The first song in the musical, the protagonist Tevye tells the audience all they need to know about him and everyone else’s lives in the village, all while he does his daily rounds as the town milkman. This sets up the rest of the play as it establishes the characters, setting, attitudes, roles and of course tradition.

However, while this song is a fun ballad in teaching the audience about the features and traditions, it also plays a more important role in the sales and behind the scenes of the musical in general. Since many of the audience who saw it were most likely Non-Jewish, American-born Jews and people not that educated on the history of Russia at the time or the traditions and culture of them, the whole musical would be very confusing and hard to understand without the song teaching them. Without it, there would probably be less of a crowd or appeal to it and the musical wouldn’t do well, leading them to create the song in order to make it more understandable and allow focus on the actual story instead of confusion distracting them. Overall, while the song was put in to introduce the plot and story, it was also to make sure the musical would do well since many were unbeknownst to Jewish Culture