You know the classic image on all the Playbills and such for Fiddler on the Roof? What is that red swoosh supposed to be?
I assume you mean the red swoosh here? It’s by no means universal in Fiddler on the Roof posters, actually.
I think it’s just a splotch of color, perhaps intended to mean life, energy, excitement.
I suppose it could mean blood, as in the danger of the Kossacks on the horizon – notice the spots of red on the dancing girl’s dress – but that’s pushing it.
Actually I’m more curious about that green blobby thing at the top of the red swoosh. What the heck is that? Is it a mouse? A cow?
Yes, Choie, you got it! That’s the classic image with the red swoosh! I always thought the green blob looked like the profile of a chicken or rooster. Also, are you saying the red swoosh is found elsewhere? Where else have you seen it, or something like it? On Broadway, right? 
The logo is supposed to be referencing the work of painter Marc Chagall, who did several works that included a fiddler, often on a roof, or near a house, with chickens and stuff. There’s one in particular that has a curving road going around a house, so I always assumed the red swoosh was intended to be that same general idea without being an exact copy of any particular Chagall piece.
I’ve also seen it on a variation, for example, seen on the Fort Wayne Civic Theater website, which they’re using to advertise auditions. And here’s the same variation on a high school site. Now that I look at it more closely, I do think the green thing is a hen. Sure has a bizarre head though!
I am, by no means, an expert, but in choie’s last two examples the “swoosh” sure looks more like the sickle from the Soviet flag to me. Or am I WAY off base?
You’re definitely not off-base in the similar swoosh shapes, and it’s even in the same direction as the iconic hammer/sickle combo of the Soviet flag.
But is it related? I don’t think so. Communism itself plays a pretty small role in the show, which takes place in the early 1900s. The only implied Communist in the show is daughter Hodel’s beloved, the revolutionary Perchik – who ends up in Siberia.
So I think that’s just a (rather unfortunate) coincidence. I can’t imagine that the producers would’ve intended that symbolism – or wanted a whiff of Communism anywhere near the production – especially in a show starring former blacklistee Zero Mostel.
Sometimes a swoosh is only a swoosh.
So, you’re saying the poster was swooshed?
Some versions of the Fiddler on the Roof image have a crescent moon behind the fiddler. Could that be related?
Examples:
http://www.calbaptist.edu/family/fiddler.gif
http://treasuredmemories.net/images/Logo-Fiddler%20BGA%20New.jpg
…and here’s a version with the red swoosh more clearly crescent-shaped:
http://www.bhstheatre.org/images/Fiddler%20On%20The%20Roof%20Color.jpg
Looks like a dirt road to me.