John Malkovich has canceled a planned April 13, 2027, Tel Aviv performance of The Music Critic at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium after a press release from a PR firm hired by the Israeli promoter fabricated quotes attributed to him, he told The Hollywood Reporter this week. Deadline and NBC News reported the cancellation and fallout on Sept. 8–9, 2026.

The show was written and conceived by Aleksey Igudesman; Israeli producer Alon Yurick was attached. A Sept. 5 PR release quoted Malkovich saying he was “thrilled to return to Israel” and looked “forward to meeting the warm Israeli audience once again, to whom I feel a strong closeness and solidarity.” The line ran via The Jerusalem Post and then THR.

Malkovich said he learned of the announcement from press coverage and never authorized it. In his statement to THR, he said: “A PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted a quote for the article that was attributed to me, though I never made the statements that were quoted, nor was I consulted before they were printed. I did not utter these phrases, and they most certainly are not approved by me, nor do they reflect my feelings. The fact that they were printed as direct quotes from me is unacceptable and untenable. For this reason, I have decided I cannot participate in the Tel Aviv performance.”

He also wrote that appearance in any country “does not constitute approval of said country’s policies, nor actions, nor its elected or unelected leaders,” and that his appearances would not mean “supposed ‘solidarity’ with any particular political cause, nor with the killing of innocents, nor with any acts of terrorism, nor any other kind of barbarity.”

The Israeli PR firm apologized, saying Malkovich “did not make, provide, authorize or approve this statement.” The Jerusalem Post removed the quote with an editor’s note. Yurick called it a misunderstanding and apologized. Malkovich previously visited Israel for the 2008 Jerusalem Film Festival and a 2013 Infernal Comedy run in Eilat and at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, THR and follow-on coverage noted.

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