the band's visit soundtrack

The Band's Visit (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

December 15, 2017 18 Songs, 42 minutes ℗ 2017 Sh-K-Boom Records, LLC

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Soundtrack Information

The Band's Visit - Original Broadway Cast Recording

Release Date: December 15, 2017

Formats: CD, Digital

• The Band's Visit (2016) [Stage Musical]
• David Yazbek

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The Band's Visit [Original Broadway Cast Recording]

David yazbek.

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The Band's Visit (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

David Yazbek

19 SONGS • 42 MINUTES • DEC 15 2017

• TRACKS TRACKS
• DETAILS DETAILS

A singer/songwriter who cites Elvis Costello and XTC (whom he's produced) among his biggest inspirations, David Yazbek became better known as a Tony-winning musical theater composer/lyricist. He is also recognized for his work in film and television, which includes the theme song for Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego? in the early '90s. He released his first solo album, Laughing Man, under the mononym Yazbek in 1996 before partnering with writer Terrence McNally on The Full Monty, which marked his Broadway debut in 2000. He continued to release solo material into the 2000s in between theater projects such as 2005's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and 2017's The Band's Visit, both Tony Award winners for Best Musical. The latter won Yazbek the Tony for Best Original Score.

Born and raised in New York City, David Yazbek's first instrument was the cello, which he began playing in elementary school. He took up piano as a teenager. Yazbek went on to earn a degree from Brown University, graduating in 1982. He won an Emmy as part of the writing team for The Late Show with David Letterman in 1986 before deciding to focus on music professionally. At first finding success as a commercial jingle writer, he was part owner of the Manhattan Recording Company studio alongside founder Billy Straus from 1987 to 1989.

Yazbek partnered with a friend from high school, Sean Altman of Rockapella, to write the memorable theme song to the PBS educational series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, which premiered in 1991. Over the next several years, he composed for film shorts and began to find regular work as a music producer, collaborating with such artists as the Persuasions, Tito Puente, and songwriting influence Andy Partridge's band XTC. In turn, Partridge co-produced and played guitar on Yazbek's solo debut album, Laughing Man. It was released by What Are Records? in 1996, credited to simply Yazbek. Another '80s college rock-influenced Yazbek LP, Tock, followed on the same label in 1998. It included the song "You Are Here," which was penned by Partridge, who also performed on the album.

In the meantime, celebrated playwright Terrence McNally was preparing a book for the musical The Full Monty, an adaptation of the 1997 British film of the same name. Originally, composer/lyricist Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza) was approached to provide the show's music, but when he had to turn it down, he recommended his former bandmate, Yazbek, for the job. The show opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in October of 2000 and became a hit, premiering on the West End two years later. Yazbek's score was nominated for a Tony Award, and he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in 2001. Also in 2001, Yazbek released his third solo album, Damascus. A year later, he contributed additional lyrics for the A.R. Rahman musical Bombay Dreams.

His next project was an adaptation of the 1988 comedy film, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. With music and lyrics by Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane, it arrived on Broadway in 2005. Later that year, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels received 11 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. What Are Records? also released the Yazbek song collection Tape Recorder (Collected Works) in 2005.

In 2007, the songwriter returned with another solo album, Evil Monkey Man, this time on Ghostlight Records and under his full name. The same year, Yazbek provided two songs for the film comedy The Ten ("Written in Stone" and "Who Am I and Where Do I Go from Here?"). Back on the stage, the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown reunited the composer with Lane. Based on the 1988 Pedro Almodóvar film, the show opened on Broadway in October 2010 and went on to earn Tony Award nominations for featured actresses Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti, as well as for Yazbek's score.

Another musical adaptation of a film, this time with its book by Itamar Moses, Yazbek's The Band's Visit premiered off-Broadway in late 2016, then opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre in November 2017. About an Egyptian ceremonial band stranded for a day in a remote, one-café Israeli town on their way to a gig, the musical addressed cultural differences and prejudices, as well as a lack thereof. Its score incorporated Egyptian folk, Arab classical music, klezmer, improvisational jazz, and more into songs and instrumental performances (Yazbek himself is of Jewish-Italian and Arab-Lebanese descent). The show was nominated for 11 Tony Awards in 2018, and won ten, including Best Musical and Yazbek's first for Best Original Score. He also won the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for the show. ~ Marcy Donelson

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• Summertime (From opera "Porgy and Bess", 1935) Music by George Gershwin Lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward

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Band's Visit Musical Lyrics

Band's Visit Lyrics

• Welcome to Nowhere
• It Is What It Is
• Beat Of Your Heart
• Omar Sharif
• Papi Hears the Ocean
• Haled's Song About Love
• Itgara'a
• Something Different
• Itzik's Lullaby
• Something Different (Reprise)
• The Concert
• Afifi (Bonus Track)

Spend an evening in the company of unforgettable strangers at The Band’s Visit—now one of the most celebrated musicals ever. It rejoices in the way music brings us to life, brings us to laughter, brings us to tears, and ultimately, brings us together. In an Israeli desert town where every day feels the same, something different is suddenly in the air. Dina, the local café owner, had long resigned her desires for romance to daydreaming about exotic films and music from her youth. When a band of Egyptian musicians shows up lost at her café, she and her fellow locals take them in for the night. Under the spell of the night sky, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways, and this once sleepy town begins to wake up. Release date: 2017 Last Update:February, 27th 2019

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The Band's Visit

Writers: Itamar Moses David Yazbek

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Show Information

It is 1996, and through an error in pronunciation, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra is stranded in the isolated desert town of Bet Havitka, Israel (rather than the city Petah Tikva, their actual destination). Without knowing the language and with very little money, the band members - led by conductor Tewfiq Zakaria - are welcomed by the locals, including cafe owner Dina and her two employees, Papi and Itzik. During this one night in a sleepy town where nothing much changes, the Egyptian band members and their Israeli hosts communicate in English (their only common language) and find their mutual love of music, whether traditional Middle Eastern ballads or American jazz and Chet Baker. Winner of ten Tony Awards and a score based in traditional middle eastern styles (with musicians planted all around the stage), The Band’s Visit appeals to the universal romance and passion people find in music, no matter where they are from.

Lead Characters

Tewfiq zakaria, the band's visit - musical.

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• Guide written by
• Cindi Calhoun

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The Band's Visit

“ Once, not long ago, a group of musicians came to Israel from Egypt. You probably didn’t hear about it. It wasn’t very important. ”  Winner of 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score,  The Band's Visit  is an intimate musical about the brief yet lasting connections we make in our lives.

The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel to play a concert. After a mix-up at the border, they are sent to Bet Hatikva, a remote village in the middle of the desert. For the residents of Bet Hatikva, life is aimless and monotonous. With no bus until morning and no hotel in sight, the unexpected travelers from the orchestra are taken in by the locals. Under the spell of the desert sky, their lives become intertwined in the most unexpected ways.

With a haunting score by David Yazbek ( Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty ) and contemplative book by Itamar Moses ( Boardwalk Empire ,  The Fortress of Solitude ),  The Band's Visit  is a carefully crafted gem of a musical.

Show Essentials

Welcome to Nowhere

It is what it is, the beat of your heart, omar sharif, papi hears the ocean, haled's song about love, itgara'a, something different, itzik's lullaby, something different (reprise), the concert, cost estimator.

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A montage of the Broadway production of The Band's Visit.

The Broadway cast of The Band's Visit performs an NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Composer David Yazbek performs his work from The Band's Visit and discusses the show

A clip of Katrina Lenk performing "Omar Sharif" from her Tony-winning performance in The Band's Visit

A collection of moments from the Broadway production of The Band's Visit.

Recording "Welcome to Nowhere" for The Band's Visit cast album

Questions & Answers

Licensing the band's visit.

I'm a member of a college theater group, and I'm looking towards staging The Band's Visit in April 2021. Would it be available for licensing by September 2020? Thanks!

• The Band's Visit Story

Spend an evening in the company of unforgettable strangers at The Band’s Visit —now one of the most celebrated musicals ever. It rejoices in the way music brings us to life, brings us to laughter, brings us to tears, and ultimately, brings us together. In an Israeli desert town where every day feels the same, something different is suddenly in the air. Dina, the local café owner, had long resigned her desires for romance to daydreaming about exotic films and music from her youth. When a band of Egyptian musicians shows up lost at her café, she and her fellow locals take them in for the night. Under the spell of the night sky, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways, and this once sleepy town begins to wake up.

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Broadway's 'The Band's Visit' Tells A Story Of Common Ground Between Cultures

Jeff Lunden

Katrina Lenk's and Tony Shalhoub's characters have an almost-romance in The Band's Visit . Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Katrina Lenk's and Tony Shalhoub's characters have an almost-romance in The Band's Visit .

When songwriter David Yazbek, whose mother is Jewish and father Lebanese, decided to write a musical that fused his two cultural backgrounds, he knew he didn't want it to be about tribal conflict.

His new Broadway show, The Band's Visit , attempts to do something that seems almost unfashionable: look at two historically antagonistic cultures and tell a story about their commonality.

It all started when a producer contacted Yazbek about adapting a 10-year-old Israeli movie for the stage: The Band's Visit . In the movie, an Egyptian ceremonial police band gets stranded in a town in the middle of the Israeli desert. When the townspeople discover the musicians are stuck for the night, they invite them into their homes. That's pretty much the plot.

Yazbek says the musical follows the film's lead in dramatizing the situation by not overtly dealing with the tensions between Israel and Arab countries.

"If you were to point a finger at it, you would distract from what the movie is really about," Yazbek explains. "This could be a movie about any two groups, even Democrats and Republicans."

Itamar Moses, the playwright who adapted the film's script, says the show's message resonates more now than when he and Yazbek were writing it.

"It suddenly felt really urgent to say that people are people," says Moses. "And when you strip away politics and the sort of rigid tribes that we seem to cling to and belong to, everybody can connect over the need for food and shelter and music and the need for love itself."

As for the musical's score, it certainly doesn't sound like a typical Broadway musical. Tony Shalhoub, best known as the TV character Monk, plays the Egyptian band leader. He says that it's the first musical he's ever heard that "has Arabic music and Israeli music and people singing in both languages."

Some of the actors also play instruments, like violinist George Abud.

"When you're a Lebanese actor, or an [Arab] actor, in New York, you go in for certain roles," Abud says. "And you are kind of destined to play certain situations. And most of the situations are politicized or religious or terrorists. And then finally we get a play where everybody's just being a person."

In a series of vignettes, the Egyptian band members and their Israeli hosts get to know one another. There are stressed-out parents, angsty teens, and a band member obsessed with Chet Baker. Shaloub's band leader has an almost- romance with a café owner played by Katrina Lenk.

Lenk says that these two somewhat lonely characters, with complicated histories, discover "that magical thing that can happen when you meet a stranger and suddenly you feel like you can tell them things that you can't tell people that are your good friends."

Shalhoub thinks that the musical's choice to not emphasize the political conflicts between Egyptians and Israelis has almost become a political choice in itself.

"[The musical is] political almost by virtue of the fact that it isn't," Shalhoub says. "It isn't a story about politics. And somehow, today everything becomes political. It's the prism we all look through now."

Which, The Band's Visit suggests, might not be the only way to look at things.