Laemmle’s ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is a Christmas Eve tradition for the ages

Talk about tradition. For the ninth time, Laemmle Theatres will present its annual Christmas Eve “Fiddler on the Roof” singalong, so successful it’s a fixture at six theaters.

Director Norman Jewison, who turned the hit Broadway musical based on the classic Tevye stories by Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem into an Oscar-winning film (for Oswald Morris’ cinematography, John Williams’ score and Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard’s sound), probably never imagined this level of cult popularity, but there it is.

The theaters will provide lyric sheets for the Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick songs so you can sing along with the irrepressible Topol and the irreplaceable Molly Picon on classics like “Sunrise, Sunset” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” not to mention the always appropriate “If I Were Rich Man.” Dec. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Royal, West Los Angeles; Fine Arts, Beverly Hills; Town Center 5, Encino; NoHo 7, North Hollywood; Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Claremont 5, Claremont.

L’chaim, to life, indeed.

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