The script explores the unusual circumstances surrounding David’s birth and early years, when he was shunned, misunderstood, and treated as an outcast by his own family and community

A group of 27 women has found their “lifeline” after two years of war on a women-only stage in Jerusalem.

Later this month, New Note Productions, a newly founded Israel-based music and English-language theater company dedicated to creating meaningful, high-quality productions for women by women, will roll out the musical David the Servant King. The production, the first of its kind written by Shlomit Koffler Weinreb, an immigrant from Baltimore, has brought women from Jerusalem and Gush Etzion together.

Weinreb said the play is not only professional but has also provided solace to those involved over the last two years of war. Weinreb described the play and its music as “very stirring, and it’s very strengthening, and it’s very uplifting, and we all feel that.”

David the Servant King tells the lesser-known story of David’s childhood through storytelling and music. The script is the first to explore the unusual circumstances surrounding David’s birth and early years, when he was shunned, misunderstood, and treated as an outcast by his own family and community.

The story is told through the eyes of David’s mother, Nitzevet, and traces his journey from a rejected shepherd boy to the servant king he eventually became. Weinreb described it as a story of inner strength that speaks powerfully to women in Israel who held down their families and homes while their husbands and sons went off to war.

The musical includes two acts and 18 original songs. Performances will take place Jan. 25 and 29, and Feb. 1, 2, and 5 in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.

The main character, David, is being played by co-writer Avital Macales, a well-known professional singer and actor from the area, who performs only for women due to religious restrictions.

[It’s] very stirring, and it’s very strengthening, and it’s very uplifting, and we all feel that

There is a concept in Jewish law called kol isha, which means “a woman’s voice.” Some Orthodox rabbis prohibit men from hearing women sing due to concerns about sexual arousal.

There will be no men in the performance and none in the audience.

“I just wanna bring a really real and raw and relatable David to the stage,” Macales said, describing how she plans to play her part.

I just wanna bring a really real and raw and relatable David to the stage

Another well-known actress, Rivka Deray, will play King Saul. Deray’s work has premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival, the Jerusalem International Film Festival, and the Cleveland International Film Festival, among others, and her films can be viewed on HBO, Amazon Prime, Lifetime, and more.

Deray made aliyah but later returned to the United States. However, when she learned about the musical, she decided to sublet her American apartment and move back to Israel for six months to take part in the production.

Macales told The Media Line that the music is not only moving, but the text brings David’s story “so close to our hearts today, 3,000 years after the story happened.”

She added, “This story is told on a very nuanced and emotional level.”

Weinreb had never written a musical before, although she worked as a professional musician, songwriter, and composer for most of her adult life. She first learned about David’s early childhood while studying Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov’s Book of Our Heritage while still living in Baltimore. That was in 2017.

Between then and today, Weinreb made aliyah, and the idea of producing the musical felt even more impossible. Everything changed when she met Macales in her community in Efrat. Macales, who has written many musicals, offered to mentor Weinreb. Eventually, she joined the project as a co-writer.

The team staged a concert in 2024 featuring 14 songs from the show. The positive response encouraged them to move forward with a full production. Over the past year, they raised money to hire a professional director and recruit additional team members. At the end of the month, it will all come together on stage.

The Jerusalem performance will take place at the new Heichal HaTarbut venue in Talpiot.

“We have a lot of women who can actually act, and of course we have excellent voices, and it’s all coming together, and it’s an amazing experience, and we’re very excited,” Weinreb told The Media Line.

In David’s early years, he was believed to be a mamzer, a status that is shunned in Judaism. A mamzer is someone born from specific forbidden relationships, usually incest or adultery. Weinreb explained that because of this status, David was treated like a servant and was not allowed to sleep in the house or eat with the family.

“He was treated like the lowest of the low, and he was considered the very embodiment of shame and sin,” Weinreb said, noting that David was sent to one of the most remote areas to tend sheep so that the family did not have to look at him. The townspeople saw him and treated him the same way, assuming he was a black sheep.

I had the question in my mind of how this person, who grew up mistreated and considered so lowly, could become this tremendous, incredibly elevated person?

“I had the question in my mind of how this person, who grew up mistreated and considered so lowly, could become this tremendous, incredibly elevated person?” Weinreb said.

She explained that most people who are treated this way internalize it and become even more broken, but not David. Instead, he went in the complete opposite direction and reached the highest level of connection to God.

“I found that amazing and interesting, and to me, that showed that he’s even greater than we think he is because he had to go through that past,” Weinreb said. “Most people don’t know about David’s early childhood.”

Macales said she personally identifies with David because “on the one hand, he’s an artist, so emotional, a poet. On the other hand, he’s a warrior who fought Goliath. To reconcile those two sides of his personality is just something wild I wanted to explore.”

Weinreb said the play fits into a broader wave of recent productions about the Israelite king. One is the recently launched series House of David on Amazon Prime. Another is a five-part animated series titled David, recently released by Angel Productions.

According to Weinreb, this cultural moment connects to an idea she learned from writer and thought leader Melanie Phillips, who said the Jewish people are moving from the era of the Talmudic Jew in exile to the era of the heroic David warrior.

We see that in the courage and spirit of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). God wants this David energy in the world now.

“We see that in the courage and spirit of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces),” Weinreb said, circling back to how the play relates to the recent seven-front war. “God wants this David energy in the world now.”

Weinreb also recalled how David entered the Israelite encampment to fight Goliath when everyone else was paralyzed and unsure what to do. According to her, the Jewish people had forgotten about God at that moment.

“David came in … and there was no question in his mind that he could kill Goliath because he knew that God was with him,” Weinreb said. “This is the main message to our troops: There is a God in Israel. It is also the main message of the play, which gives people strength and reminds them that we can defeat any enemy.”