SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER Adds New Digital Content Including Making-Of Documentary, Performance of 'Next Year' & More

Saturday Night Seder - an unprecedented streaming Passover Seder that premiered last April to more than one million views and raised more than $3.4 million for the CDC Foundation's COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund - was different from all other nights, as a panoply of preeminent performers, musicians, and religious scholars came together (digitally, from quarantine in their own homes) to celebrate the original story of the Exodus through music and comedy.

This year, with the support of the Jewish nonprofit Reboot, the team is adding digital content to saturdaynightseder.com - leading up to and throughout the week of Passover. These new features include: a behind-the-scenes MAKING-OF short documentary; a new BEHIND THE SCENES interview and performance of the hit single, "Next Year" with one of the seder songwriters Shaina Taub, in association with Reboot x OneTable Pause; a COMMUNITY WATCH PARTY; a FOOD section with recipes from chef friends and family recipes from stars and crew of Saturday Night Seder; MUSIC from the program, in the form of sheet music, audio tracks, and even a karaoke video; RESOURCES for celebrating the holiday, making or supplementing your own Haggadah, preparing a Seder at home, and more; and ACTIVITIES for use around your own seder table (or Zoom seder tables).

"Reboot has been thrilled and privileged to have supported this team from its early days experimenting with seders in warehouses and lofts to now scaling this globally. While we long dreamt of making this experience more inclusive, the isolation of COVID revealed just how badly we needed it as creators and seder participants alike," said Reboot CEO David Katznelson. "Just as Jewish rituals have evolved throughout generations, these new, yet timeless songs, stories, and recipes created by some of the most talented writers and producers working today will be indelibly woven into our Passover for years to come."

In a time of confinement and uncertainty, a rag-tag team of Jews and non-Jewish Passover enthusiasts felt it was more important than ever to channel creative energies and gather community, and were thrilled to reinterpret the timeless story of liberation and renewal while raising money for those on the front lines enduring - and fighting - an actual plague.

Among those who joined the virtual SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER and helped to tell the story of Passover: Pamela Adlon, Jason Alexander, Reza Aslan, Skylar Astin, Shoshana Bean, Rachel Brosnahan, Rabbi Sharon Brous, D'Arcy Carden, Andy Cohen, Darren Criss, Fran Drescher, Cynthia Erivo, Beanie Feldstein, Harvey Fierstein, Tan France, Eliot Glazer, Ilana Glazer, Josh Groban, Richard Kind, Julie Klausner, Nick Kroll, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Judith Light, Camryn Manheim, Milo Manheim, Idina Menzel, Debra Messing, Busy Philipps, Ben Platt, Billy Porter, Stephen Schwartz, Michael Solomonov, Shaina Taub, Henry Winkler, Finn Wolfhard, Rabbi David Wolpe, and more.

While it is free for everyone to watch SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER, the program and the site raise funds for the CDC Foundation's COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund by encouraging viewers to donate while they watch and participate. Funds raised through SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER have been used to support a variety of critical needs as part of the COVID-19 response, such as distributing personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers; providing lab and medical equipment; supporting testing; sponsoring national communication campaigns; aiding long-term care facilities and community-based organizations (CBOs) serving under-resourced populations; and supporting much-needed research. Current efforts are focused on supporting CBOs to help bring COVID-19 vaccines into communities, including building vaccine confidence and ensuring equitable and accessible vaccine administration and more.

Rooted in tradition, but dynamically rendered and reinvented by StoryCourse, in association with Reboot, Benj Pasek, Adam Kantor, Talia Halperin, Erich Bergen, Alex Edelman, Rebecca Halperin, Jen Snow, and Rachel Sussman, SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER is available for viewing year-round on www.SaturdayNightSeder.com and on YouTube. The digital content will roll out throughout the week of Passover 2021. Follow SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER on Instagram and Twitter.

To post a comment, you must register and login.