Rhode Island Temple Has An All-Broadway Musical Shabbat Service

When you attend a Shabbat service, whether it's Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform, it's likely that the structure, flow, liturgy, and melodies will have a lot in common. 

Sure, some will use more English in the service, some will have instrumental music and use a microphone, and others will chant the traditional melodies a cappella. But the basics will be recognizable to any Jew who attends.

If you happened to walk into the Temple Sinai Friday night service in Cranston, Rhode Island on May 30, you might have thought that you were not in a synagogue but in the middle of a Broadway musical.  Not only one musical, but twelve of them. On that night, which marked the retirement of Cantor Remmie Brown and the debut of Cantor Wendy Siegel, most of the elements of the Friday night service were fitted to the tunes of Broadway shows.

We have a video of the entire hour-long service to share with you, but recognizing that a whole hour is a bit much to watch in one sitting, we've prepared a guide to the service to let you fast forward to a favorite song and see how Shalom Aleichem, Lecha Dodi, and Adon Olam sound under the influence of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the Sherman brothers.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

0:00          The Music of the Night (Shabbat) from Phantom of the Opera
6:30           Candle Lighting (Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof)
12:00         Lecha Dodi (Edelweiss from The Sound of Music)
15:04         Shalom Aleichem (Close Every Door from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)   
19:03         Borchu (Try to Remember from The Fantasticks)
21:20         Ahavat Olam (Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music)
24:00         Sh'ma (Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) 
27:50         Mi Komocho (Summertime from Porgy and Bess)
31:00         Hashkiveinu (Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables)
34:05         Veshamru (Climb Every Mountain from The Sound of Music)
40:30         Retzeh (Ol' Man River from Showboat)
43:12          Shalom Rav (Shalom from Milk and Honey)
45:44          Yehi Ratzon (Bali Ha'i from South Pacific)
59:17          Adon Olam (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins)    

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)