When “The Band’s Visit,” the Tony-winning musical by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses, closes on Sunday after much-lauded runs on and Off Broadway, it will have had only one Dina: Katrina Lenk, who took on the role of the seemingly stern yet secretly romantic small-town restaurant owner and indelibly made it her own.
“Katrina’s been a rock,” the director David Cromer said in a telephone interview. “She solved the problem of who’s going to play this part and she brought almost everything she did with her.”
The Tonys noticed, and she won the award for best actress in a musical last year.
Aside from scheduled vacations and some sick days, Ms. Lenk will have been with “The Band’s Visit” from its first performance at the Atlantic Theater, on Nov. 11, 2016, to its last on Broadway. Relaxing in her dressing room recently at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, she chatted about the highs and lows of the show’s run, and about her plans for life after this musical. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Your performance of “Omar Sharif” at the Tonys introduced “The Band’s Visit” to a national audience. What was that like?
It was definitely the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever had to do. All of your peers are watching or involved somehow. It was exciting and terrifying: If you mess up, it’s forever. So you’re going, “Please don’t forget the words don’t forget the words don’t forget the words.”
Did you run into problems during the show itself?
Sometimes, yes. I could psych myself out. If it’s not busy, your brain will play little games with you: “Oh, do you know what’s coming next?”
So it’s riskier toward the end of a run, when there’s a danger of autopilot?
As soon as you step out for a second, which happens more if you’re more comfortable with what’s happening, it’s scary. If you dare be aware of where you are and what you’re doing — the fact that you’re standing on a stage in front of people and you’re doing a show — then your brain is like, “Oh no!” There’s been a couple of snafus, like prop malfunctions. In the moment you are dying and you hate it, but after that it’s exciting. And to watch people deal with them is so fun and exciting and inspiring.
You have played opposite three actors in the leading male role: Tony Shalhoub, Dariush Kashani and now Sasson Gabay — who actually created the character, Tewfiq, in the 2007 film on which the show is based. What were they like?
They’re all wonderful, generous actors — thank God. With Tony we had all those weeks of rehearsal and that whole process of bonding over time. Whereas with Dariush and Sasson we basically had to instantaneously connect in front of a thousand people, which was scary. I was completely star-struck with Sasson; I’d already been star-struck with Tony but kind of gotten used to it. Because I was so familiar with [Sasson’s] work in the movie, it was this very meta, weird, crazy thing. Which still kind of happens [laughs].
Do you want to know when there’s somebody famous in the audience?
No, no, no. Hillary and Bill Clinton came, but they were very stealthy about it. They arrived during the blackout. They were all so down to earth, very neighborly, Chelsea showing me pictures of her kids on her phone. Meryl Streep came. Carol Burnett. Billy Crystal. You try really hard to listen and pay attention, but you’re just in awe of the person, kind of watching their mouth move. They seem pleased and you’re like, “Yay!” And you have to combat the impulse to start gushing.
What’s on your mind as you enter the show’s last stretch?
We still have to do the show, and that’s the most important thing — to maintain the show. But then offstage we have little gatherings, little things to commemorate our time here. It’s a weird combination of keeping the show’s integrity and realizing that the group will soon dissolve. You learn that shows end very early, when you’re crying in high school after your one weekend of shows and you’re like, “I’ll never have this again!” I’m relishing being onstage with these incredible players, standing in the middle of this gorgeous music. I’d gotten so used to it: “Oh yes, of course they’re amazing,” with my cigarette. Now I’m really appreciating that again.
What are your plans for your first week of freedom?
It really isn’t until after Tax Day — I’m singing at a concert at Carnegie Hall on April 15. It’s a night exploring the culture and music of Eastern European Jewish culture and how that sort of integrated and informed American culture. There’s a bunch of different performers, and I’m singing “Pirate Jenny” by Kurt Weill, some Irving Berlin.
Rodgers & Hammerstein are doing modernized versions of their songs [for the “R&H Goes Pop!” project], and I’m doing “Something Good” from “The Sound of Music.” We laid the track down, but I was super sick at the time, so I’m doing the vocals next week. James Sampliner and I worked on the arrangements, and I wrote the string arrangement.
And after that I’m going to organize my closet. My house is sort of a disaster. I’m hoping to have a moment to assess. I haven’t really had a chance to think about what’s happening or what’s happened.
