[MUSIC PLAYING]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: We are going
to welcome Katrina Lenk, John
Cariani, and Etai Benson to
perform a song for you all,
so I hope you enjoy.
[APPLAUSE]
KATRINA LENK: Hi.
JOHN CARIANI: Hi.
ETAI BENSON: Shalom.
Shalom.
[MUSIC - CAST OF "THE BAND'S
 VISIT," "WELCOME TO NOWHERE"]
[APPLAUSE]
MICHAEL SHAYAN:
Thank you so much.
Let's give it another hand.
[APPLAUSE]
That was amazing.
So before we jump in,
for those who don't know,
please tell us a little
bit about the show,
"The Band's Visit."
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah, I'll--
OK.
So "The Band's Visit," which
is based on an Israeli film
from about 10 years
ago, of the same name,
is the story of an Egyptian
police orchestra that comes
to Israel to give a concert.
But due to miscommunication
at the bus station,
instead of going to
the city of Petah Tikva
that they're supposed
to go to, they
end up in a tiny
village in the middle
of nowhere with a similar name.
And there's no
more transportation
for the rest of the night,
so they're stranded there
and they get taken
in by the locals.
And the story is just
about what happens
over the course
of that one night.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Great.
So it started as a film.
What made you guys want to
adapt this into a musical?
What was that process like?
DAVID YAZBEK: Well,
it was presented to us
by our producer,
Orin Wolf, who had
the kind of daunting
and maybe insane idea
that the movie could
become a musical.
And it took a while
to sort of see that.
And then it just--
for me, at least, it clicked.
Oh, this could really
be interesting.
And then we were off
to the races slowly.
[LAUGHTER]
DAVID CROMER: Orin was
saying it-- is this on?
DAVID YAZBEK: Yeah.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yeah.
DAVID CROMER: Orin was saying--
Orin Wolf, again, our lead
producer had had this idea,
and went around to a
lot of people saying,
I want to make this
into a musical.
And people kept saying,
oh, I don't see it.
I don't see it.
I don't see it.
And usually, if three people
tell you you're drunk,
you should lie down.
But he didn't do that.
And he kept-- and he went--
and so he eventually
found writers
who saw it, who could see
it, and had an idea for it.
And it's just-- it's sort of
proof that a lot of things
might not immediately
seem like a good idea,
but it's about what you see in
it, and it is about execution.
You know, any idea's workable--
DAVID YAZBEK: Not killing
someone type of execution.
DAVID CROMER: Yeah.
DAVID YAZBEK: But
doing something.
DAVID CROMER: Well, just
the execution of an idea.
I thought that was--
I mean, I came in
relatively late,
so I'm speaking about
what transpired before.
But from the
outside, it appears--
this is the composer,
David Yazbek.
DAVID YAZBEK: I'm the composer.
This is the writer,
Itamar Moses,
and this is the director--
DAVID CROMER: And
I'm the director.
DAVID YAZBEK: --David Cromer.
[APPLAUSE]
DAVID CROMER: And so, yeah.
So I just wanted
to make that point
that it seemed like it did
not immediately adapt itself
to a musical, and
these guys managed
to find a really beautiful way
to adapt it into a musical.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yeah.
Let's talk a little
bit about that vision.
So when you were--
did you feel like you
had to stay true to the
film when you were writing
the book and the music?
ITAMAR MOSES: I
mean, yes and no.
Sometimes when something is
being adapted from source
material, if it's source
material that everybody knows--
some sort of beloved,
hugely famous movie--
then there's fan
service you have to do.
We didn't have to worry
about it in that sense
because the movie was sort of
an art house cult niche hit.
Except in Israel, where
it's one of the biggest
hits of all time.
But everywhere else, it's
sort of like, oh, yeah,
I heard about that movie.
So we didn't have to stay
true to it in that sense.
It was just because
we loved the spirit
of the movie and
the tone it created
and the characters
and the story.
So we did want to
stay true to it.
There are things
you have-- there
are things you have to take into
account when you move from film
to stage.
You rely more on dialogue than
on images, stuff like that.
But we always wanted to--
we didn't want to do
one of those adaptations
where it was like,
well, why did you
even use that source material?
You know, it's sort of--
we wanted to see if we could
take the sort of flickering
candle flame of
this delicate story
and transfer it to this other
medium without it going out.
So yeah, we wanted to, but
in a very non-cynical way.
We felt bound to
the source material.
DAVID CROMER: And I was always
happy to reference to the film.
I never ran from it,
like, well, we've
got to do something
different than the film.
I never, ever felt that.
I wanted to-- it was a fantas--
it was a very rich vein
to draw from.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: I would love to
speak with the cast and see--
had any of you have
seen the film prior to--
yeah?
Did you look to it--
I mean, I can imagine
that you would
want to create your
own interpretation
of the characters, so
what's that balance?
How do you approach that?
JONATHAN RAVIV: All right.
I'll go.
So what's lovely
for me is my parents
are actually Israeli, so I
was familiar with the film.
As Itamar said, it's
very popular in Israel.
And my character
specifically was actually
more developed in this.
I play Sammy, who has an affair
with Katrina's character, Dina.
And that was
fleshed out more, so
that was exciting to
be able to do something
with a character that
wasn't fleshed out.
But to answer your question,
I mean, yes, the film
was really helpful to
watch and to take from,
as Cromer suggested.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yeah, great.
David, a question for you.
When you were writing
the music, how
do you figure out what
songs you want to write,
where they're going to go?
You obviously are
working with Itamar here,
but what's that process like?
And how do you--
I mean, I watched the film.
I'm like, where's
the music, you know?
What's your process
for figuring that out?
DAVID YAZBEK: Well, it's
different for every show.
This was my fourth show
that actually got completed.
With this one, there
was a full script
that Itamar had
adapted from the movie,
and I had only written one song.
This was when we did
our first reading.
After that script was done,
songs suggested themselves
from the story in the
script, some of the lines
in the script.
Itamar and I did
a lot of talking
about what should be sung and
not sung, and a year later,
changed 50% of that.
That doesn't work,
this does work.
Let's do this instead.
You're reaching to
grab the mic from me?
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah,
but it just seems
like so much more
of a hostile gesture
than I meant it, just because
there's microphone scarcity.
Yeah, no, a verb
that we use a lot--
[LAUGHTER]
--a verb that we use a lot
to describe that process
is cannibalize.
You create-- the book writer
creates script material,
and then you want it to
suggest songs in such a way
that a composer can cannibalize
dialogue or monologues,
or just story moments.
DAVID YAZBEK: So
sometimes, I will say, oh,
that scene could become
a song, or that section
can become a song.
And other times, I'll say--
if there's nothing
to cannibalize,
but there's an idea for a
song, a lot of the time,
I'll say to--
I said to Itamar,
could you write
me something to cannibalize?
Literally, a monologue or
a little scene or something
like that.
Or just have long conversations
which were probably very
frustrating for him, where I
would just be, yeah, but what--
but why should they--
why would you want-- why?
And then maybe one sentence--
ITAMAR MOSES: My phone
would just be on speaker
and I'd be like, uh-huh, uh-huh.
DAVID YAZBEK: Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, he'd be frying an egg.
And one sentence would come out
and I'd be like, oh, I see now.
ITAMAR MOSES: It's
interesting actually
because a lot of times--
and I've worked on a
couple of musicals also.
This movie and the script
for the movie is very spare,
and a lot is--
there's very little-- I think
my first draft of the adaptation
was literally, I want to
say, 23 or 24 pages long.
If you actually put all the
dialogue in the film in order,
there's not much of it.
And so what that
means-- one thing
that means is that a lot
of things are left unsaid,
which is great, but it doesn't
give a lot for the composer
to springboard off of.
So in another kind of a
script, there might already
be a very explicit monologue,
where the character talks
about exactly what
they're feeling,
and the composer turns
that into a song.
In "Band's Visit,"
in my first draft,
those speeches weren't
there because that's not
how these people talk, and
not the tone of this piece.
DAVID YAZBEK: And that was
great for me, as a songwriter,
because the songs in this
show, a lot of them, are--
they don't feel like
they're assignments
imposed by a script, you know?
They come out of
character and they
come from a very deep
place because of that.
So I'm able to sort of--
we'll talk about, what
does this character like?
What is he thinking?
The movie gives us hints.
And I can actually write from
the heart in a much deeper way
than I've been able
to in other shows.
So I enjoyed the process.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yeah.
I mean, the music
is really beautiful
and there are, obviously,
Arabic undertones,
Israeli, Egyptian undertones.
Had you had experiences
with Arabic music before?
DAVID YAZBEK: Yeah.
There's a story
that, now that we're
in publicity mode for the
show, I've told a lot.
But I like telling it.
My tastes in music are very
eclectic and always have been.
And my father is
Lebanese-American,
first generation.
But never-- you know, we had
"Kiss Me Kate" and "The Music
Man," you know?
Our album collection was that
and classical stuff, basically.
But he took me to Lebanon
to visit his father
when I was about seven.
We were in the taxi
from the airport.
The taxi driver had
music on the radio.
And I have a sense memory of it.
The windows were open.
It was hot air
blasting in, and there
was this music on the radio.
And I asked my father to ask
the cab driver in Arabic what
was playing.
It turns out, it
was Umm Kulthum,
who's mentioned in a song
as sort of a central--
who was the Frank Sinatra of--
she was more
popular than Sinatra
at the time, Middle
Eastern singer.
And the way the orchestra
sounded and this--
I didn't know it at the time,
but these weird microtones,
and the way she was singing.
And it all was very--
made a big impression on me.
So since then, I've
been open to it.
I've been to a lot of
different kinds of music.
Pretty much everything except
Peking opera, let's say.
There's always something
that you just can't get.
But it--
ITAMAR MOSES: You should
challenge yourself and make
that your next project.
DAVID YAZBEK: Well, I did.
I went-- I was trying
to write a Bruce Lee
musical a few years ago.
But-- no, I really was.
[LAUGHTER]
ITAMAR MOSES: Everyone's
like, is that a bit?
DAVID YAZBEK: No, it's
not a-- this isn't a bit.
But anyway, so I was open to it.
And then in the '80s, there
was kind of this world music,
this flourishing of
world music that--
I guess the record
companies thought there
was a dollar to be made here.
And a lot of that came from
Northern Africa or the Middle
East.
And I sort of dove back into it.
There's your answer.
Thank you.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Thank you.
[LAUGHTER]
I would love to
hear from the cast.
Obviously, there's a very
diverse cast on stage with us.
And I will ask you some
questions about representation,
because I think that's a really
important thing that the show
is bringing to Broadway.
How did you all prepare for
your roles and prepare to--
I mean, you're obviously
speaking in accents, many
of you, that are not your own.
You're working with a coach.
What was the research
process like?
And then, how did you
get into those roles?
DAVID CROMER: Everyone's
answer is very different.
SHARONE SAYEGH: Yeah.
So like Jonathan, my
family is also Israeli
and I grew up speaking
Hebrew at home.
And I also grew up
speaking a little Arabic
because my family
is Iraqi-Israeli.
So firstly, when I
found out about this,
I was so excited because I
had never even auditioned
for an Israeli
musical, you know?
So I prepared a song in Hebrew,
which I was so excited to do,
for my audition.
And specifically with my
character, I'm not this girl,
but I very much know who
this girl in Israel is.
And so I feel like
I've been doing
the research for this girl
pretty much my whole life,
I guess.
But you know, I kind of
just tapped into my parents
accents, to be honest,
and my cousins' accents.
And that's how I prepared
for the audition.
Yeah.
DAVID CROMER: If I
could just toss in,
the show is interesting
in that, like in the film,
the Israelis tend
to speak Hebrew.
The Egyptians speak Arabic.
And then they all
communicate with each other,
struggling in English, which
is not anyone's first language.
So it's all sort of
strangled English.
You had pointed
out, at one point--
you realized at one
point during tech,
I speak no English in this show.
I speak entirely Hebrew.
SHARONE SAYEGH: Right.
Which I actually didn't
realize until Bill
pointed it out to me.
And I was like, oh, all
of my lines are in Hebrew.
That's crazy.
But it's very cool that I didn't
even realize that, actually.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: George,
you are a violinist
and you play classical
Arabic music.
GEORGE ABUD: Yeah.
MICHAEL SHAYAN:
Tell me about that.
GEORGE ABUD: Well, I grew
up playing with my family.
We're all musicians
in my family.
And I'm Lebanese, like Yazbek.
Yay!
And we all played Arabic
music together growing up,
and it was--
we played for weddings and
parties and family events.
And I have two older
brothers who also play,
and we were kind of like
a little traveling band.
And so when I saw about this--
and now I'm an
actor in the city.
And when I saw about this
musical, about an Arabic band,
my head exploded.
I was like, what the
hell are they going
to do about an Arabic band?
That thing's going
to close in a day.
[LAUGHTER]
Proved me wrong.
So I was like, I
got to get in that.
And then just being part of this
group, where a lot of people
play and we get to
play music together,
and it comes out
of this man's mind.
And to sidetrack-- because I
don't know what the hell I'm
saying about myself anymore.
I'll just talk about Yazbek.
DAVID YAZBEK: Always
a good policy.
GEORGE ABUD: Yeah, I think so.
[LAUGHTER]
What's wonderful about
Yazbek and his music
is, now that I'm
thinking about it,
I think he really approaches
his composition like an actor.
He's not just trying--
for this show,
it's not like, oh,
did you listen to Arabic music
and then write an Arabic song?
It's like, he didn't just try
to write Arabic music or Klezmer
music.
These are all parts of his
eclectic taste and his history,
and the rich experiences
that make him a very
unique and diverse individual.
And through that,
I think he just
tried to become
these characters,
and what are they going to say?
And then, how are they
going to talk and then
what's their circumstances?
And that's layered into
Arabic music coming out
or Arabic instrumentation coming
out, or Klezmer type stuff,
or a certain instrumentation
for a certain song.
[LAUGHTER]
He's a wonderful guy and I
respect no one on this stage
as much-- no, I'm just kidding.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: You guys--
GEORGE ABUD: But it's very true.
He didn't-- because people are
like, oh, is the score Arabic?
I'm like, the score
is not Arabic,
but it's Yazbek and the
Arabic that he knows,
and the music that
he's opened himself
up to translated through him.
And that's what makes it
a really awesome musical,
and not just trying to
copy an Umm Kulthum concert
and putting it on stage.
And then we're like, oh,
what's the show about?
Well, we just put some Umm
Kulthum songs together.
It's like, that's
not interesting.
It's interesting because
it's this man's score,
and that's why it's authentic.
DAVID CROMER: Right.
One of the things the show--
one of the themes
this show deals with
is how people can relate
through music, and how you can,
if you're stuck for
something to talk about,
music might be a
good conversation,
or listening to music
or talking about things.
And the film touches on this.
And then Itamar and Yazbek
really expanded on this.
That in the show, they play
old American pop songs.
They sing Gershwin.
They sing-- you know,
the people are listening
to-- there's the Klezmer music.
So it's music that people
have-- that everyone has heard.
Does that make--
I'm not explaining that well.
But there's influences
from all kinds of music
because this is a
generation of people
who have managed to hear
little bits and pieces of music
from all over the world.
So it's about a lot of things.
DAVID YAZBEK: What are
the other songs we're
going to be performing today?
MICHAEL SHAYAN: "Umm Kulthum."
DAVID YAZBEK: And
what's the other one?
Oh, and "Answer Me."
MICHAEL SHAYAN: And "Answer Me."
Yeah.
DAVID YAZBEK: I just wanted
to know, for segue purposes.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Smooth segues.
And here's one right now.
Katrina.
So we talk a lot
about Umm Kulthum.
Katrina, did you know
about Umm Kulthum
and was that part of
your research process?
KATRINA LENK: I had not
heard of Umm Kulthum before.
And of course, one must know.
So I thank God for the internet.
There's a lot of
stuff you can find.
DAVID CROMER: Did you use--
KATRINA LENK: There's a lot of
things you don't want to find.
But I used--
DAVID CROMER: Did
you use Google?
What search engine did you use?
[LAUGHTER]
KATRINA LENK: So I
have Google to thank
for my knowledge of Umm Kulthum.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: David, can
you give her another $20?
KATRINA LENK: Hey, I think you
guys should maybe give me $20?
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Sergei
can give her $20.
KATRINA LENK: But she--
and what am I saying?
So yes, there's recordings
available on the internet.
But also, I learned things from
George Abud, who, like he said,
is really familiar
with Arabic music,
and helped me understand
what I was hearing.
Because it's such a different
way of expressing musicality
than what we do in our Western--
and even in classical music,
what we consider
classical music.
So that was really a
fascinating thing to learn,
and I'm still learning
about all of the differences
of Umm Kulthum's music.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: And
you're actually,
I mean, in your last
show, "Indecent," which
was on Broadway recently--
yes.
[APPLAUSE]
You were incredible.
You were playing violin.
KATRINA LENK: It was a viola.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: A viola.
I'm sorry.
I'm sure that would kind
of help you as you're, I
mean, preparing for this role.
And you guys actually did a song
recently together for Artists
For Peace.
KATRINA LENK: Yes.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: For world peace.
Yes.
And you played and
you sang beautifully.
KATRINA LENK: Thank you.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: And how
did that come about?
KATRINA LENK: Well, George--
GEORGE ABUD: Well, it--
KATRINA LENK: Well, Sharone--
GEORGE ABUD: Well,
Sharone-- well.
KATRINA LENK: Well.
[LAUGHTER]
GEORGE ABUD: Sharone,
talk about the wonderful--
SHARONE SAYEGH: OK.
So I love this charity called
Artists for World Peace.
They're wonderful.
And I've been producing a
Broadway charity event for them
every year, and this
was our seventh year.
And last year was
our first time we
had some performers
from Broadway shows
sing in other languages.
And I was like, oh, this is so
great because it's world peace.
So this year, I
asked a lot of people
from "The Band's
Visit" to perform,
and George and Katrina said
they wanted to sing something
together in Arabic.
And I said that would be
wonderful, that'd be perfect.
So they did.
GEORGE ABUD: Yeah.
So we kind of joined forces
on this and really wanted to--
and I listen to lots and
lots of Arabic music.
That's kind of all I
listen to-- and jazz.
But I was listening--
I heard this song,
where it's just
oud, which is the
predecessor of the guitar.
It's the lute-like instrument.
And it was just the
composer playing the oud,
and he was teaching the singer
the songs, so they were kind
of just noodling through it.
And I thought that was a
lovely little back-and-forth,
so I thought this would be
a good one to teach Katrina.
We learned it together because
I didn't know the song either.
DAVID YAZBEK: You'll be
doing yourself a favor
to go on YouTube and look up
Katrina Lenk and George Abud
and WHAB--
W-H-A-B-- and you'll
get that link.
And I've watched it
now eight or 10 times.
It's so gorgeous.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: It really is.
DAVID YAZBEK: And
it has nothing--
I didn't write the song.
I mean, it's like
this combination--
I call it a talent avalanche.
It's just, you could
watch it a million times.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Now they're
going to pass you $20.
DAVID YAZBEK: I
would like that $20.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Katrina
actually has a beautiful song
in the show about Umm
Kulthum and we are
going to hear it in a minute.
DAVID CROMER: Well,
I was just going
to say that at sort of the
center point of the show, one
of the-- the Egyptian
band leader character
and Katrina's character,
who's an Israeli cafe owner
are having kind of an
awkward conversation,
and trying to find their
way to conversation.
And like in many
conversations in this show,
they're able to find their
way to it by he accidentally
mentions that he plays
classical Arab music.
And she says, oh,
like Umm Kulthum?
And he says, oh, yeah.
And she goes, oh, I love that.
And he says, no, come on.
You don't-- he says
you're being polite.
Don't-- you know, and she--
it actually accessed
something in her life
that she cared about
very, very deeply
and hadn't probably talked about
in a while-- hadn't had anyone
to talk about it within a while.
And then this, I think,
this very beautiful song
comes out of it.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Great.
DAVID CROMER: But
that's the context.
MICHAEL SHAYAN:
So please give it
up for Katrina Lenk, singing
"Umm Kulthum and Omar Sharif."
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - KATRINA LENK, "UMM
 KULTHUM AND OMAR SHARIF"]
[APPLAUSE]
That was beautiful, and that
is one of my favorite songs
in the show.
And before, we were
talking a little bit,
I learned that it
was actually cut.
It was cut in an
earlier iteration.
Tell me about that.
DAVID YAZBEK: I don't know
what the fuck we were thinking.
[LAUGHTER]
You know what?
You have a better
memory than me.
And you'll be funny.
[LAUGHTER]
ITAMAR MOSES: I begged
him not to cut it.
[LAUGHTER]
No, musicals are very
difficult. And one
of the reasons
they're difficult is
that, with a play--
if I'm writing a play,
I can have five friends who
are good actors come over
to my apartment and read
it cold on my couch,
and basically have an
understanding of what I've got.
In a musical, you can't
do that because to see
how all of the different pieces
of machinery work together,
you need a week for
everybody to learn the music,
and you kind of
probably want them
on their feet a little bit.
So to get the flow
of the whole thing,
you need tens of
thousands of dollars
and a week of rehearsal.
All of which is to say when
you're developing a musical,
it'll be six months between
opportunities to do that.
There's even union
rules about how often
you're allowed to do that.
So you're around the
table, kind of hearing it,
and in that context, you can
be like, well, I don't know,
are we bored here?
Let's move on.
Or actually, we don't
want a song from her,
we want a song from him
about what he's feeling.
And in a way, there's a maybe
apocryphal story about--
maybe it's Stanislavski
or something,
or some Russian
director who was asked,
how long do you want
to rehearse this show?
And he said, two years.
And they said, you
can't have two years.
And he said, then two weeks.
[LAUGHTER]
The point being,
you don't want the--
it's possible to have enough
time to sort of mess something
up.
DAVID YAZBEK: I imagine
that that's what happened.
And let me just say one
quick thing, which is that--
and this would be
a part of the talk
that Google might pay me $25,000
to give the same crowd about
collaboration at Google.
This is just a suggestion.
And my fee is a little
higher than that.
But we have collaborated,
first, Itamar and I, then
the three of us, then all
of us have collaborated
beautifully and very closely.
You want to listen
to the other people.
But there are times--
I'm not blaming what I'm about
to say on either of these guys.
But there are times when--
because this happened a long
time ago in the process--
when we had a different
person involved.
And you can be
over-collaborative.
You can say, oh, yeah,
OK, we can cut that song.
Sort of to prove
that you have it
in you to cut a song-- to the
cut a beautiful-- you know,
your baby.
Because that's what
it's all about.
You have to be willing
to sacrifice your babies.
OK.
Let's cut it.
Then David Cromer
comes onto the project
and he's like,
what is that song?
Why isn't it in the show?
Why did you cut it?
You idiots.
And it's sort of like,
yeah, you're right.
We are idiots.
It's a beautiful song.
She sings it beautifully.
So that's a little
lesson in collaboration.
[LAUGHTER]
DAVID CROMER: And the
specific facts of it
are it was thought, for a while,
that at that point in the show,
we should hear from Tewfiq, the
character Tewfiq, in the scene.
And then it was realized
that we would hear from her.
And sometimes, something
like that's a coin flip.
And we placed ourselves in the
path of a fortuitous accident.
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah, in a way,
a more practical and compact
answer to the question is that
Katrina's character Dina sings
four or five times over
the course of the show,
and Tewfiq sings almost never.
So we were sort of
thinking, surely
we need to hear more from him.
And not over and
over again from her.
And it turns out, that's wrong.
You do want to hear her
sing again and again.
DAVID YAZBEK: Yeah,
and that surely
is the sound of the rule book.
That to do a show
like this, you have
to be ripping up constantly,
constantly, constantly.
And if you're working at
Google, if you're coding or--
sorry.
DAVID CROMER: [INAUDIBLE]
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: I
have $25,000 coming.
I would love to
hear from the cast.
So this show, before it hit
Broadway, was at the Atlantic.
And many of you were actually
involved with that Atlantic
iteration, right?
And who was not involved?
Who was not involved?
OK, cool.
Right.
Etai and Adam.
So I would love to
hear from you guys.
Just please introduce yourself,
the role that you're playing.
What's it like interpreting
a role off-Broadway
and then taking it
onto a bigger stage?
How are you-- are you becoming
more aware of your movements?
You're playing to a bigger
audience, obviously.
What's that like for you?
RACHEL PRATHER: My name's
Rachel Prather and I play Julia.
As an actor, that's
a dream situation,
especially in the time
frame that we were given.
Because we got to do this show
in a very intimate setting
off-broadway, 200-seat theater.
And a pretty long rehearsal
process with table
work and putting it on our feet.
And then we took a break
for like nine months,
and then we found out we
were going to Broadway.
And so you have all of that
time for your characters
to just sink in and do
more research on your own.
And I loved having two
different iterations of the show
and being part of both of them.
It was really special.
JOHN CARIANI: I'm
John and I play Itzik.
And when I found out we
were going to Broadway,
I said, oh, great.
My Hebrew will be
good and my accent
won't be terrible because
when we were downtown,
my accent wasn't very good.
So it was very exciting
to get to revisit it.
But it was great because we had
Etai and Sharone and Jonathan
to help us.
And it was also fun to
just do it in a big space
because the Atlantic
was really small.
And I remember David came up
to me one day and he said, see,
now you can lean
back on the couch
because we're in a big space.
[LAUGHTER]
So that was really exciting.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Is it
hard to sing in an accent?
Is that challenging
for you guys?
JOHN CARIANI: You
should talk about that.
ARI'EL STACHEL: Yeah.
It is challenging.
I think the most
challenging part about it,
though, is that we learn
through the process
that some things could
not be understood
if I was singing
it in the accent
that I was speaking it in.
So we were literally
negotiating each and every vowel
and consonant.
So this [ROLLING "R"] is a
[ROLLING "R"] and this one is
[HARD "R"],, and this
one we're tapping.
And so that is, I
think, not even-- we're
not talking about
singing in an accent.
That's a whole other thing.
But it's a really
interesting negotiation
to speak in a dialect and then
figure out how, in song, you
can be understood and still
give sort of the flair
and essence of the dialect.
Yeah, it's a lot of work.
It took a lot of work.
MICHAEL SHAYAN:
Yeah, and Andrew,
I learned that your
wife is actually
involved in the production
as a dialect coach
and I think you
said a dramaturg.
ANDREW POLK: Right.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yeah.
What's it like working
with your wife?
ANDREW POLK: I live
with the dialect coach.
[LAUGHTER]
So I got a lot of notes.
[LAUGHTER]
And she's Israeli.
I'm not.
And so it was also
helpful, in terms
of the context of the play.
I learned a lot from her.
Obviously, we all did.
The Israelis, with our accents.
But also, I have been
immersed in Israeli culture
by the marriage choice I made.
[LAUGHTER]
JOHN CARIANI: The
best was the way
she gave him dialect
notes and the way she gave
the rest of us dialect notes.
She was so kind and polite
and cheerful with us
and she was kind of hard on him.
[LAUGHTER]
ANDREW POLK: Yeah, she was.
She was like-- she was, and
she'd come to me and say
[NON-ENGLISH].
No, [NON-ENGLISH].
All right.
[LAUGHTER]
Better go home.
So that's what happened.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yeah.
We're going to open it up to
questions from the audience.
So please line up at
the mics on either side.
And we have a
question over here.
AUDIENCE: First of all,
thank you so much for coming,
and very impressive.
If you didn't grow up
saying [INAUDIBLE],,
to be able to do it, I
give you a lot of credit.
[LAUGHTER]
You guys all
collaborate beautifully,
but obviously, there's a lot
of underlying political tones
about the story and the message.
I'm wondering what it meant to
some of you to be part of it,
especially if you grew
up Israeli or Lebanese,
and what it meant to
bring together onstage.
Was it difficult?
How your families felt about it?
So just curious to
hear about that.
ARI'EL STACHEL: I have a
lot of opinions about that.
It's really, really,
really complicated.
I mean, first, you asked
about representation.
I mean, on the first
level, those of us
in the cast who come from
Middle Eastern backgrounds,
there was so much sort of
self-inflicted pressure
to get this job.
Because this felt like our
ticket to have a thing.
So there's that.
But the other thing that's--
DAVID YAZBEK: How many
times did you audition?
ARI'EL STACHEL: Seven.
[LAUGHTER]
ITAMAR MOSES: The
last three were just--
DAVID CROMER: That seventh
audition wasn't for real.
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah.
We were just kidding.
ARI'EL STACHEL: Seven
auditions for the kid.
No, and I think--
but it's also really
interesting to sort of, I think,
understand ourselves
in this identity.
Because I, for
example, am the son
of a Yemenite-Israeli father,
so I'm Jewish and Israeli,
but also my family practices
a lot of Arab traditions.
And I've always
felt like, at least
as I've entered the
business in New York,
like I have this birthright to
play Middle Eastern characters.
But I think, as
we play this, I'm
starting to realize all of
the nuance that's needed.
And I don't really know
what I'm saying anymore,
other than the fact
that it's lovely to take
on this other culture,
and I'm learning a lot.
And there's this
beautiful drummer
in the cast named Ossama Farouk,
who's been extremely helpful,
who's Alexandrian.
But I think it means a lot
to many of us, personally.
It means a huge amount to me
to be able to play this role,
and it not really
being political at all.
It allows me to understand
myself as a Yemenite-Israeli
Middle Eastern American
man differently,
and more confidently.
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah,
I mean, just--
yeah, and I definitely want
to hear more from you guys.
Because we-- I don't know.
I'm curious how it-- actually,
how it feels for you guys
after running it for so long.
Because we had one
answer to this question
when we were rehearsing it,
but now it's been theirs.
It's been entirely
in their hands,
dealing with meeting
people at the stage door
and how people are reacting.
But I know that
us, going into it--
and it's one of
the reasons I think
the movie is so successful.
It's not that it's apolitical
or that it avoids politics.
It makes this enormously
political statement
by demonstrating that when
you strip away the things
that we normally see in
headlines about the region--
rhetoric from leaders,
disputes over borders.
This is one group of people
that needs food and a roof,
and another group of people
that has those things.
And when everything
else is stripped away,
it's about those basic
human needs, and things
over which you can connect.
So there's something--
it's not that it's not
making a political statement.
It's that the political
statement it's making
is that there are elemental
human things beyond politics.
And I think that's why it
was such a hit as a film when
it was released in
Israel, and I think
it's kind of how
it's operating here.
But I want to hear
more from you guys.
ETAI BENSON: I've heard
from so many people--
my family is also Israeli, and
a lot of Israeli Middle Eastern
people at the stage door will
say that they were so refreshed
that it wasn't--
no politics were
sledgehammered down
the throats of the audience.
It's a very human story
that could, honestly,
take place anywhere.
It just-- we happen to
look at it through the lens
of the Middle East.
There's a moment in the film--
Itamar, you've talked
about this a lot--
when the Egyptian
band arrives and they
sit at the cafe to eat.
There's a photograph
on the wall of a tank,
and possibly from
the Yom Kippur War.
I'm not really sure.
You just kind of get
a quick glimpse of it.
And one of the band
members takes his hat off
and just hangs it
right over the photo,
and the photo is covered.
And that kind of just
sets the tone for the film
and that's the tone
of our show, too.
It's all underneath.
All the political tensions that
we all know about are there,
but we're choosing, in our show,
to set those aside for now.
And I think that sentiment
transfers beautifully
to the play from the film.
SHARONE SAYEGH: And just also
from the actor's perspective,
being a Middle Eastern
actor in the city,
auditioning for
other shows and TV
shows and whatnot
up until this point,
it gets really exhausting
to play the same thing over
and over.
It's just this very
stereotypical idea
of what the region
is, and it's always
about politics and
war and terrorism.
And it's like, this
show is about people.
It's just about
people who happen
to live in the Middle East.
And these people are not
defined by the politics
of their government.
They have their own
ideas, their own stories.
So the fact that it's a
Middle Eastern musical
and I wasn't auditioning for
terrorist wife number three
was really, really
refreshing and wonderful.
So I feel very grateful to
be a part of this story.
AUDIENCE: Thank you so much.
Your answers are beautiful.
ADAM KANTOR: And I think what--
AUDIENCE: Oh, please.
Sorry.
ADAM KANTOR: I was just going to
say, what moves me as an Amer--
I'm not Israeli.
My family's not Israeli.
But what moves me as an American
doing this piece, in America,
in an American
theater with Americans
is telling a story about
two groups of people
from very different backgrounds
with very different ideologies
coming together and just
being together for a night.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: I was excited
to hear that a lot of you
actually took a trip
together to Israel.
What was that like?
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah.
I mean, I'd been there because
I have family there also,
and I'd been there before.
But yes, between the
off-Broadway and the Broadway
productions, Yazbek and
Cromer and Katrina and Ari'el
was there and George was there.
We went for a few
days to Israel.
And specifically, we
went to [NON-ENGLISH],,
which is the town in the
desert where Eran Kolirin
and the filmmaker
filmed the movie.
So Bet Hatikva is
fictional, but it's
based on this little village
in the middle of nowhere.
And it was sort of
profound to go there,
not just to see the locations
from the movie that we knew.
But to feel the isolation
and the vastness
of the desert around you
was really something.
KATRINA LENK: Yeah.
We stood outside in the desert
for what felt like hours,
just listening to the wind.
And I'd be like, you guys,
can we go on the bus?
It's hot.
[LAUGHTER]
But that sound of
just wind coming from
someplace you can't explain.
Because there's nothing for
it to bounce off-- like,
where's it coming from?
But it's like,
whah, in your ears.
And sun and the sky--
just getting to experience
that was really extraordinary.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Oh, wow.
OK.
We're going to close out with
a song, but before we do,
I want to play a quick game.
So this is a parlor game.
It was popularized by
Marcel Proust in the 1880s.
And the whole point
of it is to get
to know the answerers
on a deeper level.
So you guys down for a game?
SHARONE SAYEGH: Yeah.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Great.
And we'll just popcorn, and feel
free to jump in when you want.
OK.
Favorite middle eastern dish.
SHARONE SAYEGH: Jachnun.
Jachnun.
You guys know what jachnun is?
It's this-- it's
a breakfast food.
It's basically layers
of dough and butter
rolled, baked in the oven
overnight for like 12 hours.
And you eat it with crushed
tomatoes and a hard boiled egg.
12 Chairs in the West Village
has incredible jachnun
on the weekends.
GEORGE ABUD: I'll say
grape leaves, which
are big in Lebanese culture.
BILL ARMY: Oh, god.
Hummus?
[LAUGHTER]
ARI'EL STACHEL:
My aunt's jachnun.
[LAUGHTER]
RACHEL PRATHER: Tabbouleh.
KRISTEN SIEH: Oh, you took mine.
[LAUGHTER]
I like tabbouleh, too.
[LAUGHTER]
ANDREW POLK: Shawarma.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Yes.
We don't have to go
all the way around.
Yeah, we can jump.
I have my dinner
menu for tonight.
Thank you.
Go-to audition song.
ARI'EL STACHEL:
"Defying Gravity."
[LAUGHTER]
ARI'EL STACHEL: I
love singing that.
No, I'm just kidding.
BILL ARMY: "I Have Confidence"
from "The Sound of Music."
[LAUGHTER]
ITAMAR MOSES:
These are all lies.
BILL ARMY: No, no, that's real.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: A word
or phrase you overuse.
[LAUGHTER]
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
ARI'EL STACHEL: Girl.
I call all my friends girl.
[LAUGHTER]
It's not gender specific.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: OK, girl.
ETAI BENSON: In Hebrew, I
say [NON-ENGLISH] a lot,
which is a curse
word probably from
the '60s because that's
what my dad says.
And it means, literally,
"shit in yogurt."
[LAUGHTER]
JOHN CARIANI: And
what do you call me?
ETAI BENSON: What do I call you?
JOHN CARIANI: Yeah.
ETAI BENSON: [INAUDIBLE]
JOHN CARIANI: No.
ETAI BENSON: Oh.
Oh, I call him-- his
name is John Cariani
so I call him John [INAUDIBLE],,
which means shitty-ani.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Cast album
you play in the shower,
or you listen to in the shower.
SHARONE SAYEGH: "Aida."
Yes, I do.
RACHEL PRATHER: "My Fair Lady."
ARI'EL STACHEL:
"Dear Evan Hansen."
JOHN CARIANI: In the
shower, you guys, really?
Is that what he said?
ARI'EL STACHEL: In the bath.
DAVID CROMER: The
theoretical shower.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: In the
theoretical shower.
ANDREW POLK: My three-year-old
sings "The Band's Visit"
every day, the whole album.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Aw.
JOHN CARIANI: Not in the shower.
ADAM KANTOR: Which is now
available on Spotify and--
[LAUGHTER]
ITAMAR MOSES: I
avoided listening
to "Hamilton" for a year after--
just because-- out
of envy, just sheer
envy of how successful it was.
And then, once I listened
to it, I couldn't stop.
And I listened to
the entire album
on the elliptical
every single time I--
for, like, another year,
and then I had to stop.
ADAM KANTOR: You
ride the elliptical?
ITAMAR MOSES: Yeah,
you can't tell?
ADAM KANTOR: No, I
just thought you'd
be more of a
treadmill kind of guy.
ITAMAR MOSES: I would, but then
I'm old now, and now it hurts--
my feet hurt if I
use the treadmill.
Yeah, thanks for
bringing that up.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: Album you
know all the lyrics to.
SPEAKER: "Rent."
BILL ARMY: "Into the Woods."
MICHAEL SHAYAN:
"Into the Woods."
SHARONE SAYEGH: Oh,
"Jagged Little Pill."
Yes.
ITAMAR MOSES: You know they're
making a musical of that?
SHARONE SAYEGH: I know.
ITAMAR MOSES: Diablo
Cody's doing the book.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: If you
weren't an actor or a writer
or director, what would you be?
JOHN CARIANI: Teacher.
DAVID CROMER: I'd
work at Google.
[LAUGHTER]
ARI'EL STACHEL: I'd probably be
on, like, a D-league basketball
team in Israel.
JOHN CARIANI: Oh, yeah.
I'd be an assistant
basketball coach.
[LAUGHTER]
That would be fun.
ALOK TEWARI: I'd probably just
take care of horses somewhere.
ALL: Oh.
ANDREW POLK: Ski bum.
That's a dream.
BILL ARMY: Falconer.
[CLAP]
JONATHAN RAVIV: One clap.
[LAUGHTER]
MICHAEL SHAYAN: OK.
And your moment of
perfect happiness.
When are you happiest?
BILL ARMY: When I'm
with my daughter.
JOHN CARIANI: At
my camp in Maine.
ALOK TEWARI: What was that?
JOHN CARIANI: At
my camp in Maine.
DAVID CROMER: The
first good preview.
[LAUGHTER]
RACHEL PRATHER: Hiking
with my husband.
JOHN CARIANI: Do you
have a moment of peace?
ADAM KANTOR: What's that?
JOHN CARIANI: No peace for you?
MICHAEL SHAYAN:
Are you ever happy?
No.
He's never happy.
ADAM KANTOR: In the
Google cafeteria.
JOHN CARIANI: Yeah,
that was pretty awesome.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: All right.
We are going to close
out with a song,
so please give it
up for the cast,
for Adam Kantor and the cast,
as they sing "Answer Me."
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - ADAM KANTOR AND THE
CAST OF "THE BAND'S VISIT,
"ANSWER ME"]
[APPLAUSE]
Keep it going for the cast
of "The Band's Visit."
[APPLAUSE CONTINUES]
Thank you all.
ALL: Thank you.
MICHAEL SHAYAN: And go
see "The Band's Visit."
It's at the Ethel Barrymore
Theatre on Broadway.
Thank you very much.
[CHEERS]
Thank you guys.
