Understanding the aftermath — in which current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has consolidated power through the military — was problematic. Although the brothers were able to workshop their musical at the American University in Cairo a year and a half ago, for example, what they heard varied greatly, depending on the age of the respondents. “Some were old enough to have been there,” recalled Patrick. Other students, who had been too young to be directly involved, were “sort of seeing it through a different lens,” he said.

His brother summed up the experience: “There’s no historical record to agree upon because there isn’t a historical record that’s allowed to exist.”

“There is an enormous amount of disagreement about what the January 25 Revolution really was and who owns it,” said Masoud, the co-author of “The Arab Spring: Pathways of Repression and Reform.”

“If you were to open up the constitution of Egypt, that is today being amended in order to allow Egypt’s current president to persist in office until 2030, you would see encomia to the January 25 Revolution — even though many people would view the current regime as being the exact opposite of what the January 25 Revolution was about.”

For example, although the protesters sought the end of repressive state controls, Masoud points out, “You will see often military officers or police officers with ribbons commemorating the January 25 Revolution.

“This is an event in Egypt that everybody has agreed is legitimate. But everybody uses [it] for their own ends.”

Overall, the professor praises the playwrights for their success in depicting such a complex situation. “They got all the important things right,” said Masoud, an unabashed fan of musicals. In particular, he cites “the incredible spirit of possibility that attended the revolution.”

“You’ve got to remember Egypt was a place that everybody thought was totally stagnant,” he said. “So when [the revolution] did happen, our jaws just dropped. It was indescribably inspiring.”

Although subsequent events have been dispiriting, with el-Sisi’s regime assuming many characteristics of Mubarak’s, Masoud credits the brothers with reviving that earlier sense of optimism. “I had gotten quite jaded about the revolution,” he recalled. “Hearing their music I have all those feelings once again. So they were able to somehow capture that spirit of possibility and make me remember it. To me, that is the most amazing thing about this play.”

“And that’s what ‘We Live in Cairo’ reminds us of as well,” said Daniel Lazour. “By helping us recapture that moment of potential, it reminds us that none of that stuff went away. Those people are still around. These yearnings are universal — yearnings that got people to risk their lives and livelihoods in order to demand something better. That’s still there. That didn’t go away. And so that possibility that existed may still exist. And if you leave the theater with just that thought, I think that’s pretty remarkable.”

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School will co-present the Act II Speaker Series, discussions with leading artists, journalists, and scholars in conjunction with A.R.T.’s production of “We Live in Cairo” on topics inspired by the show. The show runs until June 23.