Interview: Deborah Zecher of BROADWAY BIBLE at Don't Tell Mama

Bistro Award winner and multiple MAC and Broadway World nominee Deborah Zecher returns to Don’t Tell Mama with a new cabaret show BROADWAY BIBLE:  A SERMON IN SEQUINS on Sunday, October 18 at 7 pm, Sunday, November 1 at 4 pm and Wednesday, December 9 at 7 pm.

Broadway Bible combines Deborah’s passion for cabaret and bible stories. For 35 years, she served as a rabbi and often cantor in Reform congregations in New York, Washington, DC and the Berkshires. She was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in NY in 1982, becoming one of the first 50 women rabbis in the United States. Years ago, she enrolled in an adult cabaret class at the Berkshire Music School and her love for the world of cabaret was born.  Her first NYC cabaret show, ON PURPOSE, was nominated for a MAC Award and BroadwayWorld award.  JEWISH CAROLING:  Carole King, Carole Bayer Sager AND Carolyn Leigh debuted in 2022 and was similarly acknowledged.

We spoke about the upcoming shows.

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Tell us a little about Broadway Bible.

Broadway Bible is my loving, light-hearted and slightly irreverent homage to two of my lifelong passions:  Broadway showtunes and Bible stories!  I’m one of those people who thinks that all of life is (or should be) a musical so why not apply that thinking to beloved Bible stories.  And that’s exactly what I did.  So many of us spent time as children in some kind of Sunday school, learning these stories; I just took them, retold them as if they happened yesterday and added a showtune (or two) to illuminate the story.  Here’s an example that didn’t make it into the show:  the Biblical patriarch Jacob is so frustrated by the sibling rivalry of his twelve sons.  He just can’t get them to get along with each other.  So, what does he do to express his frustration?  He sings “Kids” from Bye, Bye Birdie….  That’s Broadway Bible.  This is a show for believers, agnostics, atheists and everyone in between!

What was the process of crafting it like?

Working on this show was a blast.  For 35 years, I was a congregational rabbi so I brought the Bible stories I thought would be fun to include and some of the songs that I loved.  My brilliant director Lennie Watts who has an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge of showtunes (and just about every other genre of music), had great suggestions for me.  I tend to look to the Golden Age musicals for inspiration and he was instrumental in suggesting wonderful contemporary showtunes.  My fabulous musical director Tracy Stark was also an intrinsic part of the creative process.  We laughed a lot during the creation of this show!

Will you be doing any songs from pre-existing Bible musicals, like Apple Tree and Joseph?

We will absolutely pay homage to the wonderful songwriters who used the Bible as their narrative with a song each from The Apple Tree (Harnick and Bock), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamboat (Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber) and The Children of Eden (Stephen Schwartz).

Aside from working on this show, what have you been filling your time with lately?

I am so fortunate to have a few opportunities each year to travel around the country to different synagogues and Jewish communities as an Artist-in-Residence.  I do a three-show program with the general title of Jewish Life and Thought through the Prism of the Great American Songbook.  As a result, I try to keep all of those programs fresh and ready to go.  I had an extraordinary experience in March of this year where I was in Israel during the war with Iran and unable to return to the US for two weeks.  I spent a lot of time in bomb shelters.  When I returned, I processed that experience in a Singnasium class with Lennie Watts and John Fischer where I created a 15-minute set about my experience.  For a conference in January, I have been asked to develop a one-hour program describing how such a set gets created and I’m working on that.  And finally, even though I’m a retired rabbi, I am leading services for the Jewish holidays and so I am working on the liturgical music of the holidays.  It’s a wonderfully busy time!

Who or what have you been listening to lately?

If I’m being honest, when I’m in the process of preparing for a show, I try to listen mostly to the music for the show so that is my focus.  In the last few months, though, I had been listening to Shaina Taub’s music as well as a lot of Jason Robert Brown and Stephen Schwartz.

Do you have any upcoming projects or shows you'd like to tell us about?

In addition to Broadway Bible on Sunday, October 18 at 7 pm, Sunday, November 1 at 4 pm and Wednesday, December 9 at 7 pm at Don’t Tell Mama, I am thrilled to have been asked to present my 2021 MAC and BroadwayWorld-nominated show, Jewish Caroling: The Music of Carole King, Carole Bayer Sager and Carolyn Leigh at the Hebrew Union College on Wednesday, November 4 at 6:30 pm.  This is the seminary where I was trained as a rabbi and it is so emotionally satisfying to return to my beloved school to share this next chapter in my life.  The show is free to the public and will even have a reception afterwards.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I think it’s important to acknowledge the opportunities that sites like BroadwayWorld provides for those of us in cabaret and theatre to get the word out about the work we are doing.  Everyone I know who does cabaret works hard and feel passionate about their shows; to have a chance to spread the word is enormously helpful, so thank you!!

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Deborah Zecher performs her solo cabaret show BROADWAY BIBLE:  A SERMON IN SEQUINS on Sunday, October 18 at 7 pm, Sunday, November 1 at 4 pm and Wednesday, December 9 at 7 pm at Don’t Tell Mama (343 West 46th Street). Reservations online at donttellmamanyc.com. There is a $20 cover charge and a two-drink minimum.  Cash only.  $15 for MAC members.  Lennie Watts directs and music direction is by Tracy Stark.

See Jewish Caroling: The Music of Carole King, Carole Bayer Sager and Carolyn Leigh at the Hebrew Union College on Wednesday, November 4 at 6:30 pm

Visit deborahzecher.com for more on the artist.