Edelman: No.
Meadows: Or is it more relevant?
Edelman: I don’t know that it’s more relevant. The truth is, I think, in principle, people quite like the idea that they can have productive, civil conversations with people who have fundamental differences from them. But as soon as you introduce Democrat and Republican, those things start to break down.
People start to say, “Well, yes, but in this case, they’re not civil, or in this case, they wouldn’t actually listen to me, or in this case, there isn’t actually civility.”
I did the show on Broadway in August of 2023, but then its tour was post-Oct. 7, while there was this major conflict in Gaza and the atmosphere around discourse and Jewish identity changed drastically. And so, that was different.
Meadows: Tell me how it changed, and how you felt that as you were performing it.
Edelman: It became more charged, and I always said something at the beginning of the show, which isn’t in the play and isn’t in the special, because the special was filmed beforehand. But I said, “When I was in high school, I went to see John Updike, a famous novelist, give a talk. And John Updike said, ‘If you are lucky, at some point in your life the work that you create might find itself in conversation with the times in which you live.’” And then I would pause and go, “Well, call me Mr. Lucky!”
I believe that a show should be conversant with the moment it’s in, and not beholden to it. And I think that holds true with the time that we’re in now. I truly believe that, I think this is a bipartisan thing to say, ignoring a conversation that you could be having by going, “No, I’m sorry, it’s not up for conversation” — it doesn’t make those things go away.
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