Few American musicals of the last fifty years inspire deeper sighs of love, affection, nostalgia and bliss than does "Fiddler on the Roof," the 1964 masterpiece by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein. Based on the writings of Sholem Alechem, Fiddler has been proclaimed by some to be the greatest American musical of all time.

It’s a hard claim to argue with.

'Fiddler,' the story of a Jewish father holding onto his faith and traditions in a rapidly changing world, is set in the early 1900s in a tiny town in the Ukraine, under the thumb of the Tzar, with rumors of anti-Jewish violence beginning to shake the foundations of the villagers difficult but culturally rich lives. Fiddler stands apart from many other shows with the sheer emotional power of its sweeping yet intimate story - and for huge the number of songs in its score that now stand alone as instantly recognizable American pop classics:

"Matchmaker;" "Sunrise, Sunset;" "If I Was a Rich Man;" "Miracle of Miracles;" "Far from the Home I Love;" and the show-starting anthem "Tradition," quite possibly the best opening tune of any musical yet put on stage.

It takes a village to raise a child, and in this case, it takes a village to make a village. In the joyously overstuffed production of 'Fiddler' now playing at Cinnabar Theater, director John Shillington brings the tiny village of Anatevka to life on Cinnabar’s compact stage using an enormous cast of 40 actors, giving the town - and the show - a pleasantly bursting-at-the-seams quality. In the opening song, as poor milkman Tevye sings of the traditions that hold his community together, the stage rapidly fills with singing, dancing villagers, backed up by a first-rate orchestra under the direction of Mary Chun, and a fiddler who perches on a stylized rooftop at the edge of the stage.

As Tevye, Walsh gives our amiable narrator and hero a charmingly cozy, intimate affability, though the playfully wobbly physicality he employs makes one wonder if this poor milkman has been hitting the bottle a little back in the barn. The rest of the cast is packed with local favorites: Elly Lichenstein is perfect as Tevye’s vibrantly longsuffering wife Golda, Dwayne Stincelli is a hoot as the lonely butcher Lazar Wolf, and as Yente, the village matchmaker, Madeleine Ashe is hilarious. And as Tevye’s marriageable daughters Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava, Jennifer Mitchell, Molly Mahoney, and Erin Ashe all deliver the goods with beautifully sung, achingly heartfelt performances.

At its heart, 'Fiddler' is the story of people seeing the humanity in others in spite of their flaws, a good message that still resonates after fifty years. This September 22 marks the Golden anniversary of this American classic’s debut on Broadway.

There are rough patches here and there in Cinnabar’s production, a not-unexpected by-product of cramming so much action onto so small a stage, but Shillington dazzles the eye with so many clever moments and images - including a towering ghost puppet in one memorable dream-sequence - that like the villagers of Anatevka, few in the happy, tune-humming audience are likely to notice the flaws.

"Fiddler on the Roof" runs through September 28 at Cinnabar Theater - cinnabartheater.org