Tony Shalhoub, John Cariani, Katrina Lenk and More to Lead THE BAND'S VISIT Premiere at Atlantic Theater Company

Atlantic Theater Company just announced casting for the world premiere musical The Band's Visit, directed by Lortel and Obie Award winner David Cromer and featuring a book by Drama Desk Award nominee Itamar Moses, an original score by three-time Tony Award nominee David Yazbek and choreography by Lee Sher.

The Band's Visit will feature George Abud (The Visit), Bill Army (Act One), Tony Award nominee John Cariani (Something Rotten!), Katrina Lenk (Broadway's Once), Erik Liberman (LoveMusik), Andrew Polk ("House of Cards"), Rachel Prather (Once National Tour), Jonathan Raviv (The Ragged Claws), Sharone Sayegh (Mamma Mia!), Kristen Sieh (Men on Boats), Tony Award nominee Tony Shalhoub (Act One, "Monk") and Alok Tewari (Awake and Sing!). Additional casting to be announced.

The Band's Visit will begin previews Friday, November 11, officially open Thursday, December 8, and play a limited engagement through Sunday, December 18, 2016, Off Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20 Street).

An Egyptian Police Band arrives in Israel to play a concert. After a mix up at the border, they are sent to a remote village in the middle of the desert. With no bus until morning and no hotel in sight, these unlikely travelers are taken in by the locals. Under the spell of the desert sky, their lives become intertwined in the most unexpected ways. A new musical based on the critically acclaimed screenplay which received 36 major international awards.

George Abud last appeared on Broadway in the musical The Visit. Bill Army's Broadway credits include Act One and Relatively Speaking. John Cariani returns Off-Broadway following an acclaimed run in the hit musical comedy Something Rotten! Katrina Lenk has been featured in the Broadway musicals Once and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Erik Liberman appeared in LoveMusik on Broadway. Andrew Polk received a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance inAccomplices Off-Broadway. Rachel Prather has been featured in the National Tours of Once and Peter and the Starcatcher. Sharone Sayegh appeared in Mamma Mia! on Broadway.

Tony Shalhoub recently appeared Off Broadway at Lincoln Center in The Mystery of Love & Sex opposite Diane Lane and starred on Broadway in Act One and Golden Boy, receiving Tony Award nominations for both performances. Kristen Sieh is currently appearing in Men On Boats Off-Broadway. Alok Tewari recently appeared Off-Broadway in Awake and Sing!

The Band's Visit will feature scenic design by Scott Pask, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Tyler Micoleau, sound design by Clive Goodwin, music direction by Andrea Grody and casting by Tara Rubin Casting.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

George Abud (Camal). Broadway: The Visit (OBC Recording). Off-Broadway: Peer Gynt opposite Gabriel Ebert, Nathan The Wise opposite F. Murray Abraham, John Doyle's Allegro (Classic Stage Company). Regional: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Puck, Geva Theatre Center); Fiddler on the Roof (Human Race Theatre); Man of La Mancha and Oliver Twist(Shakespeare Theatre of NJ). Cabaret: 2 Original Club Acts - Never Been Young at 54 Below; Change Partners: A Broadway Love Affair at Birdland. Upcoming: World Premiere of Mohammed Fairouz & David Ignatius's The New Prince at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam.

Bill Army (Zelger). Broadway: Act One (Lincoln Center Theater), Relatively Speaking. Off Broadway: The Changeling(Red Bull Theater), Old Jews Telling Jokes, All's Well That Ends Well (The Public), Measure for Measure (The Public). Company Member of Potomac Theater Project since 2007: Scenes from an Execution, Vinegar Tom, Gertrude- the Cry, The Europeans, No End of Blame. "Deadbeat" (Hulu), "COHAB" (Web series).

John Cariani (Itzik) recently starred in the hit musical comedy Something Rotten! on Broadway (OCC nomination) and also appeared in the last revival of Fiddler on the Roof for which he received a Tony Award® nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award. Off-Broadway: Almost, Maine; (Transport Group);Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Public/NYSF); Modern Orthodox. Regional: Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Center Theatre Group, Barrington Stage Company, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Several films, including Showtime (with Robert De Niro), Elephant Sighs (with Ed Asner), and Scotland, PA (with Christopher Walken). Television: Recent guest stars on "The Blacklist," "The Good Wife," and "Homeland." Recurring roles on "Law & Order" (5 seasons as CSU Tech Beck), "Numb3rs" and "The Onion News Network." Playwright: Almost, Maine; Last Gas; Love/Sick; cul-de-sac all available through DPS.

Katrina Lenk (Dina).Broadway: Once, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Miracle Worker. Off-Broadway: Indecent(Vineyard Theatre), Touch (59E59), Last Dance (York Theatre). Regional includes: Indecent (Yale and LaJolla Rep),iWitness (Mark Taper Forum), Elemeno Pea, Cloudlands, Caucasian Chalk Circle (South Coast Rep),Camille (Bard Summerscape), Lost Land (Steppenwolf Theater), and Lovelace: A Rock Opera (LA Weekly, LADCC and Garland Award winner). Film/TV: Look Away, Evol: The Theory of Love, FracKtured, "Elementary," "The Get Down" and "The Blacklist." Co-creator of the comedy web series "Miss Teri" and a member of several bands including her own, moxy phinx. www.katrinalenk.com

Erik Liberman (Telephone Guy). Atlantic debut. Broadway: Harold Prince and Alfred Uhry's LoveMusik. North American Tour: Fiddler on the Roof with Harvey Fierstein and Topol. Off-Broadway: Dani Girl, For Elise, Minnie's Boys, Mabou Mines Dollhouse, The Calamity of Kat Kat and Willie. Regional: War Paint with Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole (Original Cast, Goodman), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Original Cast and OCR, La Jolla and Paper Mill Playhouses), Somewhere in Time (Original Cast, Portland Center Stage), Reefer Madness! (Original Cast, Ovation and Garland Awards), Into the Woods (Connecticut Critics Circle Award), Merrily We Roll Along (Helen Hayes Award). Concert: Carol Burnett's Hollywood Arms, Raising the Roof (also co-director) at Town Hall, Symphony Space's Fiddler at 50. TV: Vinyl, The Knick, Unforgettable. Honors: Lotte Lenya Competition for Singers, YoungArts. Twitter/Instagram: @erikliberman,www.erikliberman.org

Andrew Polk Theater (Avrum).New York: Burning, Mouth To Mouth and Critical Darling (New Group), The Accomplices(Drama Desk Nomination), Diner The Musical (workshop w/Sheryl Crow, Barry Levinson), Walmartopia (Minetta Lane), The Green Zone (Lincoln Center), Flight (Lucille Lortel), Vick's Boy (Rattlestick), The Truth Teller (Circle Rep.), among many others. Broadway Tour: Biloxi Blues (Helen Hayes nom.). Regional: The Homecoming, November and Speed-The-Plow(A.C.T.), At Home At The Zoo (Philadelphia Theatre Co.), A New War (Long Wharf), Dinner with Friends (Alley Theatre), Love! Valour! Compassion! (Philadelphia Theatre Co., Barrymore Award), Angels in America (ALLIANCE THEATRE), Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Berkshire Theater Festival, among many others. Film: The Humbling (w/ Al Pacino ), As You Are (Sundance 2016), Rebel In The Rye (w/ Kevin Spacey - in production) About Ray(w/Susan Sarandon, Naomi Watts, in production), Exposed (w/Keanu Reeves), The Oppenheimer Strategies (w/Richard Gere, in production), Jamie Marks Is Dead (Sundance 2014), Love Is Strange (Sundance 2014), Shelter (Paul Bettany, dir.),Butterflies of Bill Baker, Coming Up Roses, Loverboy, among others. TV: "House of Cards" (Harry Marshall in Season 4 and 5), "Madame Secretary," "Hell On Wheels," "The Good Wife," "Blue Bloods," "Person of Interest," "The Blacklist," "The Closer," "Zero Hour," "30 Rock," "Lights Out!," all three "Law & Order" shows, "Third Watch." Training: London's Webber-Douglas Academy (Fulbright Scholar). Associate Artist at American Conservatory Theater. Founder of The Cape Cod Theatre Project.

Rachel Prather (Julia). National tours: Once (Girl standby); Peter and the Starcatcher (u/s Molly/Ted/Prentiss/Bumbrake). Regional: Fiddler on the Roof; Nine.

Jonathan Raviv (Sammy). New York: Martyrs Street (Theater For The New City); The Ragged Claws (Cherry Lane Theatre); Lies My Father Told Me (National Yiddish Theatre); My Name Is Asher Lev (Westside Theatre). Regional Theatre:The Boy Who Danced on Air (Diversionary Theatre); Love's Labour's Lost (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Fiddler On The Roof (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival); Oklahoma! (Portland Center Stage); Homebody/Kabul (Curious Theatre);Arabian Nights (Berkeley Rep.); The Chosen (Writers' Theatre); Lady Madeline (Steppenwolf Theatre); The Light In The Piazza (Arena Stage & Goodman Theatre). TV/Film: "The Blacklist," "Zero Hour," "Pan Am," Saint Janet, The Truth About Lies.

Sharone Sayegh (Anna). Honored to be making her Atlantic debut in The Band's Visit. Most recently: the title role inScheherazade (Prospect Theater Co) and The Wildness world premiere (Ars Nova). Broadway: Mamma Mia!. Regional: Maria Elena in Buddy (Muny), Aouda in 80 Days (Florida Rep), Vidya in Disconnect (San Jose Rep, BACC Nom.). Workshops: Margaritaville (Dir. Chris Ashley), Hazel (Dir. Lucie Arnaz), Sheila Levine (Dir. Susan Stroman), Hooray ForIceboy (Dir. John Rando), War is F*cking Awesome (Dir. Leisl Tommy), BENGAL TIGER... (Lark). BFA Syracuse Universitywww.sharonesayegh.com

Tony Shalhoub (Tewfiq) recently appeared Off Broadway at Lincoln Center in The Mystery of Love & Sex opposite Diane Lane and starred on Broadway in Act One and Golden Boy, receiving Tony Award nominations for both performances. He is a Golden Globe Award-winning actor with a diverse resumé of engaging roles and perhaps best known for his starring role as the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk in the hit television series "Monk," for which he won a Golden Globe Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards. Additional television credits include "Nurse Jackie," "Too Big to Fail," "Wings" and "BrainDead," a CBS summer series created by Michelle and Robert King. Feature film credits include Big Night,The Siege, Galaxy Quest, Men in Black, Men in Black II and Pain & Gain. Shalhoub voiced the character of Luigi in the popular animated movies Cars and Cars II, and he will reprise his role in the upcoming Cars III. He voiced the role of Splinter in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie franchise. Recently, he completed filming Tomboy, starring Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver and Final Portrait, directed by Stanley Tucci.

Kristen Sieh (Iris) is a founding member of The TEAM, with whom she has written and performed numerous new works, including RoosevElvis (The Royal Court, Walker Arts Center, The A.R.T., The Vineyard, etc.). Other credits include: The Public Theater (Fortress of Solitude, February House), Classic Stage Company (Iphigenia in Anne Washburn's Iphigenia inAulis), The Foundry (O, Earth), Half Straddle (Ghost Rings), Pig Iron (Viola in Twelfth Night), Ripe Time (The World is Roundat BAM), Elevator Repair Service (Gatz, The Sound and the Fury, etc.), Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb (Men onBoats), Banana, Bag & Bodice (Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage), The Builders Association, The New Group, The O'Neill Center, The 52nd St. Project, and others. Regional credits include Syracuse Stage, Denver Center Theater, Long Wharf, and Baltimore CenterStage. Television: "Orange is the New Black," "The Blacklist," "Boardwalk Empire" and "Law & Order."

Alok Tewari (Simon). Theatre includes Awake and Sing! (Public / NAATCO); The Queen, Martyrs Street, Blind Angels (Theater for the New City); A Fable, Through the Yellow Hour, War (Rattlestick); Bunty Berman Presents, Rafta, Rafta..., Marie and Bruce (The New Group); Night Over Erzinga, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Lark); Masked (Buenos Aires); Inana (Denver Center); Betrothed (Ripe Time)and Marco Polo (The Group, Argentina). Television: "Royal Pains," "House of Cards," "The Blacklist," "Deadbeat," "Blue Bloods," "30 Rock," "Homeland," "Fringe," "Law & Order," "L&O: CI," "L&O: SVU," "Guiding Light." Film: Shelter, Brooklyn's Finest.

David Cromer (Director). Recent productions include Women Or Nothing at Atlantic Theater Company, Nikolai and the Others at Lincoln Center, Really Really at MCC in NYC (starring Zosia Mamet), Sweet Bird of Youth (starring Diane Lane) at the Goodman Theater (Chicago), Tribes at Barrow Street Theatre in NYC and now running at The Taper in LA, House of Blue Leaves on Broadway (starring Ben Stiller), Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway, When the Rain Stops Falling (2010 Lortel Award) at Lincoln Center Theater and A Streetcar Named Desire at Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Writers Theatre in Chicago. His critically acclaimed production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, ran for over a year at the Barrow Street Theatre and he received the 2009 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Revival, as well as a 2009 Obie Award for Best Director. He recently revived his production at Huntington Theater in Boston. His NYC production of Adding Machine: A Chamber Musical (based on the play by Elmer Rice), garnered him an Obie Award for Best Director, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction, and ran at the Minetta Lane Theatre. In his former home town, Chicago, David directed many award winning productions including Picnic, Our Town, and the World Premiere of Orson's Shadow at Steppenwolf Theatre. He was Artistic Director of Big Game Theatre from 1991-93. His productions in Chicago have won a total of 16 Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Production and Best Director for The Cider House Rules,The Price, and Angels in America. His regional credits include The Grapes of Wrath at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC,The Clean House, Farnsworth Invention and Santaland Diaries at the Alley Theatre. David is a 2010 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

Itamar Moses (Book) is the author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach at Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us,Yellow Jackets, Back Back Back, Completeness and The Whistleblower, the musicals Nobody Loves You (with Gaby Alter) and Fortress of Solitude (with Michael Friedman), and the evening of short plays Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to It). His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, and Venezuela, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. He has received new play commissions from The McCarter Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theater, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center and The Goodman Theatre. On television, Itamar has written for both TNT's "Men of a Certain Age" and HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Itamar holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect.

David Yazbek (Music and Lyrics). A varied career as a recording artist, Emmy® - winning TV and screenwriter, music producer, and pianist has somehow led Yazbek to become one of Broadway's preeminent composer/lyricists. His three shows, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown have received a combined 24 Tony Award® nominations including three for Best Score as well as a Drama Desk Award. As a recording artist, Yazbek is responsible for five albums - The Laughing Man, Tock, Damascus, Tape Recorder and Evil Monkey Man. He has written and/or produced for such acts as XTC, Ruben Blades, The Persuasions, Joe Jackson, Tito Puente and many others. He also produced the original cast albums of his Broadway shows. He has three Grammy Award® nominations. In the past year he has scored the final season of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," composed music for Larry David's Fish in the Dark and written songs and music for Much Ado About Nothing at Central Park's Delacorte Theater all while opening productions of Scoundrels and Women on the Verge in London's West End. In past lives, he has written dozens of scripts and many songs for television and film, won an Emmy Award® for his comedy-writing stint on "Late Night with David Letterman" and wrote the unrelenting theme song for "Where in the World is Carmen Santiago?" David is seven.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is the award-winning Off-Broadway theater that produces great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of a play and the intent of its playwright are at the core of the creative process. The plays in the Atlantic repertory, from both new and established playwrights, are boldly interpreted by today's finest theater artists and resonate with contemporary audiences. Celebrating over 30 years of theater, Atlantic has produced more than 150 plays including Tony Award-winning productions ofSpring Awakening (Steven Sater, Duncan Sheik) and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Martin McDonagh); Pulitzer Prize recipientBetween Riverside and Crazy (Stephen Adly Guirgis); New York Drama Critics' Circle winner for Best New Play The Night Alive(Conor McPherson); world premieres of Hold On To Me Darling (Kenneth Lonergan); Guards at the Taj (Rajiv Joseph); Skeleton Crew (Dominique Morisseau); I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard (Halley Feiffer); Posterity (Doug Wright); Found (Hunter Bell, Eli Bolin, Lee Overtree); Almost an Evening, Offices, Happy Hour and Women or Nothing (Ethan Coen); What Rhymes With America (Melissa James Gibson); 3 Kinds of Exile (John Guare); Storefront Church (John Patrick Shanley); Body Awareness(Annie Baker); revivals of Cloud Nine (Caryl Churchill) and Brecht and Weill's musical The Threepenny Opera directed by Martha Clarke; acclaimed productions of Bluebird and Harper Regan (Simon Stephens); Our New Girl (Nancy Harris); The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Alan Sillitoe, adapted by Roy Williams); The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Cripple of Inishmaan(Martin McDonagh); Pulitzer Prize finalist The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, The Jammer, and These Paper Bullets! (Rolin Jones); The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois and Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling (Adam Rapp); Through a Glass Darkly(Ingmar Bergman, adapted by Jenny Worton); Farragut North (Beau Willimon); Chimichangas and Zoloft (Fernanda Coppel);Blue/Orange (Joe Penhall); Port Authority and Dublin Carol (Conor McPherson); Writer's Block (Woody Allen); American Buffalo,Romance, and Edmond (David Mamet); The Cider House Rules, Part I (adapted by Peter Parnell); Good Television (Rod McLachlan); Celebration & The Room, The Collection & A Kind of Alaska and The Hothouse (Harold Pinter); Dying for It andGabriel (Moira Buffini); Oohrah! (Bekah Brunstetter); Mojo, Parlour Song, and The Night Heron (Jez Butterworth); Boys' Life andThe Lights (Howard Korder); Distant Fires (Kevin Heelan); The Lying Lesson and Missing Persons (Craig Lucas). Atlantic has garnered 12 Tony Awards, 19 Lucille Lortel Awards, 21 Obie Awards, 7 Drama Desk Awards, 6 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 3 Drama League Awards, 3 New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski