Ari'el Stachel brings his solo show on Arab-Jewish identity to Vancouver's Chutzpah! Festival
The Tony and Grammy winner performs An Evening With Ari'el Stachel on Nov. 9 and 10 as part of the 2026 festival.
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Ari'el Stachel was in fifth grade when the 9/11 attacks happened, and he was caught up in the backlash against immigrant communities. The son of an Israeli-raised Yemenite Jewish father and a New York Ashkenazi Jewish mother, he had already started using his mother's last name to avoid a Middle Eastern association. He was still taunted with "terrorist" at age 10.
His solo performance, An Evening With Ari'el Stachel, is a personal account of masking identity and trying to fit in. It includes a stretch of about eight years when he claimed to be half-Black. He "came out" as Middle Eastern in college, and the show is built on that journey. Stachel will perform in Vancouver on Nov. 9 and 10 as part of the Chutzpah! Festival.
Stachel is best known for The Band's Visit, the musical based on the 2007 Israeli film, in which he played the role of Haled. He won a featured actor Tony and a Grammy for the Broadway cast recording. Later work includes Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Don't Worry Darling.
He told the Vancouver Sun that the solo show was a way to make work that says something about his own experience. "I never thought I would ever see a Yemenite-Jewish-American experience reflected on a stage," he said. The show, first called Out of Character when it debuted in 2025, has been revised several times since.
