BroadwayWorld Presents The Broadway Seder Plate!

Passover arrives this weekend, and we're celebrating with a fun moment of speculation. If you had to commemorate Broadway with a seder plate full of its most emblematic symbols, what would that look like? What would that look like, especially, one year into the Broadway shutdown?

Let us know what you would put on your own Broadway seder plate, and see what we came up with below.

What is a seder plate?

A seder plate is a ritual item and the centerpiece of the Passover meal, or seder. There are six slots for items on a seder plate - a shank bone, an egg, bitter herbs (called maror), a green vegetable, an additional bitter herb (called hazaret), and an apple, honey, and wine mixture called haroset.

Many families make additions and substitutes that represent additional means of liberation - a common, modern addition is an orange, which represents the role of women and the LGBTQ+ community in the Jewish faith.

Each item on the seder plate represents a facet of the Jewish plight during Egyptian slavery detailed in Exodus. Other items on the table include a center matzo (unleavened bread) called the afikomen, salt water, and wine... Four glasses per person during the meal, to be exact.

Jewish families also traditionally leave an additional glass of wine out for the prophet, Elijah, who is said to visit each family during the meal.

What's on our Broadway seder plate?

A COW AS WHITE AS MILK

Let's start with trading a ritual object for a ritual object! In Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods," the characters are tasked with collecting the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold in order to undo a spell cast by the Witch - any of these are acceptable for your Broadway seder plate, but we thought the cow as white as milk would probably taste the best. And beef is kosher for Passover!

A SCHMACKARY'S COOKIE

Well, it's not exactly kosher for Passover, but work with us here. There's no food more emblematic of the modern New York theatre district, and there's no food we're more excited to consume once more when the world is allowed to come back. Try a classic chocolate chip, or a funfetti, cookies and cream, red velvet, or whatever your heart desires for your own plate. Just don't eat it on Passover, if you're Jewish. It can be just for decoration! I never eat the bitter herbs on my own seder plate, even though I'm supposed to! Those are basically also just for decoration!

GAFF TAPE

What can't it do? Well, you can't eat it, for one thing, but this versatile little Broadway seder plate staple brings to mind the thousands of tech workers who make magic behind the scenes. The Broadway shutdown has affected way more than just actors and patrons - there are whole teams whose work is so seamless you barely notice them, but they deserve their day and their representation! On our seder plate and otherwise!

A GHOST LIGHT

I accept that you definitely cannot eat a ghost light, but it still goes on the seder plate, because nothing represents the specific superstitiousness of the theatre community any better. As much as I miss the at-home remedies for accidentally saying "Macbeth" in the theater, and avoiding telling anyone "good luck" before a show, more than anything, I miss the eerie hominess of a theatre lit only by a ghost light. It's both functional and mystical, just like a seder plate.

Stephen Schwartz

Once again, I am not advocating for eating world-renowned composer Stephen Schwartz, but I would be remiss if I didn't include the writer of the best holiday film and musical of all time, "The Prince of Egypt," on our version of this plate. Schwartz, a Jewish writer whose iconic musicals also include "Wicked," "Pippin," and "Godspell," has more than earned his place. No Passover is complete without a viewing of "The Prince of Egypt," so no Passover will pass without its creator positioned on a ritual plate. It is law.

THE VACCINE

You cannot eat the vaccine, but the vaccine gets into your body and makes you feel good in the same way that food does! A key element of Passover is reflection and hope for the future - we say "next year in Jerusalem" at the end of the seder to look toward a future where we can all be together in the holy land. This year, nothing feels more worth celebrating than a future where we all, vaccinated, can sit in a theater and see a show together once again. And then, maybe next year, we'll be able to replace it with a ticket stub or something.