The Band's Visit Standout Ari’el Stachel on Pickup Lines, Being True to His Heritage & More

Ari’el Stachel is gathering acclaim and a dedicated following for his Broadway debut in The Band’s Visit. He garnered Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations for the show’s off-Broadway world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company last year. In The Band’s Visit, Stachel plays Haled, a flirty Egyptian jazz enthusiast and musician who thinks he has a killer pickup line with, “Do you like Chet Baker?” In addition to his performance in the new musical, Stachel has guest-starred on Blue Bloods, Jessica Jones and more. We chatted with the charismatic star to talk about this life-changing role, early performances and how The Band’s Visit helped to make him a proud Middle Eastern actor.



Unusual Impressions
Stachel, who grew up in Berkeley, California, says that as a kid he was “hyper and energetic.” He didn’t have early acting aspirations but still seemed to have a penchant for performing. “The way that I would entertain my family was via impersonations, and I had this very strange combination of who I would do: Yasser Arafat and Elvis Presley. That's just who I impersonated as a seven-year-old. My family was like, ‘Oh, these are good,’ and they would laugh. I think it made them think I would be an actor." I resisted that [because] I wanted to be a basketball player.”

Secret Identity
After 9/11, which occurred when Stachel was in fifth grade, he started to see himself differently. “My father is an immigrant from Israel. His parents immigrated from Yemen to Israel. So, I'm of Yemeni descent. [After 9/11 was] the first time I understood my identity as a Middle Eastern person, and it made it particularly difficult for me to be Middle Eastern. I spent from like seventh grade through even the beginning of college telling people I was not Middle Eastern and sort of shed that identity. And I remember actually having a thought when I was 14, and I looked at myself and I knew I wanted to do something public, whether it was being an actor or doing NBA. I said to myself, ‘At some point, if there's any visibility, will I still be able to have this fake identity?’ I remember having that panic, and I'm so happy that I don't need to do that. The Band's Visit is a very big part of that.” [Note: Stachel’s T-shirt in this photo says, “Made in Yemen.”]



Intense Pickup Lines
It’s more than Middle Eastern heritage that allows Stachel to relate to Haled. “In real life and onstage, I'm a flirt. I'm sure that contributed to my eventual ability to gain the role.” Does Stachel have a standard pickup line like his character? “I'm not that creative with my own pickup lines. I take pride in my ability to really ask good questions and be present. So I'll usually ask questions that people don't ask. I'll be like, ‘What is your mission on Earth?’ And people are like, ‘God, you're intense!’ But, the people who get it, I think we end up having deeper, more fruitful conversations. I'd always rather live like that: I'd rather live a life where I have extremely profound deep connections with people as opposed to surface-level ones.”

The Struggle Is Real
Stachel does not want to give the impression that he’s an overnight sensation. “I auditioned for [The Band’s Visit] seven times, and fifteen months ago to this day, I was on my couch hoping for a call. I was seconds away from moving back home to California and working with my dad in real estate, if I'm gonna be honest.” Beyond the grueling audition process, Stachel felt the strain of staying afloat financially in New York. “You know how Facebook has the Timehop thing? This morning I woke up and saw that four years ago, my job was walking around in a gladiator uniform with some other dude at the NASDAQ center and then like leading charges in Times Square. It's hilarious. I was doing little things like nonunion commercials and trying to stay busy, but it is really hard to permeate this business. God, I was desperate.”



The Anchor
To prepare for his role as an Egyptian musician who (after a mixup at the border) ends up in a remote Israeli village, Stachel, co-star Katrina Lenk and members of The Band’s Visit’s creative team traveled to Israel this summer. “We went for research purposes but also to engage with the community. In our show the place is called Beit Hatikva, and in real life it's called Yeruham. We took this bus and we had the original filmmaker and director there with us. That point where the band is lined up in the desert is exactly where we stopped, and we looked out at the desert. I kid you not: that experience has anchored me through every single show because any time I think about the fact that eleven hundred people are watching me, I remember that there's this desert. Every time I'm looking out, I have a very clear picture. It's not just a picture, though. It's sense memory. I know how it feels. It was a spiritual experience and it really connected me to my ancestors.”

Photos: Caitlin McNaney | Makeup and Hair: Rachel Estabrook