Although he isn't credited as an author of the script, the film is a faithful adaptation of the stage play "Tevye the Dairyman," written by Sholem Aleichem himself shortly before his death in 1916. He first offered the play to Jacob P. Adler, one of the great actors of the Yiddish theater, who declined, because there was no romantic leading role. Maurice Schwartz heard about the play, bought the rights from Sholem Aleichem's widow and staged it with himself in the lead role, to great success. Two decades later, he turned it into this film. The script is substantially as written by Sholem Aleichem, despite the introduction of characters and elements not contained in his original short stories.
