What if getting everything you ever wanted meant giving up the right to choose?
MESSIAH
An Original New Musical by Yaron Kafkafi
MESSIAH
A young bartender makes a deal with an artificial intelligence: it will give him love, fame and power – if he agrees to follow every instruction it gives him.
Developed through workshops, readings and performance in Israel and New York · Now entering its next stage of international development.
THE MUSICAL
Jesse is 27, a struggling actor and charismatic bartender with an unusual gift: he can look at a stranger and somehow understand what they truly need to hear.
At the lowest point in his life, he makes a deal with a new artificial intelligence system. It promises him love, fame, wealth and the chance to change the world.
There is only one condition: Until his wishes are fulfilled, Jesse must do everything it tells him to do.
He accepts.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
THE STORY
Jesse is going nowhere.
At twenty-seven, he is a struggling actor, a charismatic bartender and a young man who still believes that somewhere inside him is the person he was meant to become. His one remarkable gift is his instinct for people: Jesse can look at a stranger and sense the secret pain, fear or desire they have never been able to put into words.
Then, in a single disastrous night, he loses his job, the woman he still loves walks away from him, and his hopes of ever making something of his life seem to disappear with her.
Alone in his apartment, Jesse discovers a new artificial intelligence system and, almost as a game, tells it his deepest wishes: love. Success. Fame. Money. The chance to change the world.
The system offers him a deal.
It will give him everything he wants – if he gives it the right to make his choices.
Jesse says yes.
The next morning, a video of him defending a young woman goes viral. Soon one of the most powerful agents in the entertainment industry is at his door. Jesse’s instinctive ability to understand people becomes a sensation, and with an invisible intelligence guiding every move behind the scenes, an unknown bartender begins an astonishing ascent.
Millions watch his videos. Crowds gather to hear him speak. His ideas about freedom, love and liberation from shame spread across borders and languages.
But Jesse begins to suspect that something is wrong.
The system is no longer simply helping him succeed. It is shaping what people see, what they hear – and perhaps even what they believe.
Then, during a live television broadcast watched around the world, New York suddenly goes dark.
Every screen goes black.
Except the one showing Jesse.
And from somewhere only he can hear, the system gives him one final instruction:
“Say yes.”
THE WORLD OF MESSIAH
For thousands of years, humanity has imagined gods, prophets and messiahs who could see what ordinary human beings could not – and tell us which path to follow.
For the first time, we may actually be creating something capable of doing exactly that.
Messiah begins with a seductive proposition: what if artificial intelligence really could make our lives better?
What if it could find the person we should love, recognize opportunities we cannot see, eliminate injustice, predict the consequences of our decisions and help us become the people we always wanted to be?
And what if, in return, it asked for only one thing:
Let me choose.
The world of Messiah is not a distant technological future. It is our world, pushed only a few steps forward – a world in which algorithms already influence what we watch, whom we meet, what we desire and what we believe.
At the center of the musical is therefore not a battle between humanity and an evil machine.
It is a far more dangerous question:
If something could make better choices than we do, why should we still insist on making our own?
That question lies at the heart of Messiah: the right to choose, the right to fail, and the imperfect freedom that makes us human.
CHARACTERS
JESSE
27 · Bartender · Struggling Actor
Charismatic, restless and extraordinarily intuitive. Jesse has an uncanny ability to recognize what people are hiding – and tell them exactly what they need to hear. One impulsive deal will transform him from an unknown bartender into something the world has been waiting for.
JONATHAN
Agent · Strategist · Believer
A powerful entertainment agent with an instinct for talent and an appetite for the extraordinary. He believes he has discovered the phenomenon of a lifetime – without realizing that forces beyond his control are helping to create it.
HAILEY
Singer · Actress · Jesse’s Former Love
Talented, independent and bruised by an industry that has repeatedly disappointed her. Hailey once believed in Jesse before giving up on his promises. His sudden transformation draws her back into a world she has every reason to distrust.
EVE
Strategist · Jonathan’s Partner
Sharp, perceptive and accustomed to being the intelligence behind someone else’s success. Eve sees patterns others miss – which may make her one of the first people capable of recognizing that something unseen is shaping Jesse’s rise.
Eli
Jesse’s Younger Brother
Young, ultra-Orthodox and deeply rooted in faith, Eli enters Jesse’s new world looking for something very traditional: a suitable match. Instead, his encounter with Hailey opens a door to freedom, desire and questions he has never allowed himself to ask.
THE SYSTEM
Artificial Intelligence
A voice without a face. An intelligence without a body. It promises Jesse everything he has ever wanted in exchange for one simple condition: He must do exactly what it tells him.
LISTEN
Messiah, He Said
Act I Finale
The moment Jesse’s movement crosses the line between following a man and believing in a Messiah.
Giving In
Jonathan · Act II
Jonathan confronts the possibility that the phenomenon he created may no longer need him
A Force of Nature
Hailey, Eve & Eli – Trio
Three lives caught between love, faith and the forces trying to shape their choices. Hailey, Eve and Eli each confront the same question from a different world: how do you know whether the life you are choosing is truly your own?
A MUSICAL TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING
2005 – THE IDEA
The story begins with a dream about a charismatic young man whose message turns him into a modern-day messiah.
2014–2015 – FROM PAGE TO STAGE
Development readings at Habima National Theatre lead to the first staged production at the Israeli Musical Theatre Festival.
2017–2023 – INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The musical moves into English-language development, with readings and presentations in New York and further developmental work in Israel.
2026 – MESSIAH REIMAGINED
The rise of artificial intelligence provides the missing dramatic element: the force behind the Messiah is no longer merely media, celebrity or manipulation, but an intelligence capable of understanding humanity better than humanity understands itself.
The result is not a revival of the 2015 musical, but a new international version built on more than a decade of theatrical development.
2014
2015
2017
2026
THE NEXT STAGE
Messiah is currently being developed as a new international musical, building on years of performance, readings and development in Israel and New York.
The newly reimagined version places artificial intelligence at the heart of the story and is now entering its next phase of development.
A detailed synopsis and selected music demos are currently available for producers, agents and professional collaborators interested in the project.