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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 8 november 2017

‘Monk’ star Tony Shalhoub’s

‘irresistible’ Broadway musical

By MARK KENNEDY the closest a Broadway au- Shalhoub, 64, might be
AP Entertainment Writer dience can get to a lovely employing his accent skills
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s al- mirage. once again on Broadway
ways a little startling to hear “There’s not a lot of flash but he’s also entering new
In a Monday April 1, Tony Shalhoub talk in his and dash and scream- territory since it’s his first mu-
2013 file photo, Tony
Shaloub poses at regular voice. After all, he ing and people throwing sical — and he even deliv-
the premiere party spends so much time on- things. It’s not your typi- ers a tune entirely in Arabic.
for “The Company stage and onscreen trying cal Broadway musical be- Yazbek, who was stunned
You Keep” hosted on other peoples’ accents. cause it doesn’t have that by Shalhoub in “Big Night,”
by Avion Espresso at The Emmy winner has sort of size and extravagan- says the actor was the first
Harlow in New York. ‘ played Germans, Greeks, za of noise and color,” says person he thought of when
Associated Press
Hispanics and Russians and Shalhoub, perhaps best the musical was still a draft.
even a space alien in the known for his role as an ob- “There was a short list. He
“Men in Black” films. On sessive-compulsive detec- was at the top of it for me,”
Broadway in “Act One,” he tive on television’s “Monk.” Yazbek says. “There’s a
actually played three char- “But it’s one of those things reason why he does these
acters — one with a Cock- that just kind of sneaks disparate roles: They’re all
ney accent, one with just a up on you — the music is challenges. And he knows
hint of a British accent and haunting, the characters he rises to a challenge.”
one who was an urbane are kind of mysterious, and Shalhoub worked with Yaz-
Northeasterner. sometimes funny. There’s bek at a piano for about 45
He’s often gravitated to- sparseness to it but it’s com- minutes and the composer
ward Italian parts, playing pletely engaging. It has all came away confident their
immigrants from that coun- of these elements working leading man could swing
try in the film “Big Night” for it and, for an actor, it’s it. “There are people who
and “Golden Boy” onstage sort of irresistible.” are musical and they don’t
and a Fiat 500 in “Cars.” Though the musical has know it. It was very clear
And for eight seasons, he Egyptian Muslim charac- to me that he was one of
adopted a weird Maine- ters entering an Israeli set- those,” Yazbek says.
Italian dialect on “Wings” tlement, there’s no men- Shalhoub, who next will star
that even he’s not sure tion of the Arab-Israeli crisis in the series “The Marvelous
about. “Let’s just say it was or global politics. Shalhoub Mrs. Maisel “ on Amazon,
a bit of a hybrid,” he says. says that’s quite energizing. says he thinks it’s healthy for
So it’s no wonder that “It really does try to steer an actor to go into scary or
Shalhoub re-emerges on clear of politics and that’s unfamiliar areas.
Broadway on Thursday in so refreshing nowadays “I discovered in doing so
“The Band’s Visit “ with a since we’re bombarded that I really don’t have a
military uniform, a mus- and assaulted by politics at comfort zone. So that was
tache — and a luxurious every turn,” he says. “This, a little bit of a revelation,”
Egyptian accent. How his I believe, becomes a wel- he says. “They speak a lan-
character sounds is one of come break from that and guage I don’t understand.’
the first things he works on. a glimpse at what our lives But I’m learning slowly
“It’s something that, for me, might look like if we’re not and — I’m not sure ‘fun’
really helps to find the inner consumed by all of the di- is the right word — it’s an
life of the character, the visiveness and backbiting adventure.”q
more I work on that sound,” and sniping and one-up-
he says. “And it helps me ping that occurs today.”
get to the core of the per- Shalhoub, who is Leba-
son.” nese-American, grew up in
Shalhoub plays the stiff a multicultural community
leader of the Alexandria ripe with accents in Green
Ceremonial Police Orches- Bay, Wisconsin, hence his
tra, which is booked to play knack with dialects. He re-
a concert at the Israeli city calls imitating the sounds of
of Petah Tikvah but ac- Poles, Germans and Scan-
cidentally ends up in the dinavians as a kid.
drowsy town of Bet Hatikva. “There was a wide array
Over the next few hours, the of accents. And then of
townspeople and the mu- course I was in the Mid-
sicians learn about each west, which is full of all
other and themselves. kinds of bizarre and inter-
The musical is based on esting accents, even from
a 2007 Israeli film of the town to town,” he says.
same name, and has ter- “It was a true melting pot
rific songs by David Yazbek and so there was a colli-
and a touching, sardonic sion of many, many sounds
story by Itamar Moses. It’s and voices coming at me.
a hazy, adult and beautiful And somehow all that stuff
show. The creators say it’s stuck.”