Somehow, a man who won a Tony for his turn in drag was also born to play a traditional Jewish patriarch. Harvey Fierstein reprises his 2004 role as the fiery Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, now playing at Paramount Theatre through May 30, and it’s a performance you don’t want to miss. He struts, wags his tongue, flicks his wrist, and rasps his way through “If I Were a Rich Man,” but it’s his reinvention of the character that complements Jerome Robbins’s original Broadway direction and choreography. It’s one part “Tradition,” two parts sass: an even more impish version of the larger-than-life role originated by Zero Mostel in 1964. Admittedly, Fierstein delivers punch lines better than solos; his gravelly voice doesn’t lend itself well to rafter-shaking, but his co-stars and chorus boom on his behalf, particularly in a moving rendition of “Sunrise, Sunset” and the playful “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” But no matter: You still feel for his lovable bear-of-a-Tevye, whose headstrong daughters are hell-bent on breaking tradition in 1905 Tsarist Russia, and all he can do is groan and wag a finger at the heavens. Some things never change.

Fiddler on the Roof is at the Paramount Theatre through May 30.