INTERVIEW: ‘Jerusalem Syndrome’ explores modern connections to biblical figures
Photo: Farah Alvin stars in The Jerusalem Syndrome at the York Theatre Company. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.
The new musical comedy The Jerusalem Syndrome, playing this month at the York Theatre Company in New York City, explores the real-life psychological issue that gives the show its name. This syndrome, according to press notes, impacts approximately 200 people per year who visit Israel and walk away thinking they are figures from the Bible. The musical, with songs by Kyle Rosen, follows a host of diverse characters who experience the syndrome and come to realize they have a lot more in common than they think. Ultimately the show, featuring a cast of 18, is a comedy about the power of miracles and the possibility of hope.
Farah Alvin, whose previous credits include It Shoulda Been You and the York’s Enter Laughing, plays the character of Phyllis. Helping her and her fellow cast members are Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman, who wrote the book and lyrics for the show, and director Don Stephenson.
“I’m not 100% sure how I came to be attached to it,” Alvin admitted during a recent phone interview. “The show had a small festival production about 15 years ago, and last year the York Theatre produced a reading of it with the hopes of producing it. … I actually just got a phone call through my representatives, and they said, ‘They’d like to offer you this role. Will you take a look at the script?’ And I read the script, which made me laugh out loud, which doesn’t always happen. I thought, ‘Yeah, please sign me up.’ When I heard who the other actors were who were attached and that Don Stephenson was our director, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Alvin, who recently released her solo album On Vinyl, has a deep connection to the character of Phyllis. For starters, the actor is playing her actual age on stage, which is a first in her career. The character is also in a long-term marriage with a man named Alan, which also mirrors Alvin’s life. That’s where the connections end, which makes portraying this woman at the York so much fun.
“I really saw a lot of myself in her,” Alvin said. “She’s very wry, very smart and clever, but really has this disconnection from her husband. That’s not my life, but that’s Phyllis’ life. … And then she develops the Jerusalem Syndrome. We’ve explored in the process of the play why we think Phyllis develops it the way that she develops it. … We sort of explore it as this syndrome sort of helps her work out these issues, untangle this knot that her marriage is in, so that’s been really fun to play with and explore. But I feel like in a lot of ways I’m really just playing myself.”
Alvin didn’t have much background information on this syndrome. When she first read the script, there was an attached memo that had the simple sentence: “This is a real thing.” A quick Google search will find a plethora of articles on the subject, and now that Alvin knows about the syndrome, it keeps popping up in the unlikeliest of places.
“I mentioned to someone I was doing the play, and they went, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never heard of this thing before,’ and then two days later, she texted me a snapshot of an article that was in the newspaper about somebody who had just developed it,” she said. “At Thanksgiving, I was talking to my family about it, and someone said, ‘Oh, I was just reading about the Jerusalem Syndrome.’ So I had never heard of it before, but it has this interesting following. It’s so unique. We talk about it in the play: No one knows why it only happens there, but it is so bizarre. And we’re exploring it in a completely comedic way, I think, because the easiest way to wrap our heads around why our brains do strange things, I think, is to laugh.”
Alvin appreciates Rosen’s songs, which keep this musical comedy humming along. She describes the tunes as a mixture of old Hollywood and contemporary musical theater, with some traditional gospel thrown in as well.
“I really feel like every character has a lovely voice, musically speaking,” she said. “I think the lyrics are very, very clever. I’ll get little snippets of songs stuck in my head all the time when I’m at home. Gosh, that’s a clever lyric. Usually you remember all the stuff that you don’t have to sing in the show. I love it. I really enjoy the music.”
Alvin added: “This is my second production with the York. I did a production of Enter Laughing the musical in 2019 with them. I do feel very much at home there, and I’ve done quite a lot of new musicals in my career. And what I really love about the York is when they foster new writers, new work this way, like with The Jerusalem Syndrome, but I also find that sometimes other New York theater companies that are developing new work are trying to constantly do something that’s edgy or pushing the envelope or that feels very topical, which is great, but to the detriment of having really feel-good experiences or things that are thought-provoking or emotion-provoking in a different way. And I feel like the York really gives a space for other types of material that people really want to hear and experience, and this feels very much in line with that.”
Alvin also recognizes that this is a tough time right now, with Israel being at the center of the show and the center of headlines in newspapers around the world. For the team at the York, the focus is on the foundational themes of this musical, which Alvin perfectly captured.
“I’m a Jewish person,” she said. “We all feel a strong affinity for the right of Israel to exist and exist peacefully on the planet. The thing that I think is special about the play is that it really does contain a message of peace and of hope and of unity and of love. I like to sort of think we are dealing with the Holy Land in the play in its best possible context, in the way that it’s meaningful to so many millions of people all over the world, regardless of any political context. So it’s obviously a complicated time to be doing the piece, and yet I feel like we’re focusing … not on the politics of what’s happening, but the meaning of the Holy Land for people. And that’s eternal. That’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Jerusalem Syndrome, starring Farah Alvin, continues through Dec. 31 at the York Theatre Company in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
