Theatre News

Fiddler Book Writer Joseph Stein Dies, Aged 98

| London's West End |

26 October 2010

Joseph Stein, the book writer of Fiddler on the Roof and more than a dozen other Broadway musicals has died aged 98.

Stein was born on 30 May 1912, growing up in the Bronx, New York City, his early career being spent as a social worker. He made his Broadway writing debut in 1948 when he created a single sketch for Lend an Ear, a musical revue that starred Carol Channing.

He then went on to work on NBC television series Your Show of Shows, a comedy sketch programme hosted by Sid Caesar which ran between 1950 and 1954.

His first musical book was for 1955 show Plain and Fancy, about the Amish people of Pennsylvania. Fiddler on the Roof, based on Sholem Aleichem’s short stories about a Jewish milkman and his family in a small Russian village in 1905, opened on Broadway in 1964 winning nine Tony Awards, including best author of a musical for Stein’s book.

The production at the Broadway Theatre went on to become Broadway’s longest-running musical in 1971, and was produced in 16 languages in 32 countries. The show closed on Broadway in 1972, but has been revived four times since, most recently in 2004.

Fiddler was last revived on the West End in May 2007, opening at the Savoy Theatre after a two-month tryout at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, the production starred Henry Goodman as Tevye. The musical also toured the UK until September 2008.

Stein’s other show credits included the book for the Broadway musical Zorba and work as a ‘show doctor’, working to develop scripts for other writers and producers. He was also nominated for Tony Awards for his work on musicals Take Me Along and Rags.

Stein’s son, Harry told the New York Times that his father died after fracturing his skull in a fall, but had also suffered from a number of health problems in recent years including prostate cancer.

He is survived by Elisa Loti, who he married in 1976 and with whom he had a daughter, and by three sons from his first marriage to Sadie Singer, who died in 1974.