I have to admit, it’s a little hard to get me out of my New Jersey cocoon and into the city, especially on a Monday after seder, when my bones are still aching from Passover meal prep. Yet this past Monday, I found myself at a table in the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan listening to Tovah Feldshuh, star of screen and stage, sing the blessings over the Passover Yom Tov candles.
One of the highlights of my Passover? Watching Tovah Feldshuh sing Passover blessings at a Broadway seder 🥹 It was so beautiful. pic.twitter.com/typB9TGJO6
— Lior Zaltzman (@liorca) April 16, 2025
That’s right. On the Monday after seder, the night when most Broadway shows take their weekly one-day break, the Jewish stars of the most glamorous shows around town — along with other Jewish musical veterans — sat down to have a musical seder dinner. Noah Aronson and Eliana Arian, makers of beautiful Jewish music, shared some songs and accompanied the performers from the front of an auditorium filled with numbered seder tables. On each table there was a silver seder plate at the center, wine and Kedem grape juice, matzah (gluten-filled and gluten-free), tzimmes and stuffed cabbage. On each plate was a Sederbill, styled like a classic playbill, with a QR code for a haggadah one could read along with.
The seder is the brainchild of Howie Tilkin, a stage manager of the musical “Chicago,” and this is its second year (last year, the seder took place at the recently reopened Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House). Tilkin teared up when he introduced the seder’s program. “We are so lucky to be here tonight,” he told the crowd, urging them not to let differing opinions tear our community apart. “Let’s all focus on this greater responsibility to tell this story and remember the liberation of our collective ancestors,” he said, “as we continue to strive for the liberation of everyone in this world.”
In many ways, this was a classic Passover meal. Each of the 15 parts were present, and of course, just like any seder, it featured a chaotic “Mah Nishtanah” from the youngest in the room — though the youngest here, Romy Fay Cohen (“Leopoldstatdt”) and Lincoln Cohen (“Appropriate”), had also starred on the Broadway stage themselves! The iconic Jessica Hecht serenely guided us through the dipping of parsley in salt water and Broadway legend Lonny Price wisely narrated the breaking of the middle matzah. Danny Kornfled (“Harmony”) talked about the seder plate. Asher Grodman of “Ghosts” joked with us about the four children. There was ample wisdom and light in the commentary, especially from seder leaders Rabbi Emily Cohen of the nearby West End Synagogue and Cantor Lizzie Weiss of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hill.
I mean, a Passover seder is basically a musical — using songs and readings to tell the very dramatic story of the Exodus — so this event felt pitch perfect. Shira Averbuch brought many incredible songs featuring reinterpretations of the story we are commanded to retell and see ourselves in each Passover to life, and she sang the classic words of the haggadah song “Vehi She’Amda” with incredible gusto.
Lorna Courtney of “& Juliet,” who shared with NYTimes that she found out she had Jewish heritage via a DNA test, sang a rendition of “When You Believe” from “The Prince of Egypt” along with Samantha Massell (Hodel on Broadway’s “Fiddler” revival) that rivaled the original.
This rendition of "When You Believe" by Lorna Courtney and Samantha Massell also blew us all away. pic.twitter.com/v2C1Yljclj
— Lior Zaltzman (@liorca) April 18, 2025
And that wasn’t the only song we get to hear from the Disney classic. Cantor Lizzie Weiss sang Ofra Haza’s “Deliver Us” as Yocheved. Speaking of Moses’ mother, Tovah Feldshuh played her the following night in a charity reading of “Everything’s Coming Up MOSES!“, a hilarious Passover parody musical written by none other than Rachel Shukert, the genius behind “The Baby-Sitters Club.” Seth Rudetsky, who organized the charity event, led us all in the Urchatz and then sang a rousing rendition of the musical’s titular song that had everyone roaring with laughter (you can watch that whole show on YouTube with Chip Zien playing God).
It felt rude to leave a seder before it was over, but I was thinking of my little ones across the river. So with the Broadway-loving friend I brought along to the event, I snuck out of the seder before the afikoman could be found and just as the mains were being served. In the elevator, though, I was glad to discover that I wasn’t the only one making an early escape. Etai Benson, who blew me away in “Company” as Paul a few years prior, and Alexandra Socha, as sweet as Glinda, who she plays in “Wicked,” were also rushing home to their little one. We had a lovely little chat in mixed English and Hebrew, and that’s as sweet as any Passover dessert.
Though I was glad to get home to my family, I was sad to have missed this rendition of “Godspell”‘s “Beautiful City” mixed with the singing of “Oseh Shalom,” a prayer for peace that is so needed right now.
The Broadway community seder is a reminder of the fact that Jewish talent has always been and still remains a huge part of telling stories that connect us with our humanity on those great New York stages. There’s something poetic about the fact that the tradition of storytelling starts, for many a Jew, right at the seder table. This special seder is certainly worthy of my standing ovations.
