Michael Sigman
Congregation Beth Shalom is shocking the Purim spiel world by staging a spiel on Shushan Purim, and revealing how the characters got to where they are at the time of the Megillah. How did Achashverosh assume the throne of Persia? Was Haman always wicked (yes)? How was Esther in the right place at the right time to save her people? We answer all these questions and more on Saturday night March 15 in our spiel, A Wicked Purim: The Prequel. It will be an evening of “spieling,” singing, eating, drinking, laughing, and booing (at Haman).
This spiel will be different from any other Purim performance you may have seen. Just as the musical Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, this show is a prequel to the Purim story in the Megillat Esther. We present every major character’s backstory while introducing some new characters. What? New characters? And we do all this while singing parodies of the songs from Wicked. There is one performance only, so you must be there.
Once again, we have a very talented cast in this year’s spiel:
- Esther—Simcha Hollenbach
- Mordechai—Joshua Sachs
- Haman—Meri Weiss
- Vashti—Linda Sigman
- Achashverosh—Ephram Sachs
- Darius—Seth Walter
- Stephen—Gary Harad
- Opening Song– Linda Sigman
- Ensemble—Kathy DeJesus, Havilah Schnaars, Michael Sigman, David Neff, August Campbell, Hebrew school students & ozrim
A Wicked Purim: The Prequel
Script: Michael Sigman
Song Lyrics: Linda Sigman
Director: Rebecca Davidson
Musical Director: Cantor Bronwen Mullin
Stage/Props Manager: Alley Steadham
Hebrew School Liaison: Rebecca Downard
Saturday March 15, 2025
7:30 PM for Maariv and Havdalah followed by the spiel.
