Spaghetti & Matzo Balls! Film
"A true story of The Mob, The Music & The Mishegas!"
Just when you thought the Rao’s pasta sauce on your shelf didn’t lead to someone’s Jewish discovery…
along comes Rena Strober’s Spaghetti & Matzo Balls!
WARM, HONEST, FUNNY, and ENGAGING
– New York Magazine
Broadway & TV actress Rena Strober has teamed up with director Stuart K. Robinson to bring you Spaghetti & Matzo Balls!, a short film adapted from Rena’s hit off-Broadway show!
JEWISH ROOTS
The film focuses on the core story of how Rena rediscovered her Jewish roots – from the Catskills to Broadway to an infamous Italian restaurant in Spanish Harlem.
Tying into the High Holidays’ theme of personal reflection, we’re excited to host the virtual premiere of this film with a watch party on October 2 at 7:30pm ET. The film will be followed by a conversation between Rena and Stuart, moderated by producer and casting director Geoffrey Soffer, during which they will take your questions.
Video Clips
Press
The film is an honest and raw look at how we discover who we truly are, with music ranging from Yiddish and Italian songs to Hebrew liturgy.
Overnight, Strober transformed from an up-and-coming Broadway actress — she had been part of the national touring company of “Les Miserables” — to front-page tabloid fodder. “Journalists were literally knocking at my door, trying to get an exclusive with ‘da singer from da mob hit,’” she recalls. “Late-night talk show hosts were making jokes about it in their opening monologues. I was hearing from people I hadn’t heard from in years.”
Based on Strober’s one-woman show of the same name, “Spaghetti & Meatballs” opens with liturgical music, followed by the sound of gunshot and Strober breathlessly reciting the Shema in the dark. Then it cuts to her onstage today, in a ravishing red evening gown, singing a humorous song in Yiddish. Throughout the 28-minute film, Strober belts out songs in Yiddish, English and Italian, tells jokes, talks about her early childhood kosher home, her bat mitzvah theme, and her growing distance from Judaism in high school.
