The Band’s Visit —a musical about an Egyptian police band stranded in the Israeli desert, which moved from the 100-seat Atlantic Theater, off-Broadway, to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway last November, and has been nominated for 11 Tony awards, topped only by two far larger musicals—is the theatrical version of the little engine that could.
The musical is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name whose plot involves an Egyptian police band that is sent to a remote village in the Israeli desert after a mix-up at the border. With no bus until morning and no hotel in sight, these unlikely travelers are taken in by locals. Under the spell of the desert sky, their lives become intertwined in most unexpected ways. The Band’s Visit celebrates the deeply human ways music, longing and laughter can connect us all.
Many of the musical’s performers and creators have personal ties to the Middle East, including its lead producer, Orin Wolf, who is married to an Israeli woman.
In an interview earlier this year, David Yazbek, composer of its music and lyrics and the New York-born and raised son of a Lebanese father, said that when he first watched the 2007 movie, it left him with “a feeling of originality, a subtle punch to the gut. What just happened? How did they make this incredible film? To me, that was intriguing, plus knowing I could bring what is universal and undeniable about the Arabic style of music to it would deepen the experience that much more, if it were done sincerely. The challenge was exciting.”
Yazbek’s father took him to Lebanon when he was seven; he said that he heard Oriental music for the first time on the taxi ride from the airport, falling in love with the singer he heard—Oum Khalthoum—and her music.
Itamar Moses, who wrote the musical’s book, was born in the United States to Israeli parents. In a recent interview, he attributed the musical’s success to its creators’ “keeping each other honest, quiet, ruminative. It’s an emotional kind of show. We didn’t succumb to the temptation of doing a big, splashy musical.”
He also attributed its success to its “brilliant cast,” which includes Katrina Lenk as Dina, proprietor of the Israel café the band visits, who has been nominated for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical; Tony Shalhoub, formerly starring in Monk, now in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, who portrays Tewfiq, the Egyptian band’s conductor, and has been nominated for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical; and Ari’el Stachel, who portrays Haled, a young Egyptian, and has been nominated for best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical.
In a recent program on The Band’s Visit at 92Y in New York, Stachel, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and whose father is a Yemenite Jew who immigrated to Israel, said that for eight years after September 11, he hid his identity, “we knew we needed to do it.” The musical, he added, represents a “seismic opportunity in ways I didn’t think possible.”
At 92Y Lenk said she felt a “deep responsibility to make sure the story is told well.”
Moses said the musical “drills down to the universal set of longings and needs that connect all people. When you strip away the arbitrary, man-made things and borders and rhetoric of political leaders, people are people. They want to be loved, to connect. We landed at a moment with a message people are hungry for.”
Among other Tony nominations The Band’s Visit has received are for best book of a musical; best original score for the theater; best scenic design of a musical; best direction of a musical; and best musical. Among its competitors in the last category are Mean Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, each of which has received 12 Tony nominations; the revival of Carousel also has received 11.
The cast recording of the Broadway production of The Band’s Visit is available from Ghostlight Records.
