Former boy-band icon Bobby Star is clinging to days gone by. Desperate and unemployed, he begs his agent Murray to land him a decent gig. But beggars can't be choosers, and Murray finds a weeklong job for Bobby at the grand opening of the world's first glatt kosher hotel-casino, the Mazel Hotel.
So what does a blond gentile has-been pop sensation have in common with this Jewish orthodox world? The answer becomes clear when we discover the hotel owner's daughter, Rebekka, who has harbored a huge secret crush on Bobby Star ever since childhood though she is about to be married off to the son of a powerful Kabbalah rabbi, and the janitor Ty, an African-American hip-hop whiz who teaches Bobby a thing or two about Jewish soul.
The ultra-orthodox American-Jewish world is alive and kicking. But how does it cope with modern times? This age-old question is dealt with in the entertaining musical comedy before us. Bobby's TV goes dark at sundown on Friday; his beloved cell-phone is confiscated during the Sabbath; his Grey Goose vodka is replaced with Manischewitz; and "kosher enforcers" are on the lookout for "treyf smugglers."
Goyband is aided by a healthy sense of irony and a fine cast of including Amy Davidson, Tovah Feldshuh, Zoe Lister Jones , and Natasha Lyonne, as well as Rent star Adam Pascal in the role of the "Goy."
In other words - Not everything is kosher in this Casino!
Goyband stars: ADAM PASCAL (Roger Davis in Rent); AMY DAVIDSON (Kerry Hennessy in 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter); TOVAH FELDSHUH (Irena's Vow, Walk on the Moon, Golda’s Balcony); CRIS JUDD (Your Momma Don’t Dance); NATASHA LYONNE (American Pie, Blade, The Slums of Beverly Hills)
"Comedy fans will want to check out Goyband"
- Hannah Brown, The Jerusalem Post, Israel
"Lots of fun and laughter, too."
- Jeffrey Lyons, NBC
Not everything is kosher in this Casino.
