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The Band’s Visit

It has a wisp of a plot: an Egyptian police orchestra, conducted by Tewfiq (Tony Shalhoub), lands in the wrong town in the Negev Desert, where the locals, stone-faced and few, put the musicians up for the night. In the morning, they leave. And yet David Yazbek and Itamar Moses’s new musical, based on a 2007 Israeli film, fills up the stage with feeling, the muted kind that dwells in missed connections and half-remembered tunes. The director, David Cromer, has enormous trust and patience in his material, letting the emotional music of an uneventful night in the middle of nowhere rise to the surface. But the show’s not so secret weapon is Katrina Lenk, who plays Dina, a café owner with a dry stare and a drier wit. When she finally opens up to Tewfiq, in a song about the “jasmine wind” that brought in Umm Kulthum on her mother’s radio, she’s a radiant presence. (Ethel Barrymore; Through April 7.)

In moving musical 'The Band's Visit,' strangers from distinct Mideast cultures find harmony

Magnificent writers theatre production of the tony-winning show pulls you in to the characters’ world and you don’t want to leave..

Café owner Dina (Sophie Madorsky, with Rom Barkhordar and Armand Akbari) is among the people in a remote Israeli town showing hospitality to stranded Egyptian musicians in “The Band’s Visit.”

Michael Brosilow

Quirky, character-driven, self-declared at the start as being not “very important,” the 2018 Tony-winning best musical “The Band’s Visit” has always been a modest, heartwarming show, a pixelated slice-of-life about the ways humans feel connected with each other. It’s mostly about love, but also about how music and movies help bring people together.

I enjoyed the piece immensely on Broadway, where it was directed by David Cromer, a longtime Chicago artist now on the A-plus-list in New York. He won the directing Tony for his work on this show.

But I was far more deeply moved by this intimate, intensely engaging production at Writers Theater, directed by Zi Alikhan. Alikhan worked under Cromer on the national tour of the “The Band’s Visit,” and has an impressive, mostly regional-theater resume. He’s making an extremely memorable mark in his Chicago debut.

This offbeat musical from composer David Yazbeck (“The Full Monty,” “Tootsie”) and writer Itamar Moses, based on a 2007 Israeli film, tells the story of a small Egyptian orchestra invited to perform at the Arab cultural center in the real-life Israeli city of Petah Tikvah. Instead, the musicians accidentally, and understandably, find themselves in Bet Hatikvah, a fictional, remote desert town. Stranded awaiting the rare bus, and in a town too tiny for a hotel, they must rely on the hospitality of locals who aren’t used to visitors, let alone those from another culture. Two of the songs, to give you a sense, are called “Welcome to Nowhere” and “Something Different.”

This production has the cast playing nearly all the instruments — including Middle Eastern ones like the pear-shaped, lute-like oud — with a few supplements from offstage. A benefit is that the musical interstices serve as an indication of how the townspeople manage to pass the time, given that there is so little going on in Bet Hatikvah.

• From 2019: ‘The Band’s Visit’ a marvelous, exquisitely crafted arrival indeed

Yazbek’s lovely, nuanced score, highly unusual for a Broadway show, feels deeply connected to the region, which is essential for bringing an authenticity to the setting and story, which itself is minimal but involving.

During a single evening, the strangers get to know each other. Café owner Dina (Sophie Madorsky) and the orchestra’s leader Tewfiq (Rom Barkhordar) bond over memories of Omar Sharif movies and the music of Egyptian Umm Kulthum, which Dina grew up with. Simon (Jonathan Shaboo), the orchestra’s clarinetist, finds himself observing the quarrels of a married couple (Dave Honigman and Dana Saleh Omar). The Chet Baker-loving Haled (Armand Akbari, exuding friendly charm) tags along as an extra wheel on a roller-skating date with locals (Sam Linda, Marielle Issa, Becky Keeshin, Jordan Golding).

This ensemble is extraordinary: un-showy, uniformly honest, remarkably likable.

I understand Madorsky’s Dina more than I did that of Katrina Lenk, who played the role on Broadway and just couldn’t cover up her sense of glamor, that Dina was truly stuck in this small town, so clearly out of place. While equally as compelling, this Dina may long for something more, but also very much belongs here, and she comes across as far more vulnerable.

Sam Linda and Becky Keeshin play locals in Bet Hatikvah on a roller-skating date.

Another standout is Sam Linda, a performer I’ve seen before without his making this type of impression. He seems born for this part, and his “Papi Hears the Ocean,” about what he hears when he tries to talk with girls, is wildly enjoyable, all the funnier for its fundamental believability and the careful timing of Sebastiani Romagnolo’s choreography.

I was concerned, given the current, horrifying events occurring on the Israeli-Egypt border, that this show would feel too slight for the moment, a “can’t we all get along?” message at a moment when reality suggests the answer to that is a resounding “No.”

• From 2019: David Cromer sees ‘everyday heroes’ as the heart and soul of ‘The Band’s Visit’

But from the moment this story starts, this magnificent production pulls you in to the characters’ world and you don’t want to leave. It’s an innocent, peaceful place. The actors all speak with accents — believable to my ear, for sure — as the Arabic- and Hebrew-speaking characters use sometimes-halting English to communicate. It’s about what people have in common. Politics doesn’t exist. The characters expose their inner selves to strangers; although at first surprised to be dealing with the situation, they’re ultimately emotionally unguarded.

But the show also gains deep, complex, upsetting layers from the fact that, when you awaken from the reverie of its sweetness, you realize these people — that is to say, people just like them — may be dead or hostages or at least in mourning for loved ones, and times past.

BOSTON'S PREMIER ONLINE ARTS MAGAZINE

Theater Review: “The Band’s Visit” — Revelations of Commonality

By David Greenham

This well-directed and -performed production of a musical about the universal longing for connection delivers a stirringly heartfelt experience.

The Band’s Visit . Music and lyrics by David Yazbek. Book by Itamar Moses. Directed by Paul Daigneault. Choreography by Daniel Pelzig. Music direction by José Delgado. Scenic design by Wilson Chin and Jimmy Stubbs. Costume design by Miranda Kau Giurleo. Lighting design by Aja M. Jackson. Sound design by Joshua Millican. A co-production of The Huntington Theatre Company and SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Huntington, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston, through December 17.

Jennifer Apple and Brian Thomas Abraham in the Huntington Theatre Company/SpeakEasy Stage co-production of The Band’s Visit. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

In these American days of divisiveness, name calling, and the general condemnation of people who “aren’t like us,” what a shock it would be to discover that we all have more in common than all the harmful rhetoric might suggest.

In 2018 — which now seems like decades ago — The Band’s Visit , a 90-minute one-act musical, improbably took Broadway by storm. All the more shocking: the show, based on a 2007 Israeli independent film, contained few of the glamorous trappings of a traditional Broadway musical. Missing are big production numbers, swelling with sharp and angular choreography, a cartoonish plot, propelled by formulaic smiles and hummable tunes, and a boffo inspirational ending.

Instead, this surprisingly mature musical details a subtle, moving, and thought-provoking story of loss, one filled with loneliness, ironic mistakes, and missed opportunities. There are challenges for American audiences: the Middle Eastern musical style will be unfamiliar to many and the dialogue contains Arabic, Hebrew, and stunted English with a strong accent. None of that cultural amalgamation lessens the impact of this generously spirited show.

The tale is set in 1996. The Egyptian Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra is booked to travel to Israel to perform at an important concert in the arts-rich Israeli city of Petah Tikva. A linguistic misunderstanding at the airport sends them off course. They end up way down in the country’s south, deep in the Negev desert in the tiny fictional town of Bet Hatikva. Locals Dina (Jennifer Apple), Itzik (Jared Troilo), and Papi (Jesse Garlick) promise the band members that their visit to their village will be terrible. They sing: “This is Bet Hatikva with a B — like in boring, like in barren, like in bullshit, like in bland, like in basically bleak and beige and blah, blah, blah.”

The Band’s stoic leader and conductor, Tewfiq (Brian Thomas Abraham), tries to find a way to correct the mistake, but there’s no bus out of town until the next day. Although they are reluctant to admit it, the strangers have no option but to spend the night. Thankfully, Dina takes charge and arranges makeshift lodging for the unexpected guests.

Dina brings Tewfiq and trumpeter Haled (Kareem Elsamadicy) to her apartment. She makes Itzik invite clarinetist Simon (James Rana) and violinist Camal (Andrew Mayer) to stay with his wife Iris (Marianna Bassham) and their baby, along with Iris’s visiting father Avrum (Robert Saoud).

The arrangement generates three small stories that take place over the course of the evening. Dina and Tewfiq visit a local cafeteria for dinner; Itzik, his family, and guests have a sometimes-challenging dinner at home; and Haled meets up with Papi to tag along on a double date at a roller-skating rink with Zelger (Fady Demian), his girlfriend Anna (Emily Qualmann), and painfully shy Julia (Josephine Moshiri Elwood).

As the trio of narratives progress in unplanned ways, we also watch the patient struggles of the Telephone Guy (Noah Kieserman), who is waiting for his girlfriend to call. He’s been standing by the local pay phone for a month: no one else believes she’ll call, but he is confident that the phone will ring.

Marianna Bassham, Andew Mayer, Robert Saoud, James Rana, Jared Troilo in the Huntington Theatre Company/SpeakEasy Stage co-production of The Band’s Visit. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Each of the stories confidently explores the emotional depths of the leading characters: Dina and Tewfiq share the loss of the idealistic plans they imagined about love; Itzik and Iris’s marriage is failing; Avrum recalls with great joy the first time he saw his late wife; Simon seems to discover the inspiration that’s needed for him to finish a concerto he’s writing; and Papi’s fear of how to win over Julia begins to disappear thanks to Haled’s support and advice.

Other nonspeaking members of the band variously come in and out, accompanying the revelations with songs that dramatically enhance the primary scenes.

The problem of changing the locations of four stories, told simultaneously, has been cleverly solved by Wilson Chin and Jimmy Stubbs’s deceptively complex set. The staging’s set pieces seamlessly move in and out: the transitions are simple and crisp. (The choreography shares that virtue as well.) A wonderful set change occurs as late as the curtain call: a wall that’s designed to look like a parked bus is raised to reveal the rest of the members of the orchestra. It also serves as a sort of makeshift party platform for the final musical numbers. Also fun is the peripatetic public phone cubicle that the Telephone Guy rolls around the stage during most of the production as he patiently waits and waits.

Miranda Kau Giurleo’s costumes seem inspired by the original designs, especially Dina’s ensembles and the powder blue military-looking band outfits. Given that so many singers and musicians are milling about the stage, Joshua Millican’s sound design needs to be spot on. It is.

Only Aja M. Jackson’s lighting seems to intrude on underlining the material’s nuances. Pin spots frequently frame the soloists as the rest of the stage lighting dims. For me, the impact — with star turn framing — often served to separate the song from the dramatic context. The sumptuous songs and music can hold their own — no need to add a nudge of “the limelight.”

Kareem Elsamadicy, Jesse Garlick, and Josephine Moshiri Elwood in the Huntington Theatre Company/SpeakEasy Stage co-production of The Band’s Visit. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Despite the separateness of the stories and the ever-changing settings, the ensemble comes off as a beautifully coordinated team long before the glorious “Answer Me” number, which features the Telephone Guy’s (Kieserman) wonderful voice calling the entire company into a splendid unity.

But it’s not the message of universal yearning that really drives The Band’s Visit : it is the compelling depth of its characters. Front and center is the unusual and absorbing interaction between Apple’s Dina and Abraham’s Tewfiq. The highlight of the production is Dina’s wonderful “Omar Sharif,” where she sings of her love for the music of famous Arab singer Umm Kulthum and the movies of her childhood, particularly the 1960 Egyptian film The River of Love , which starred Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. Dina and Tewfiq charmingly share their passion for this cinematic romance.

Needless to say, The Band’s Visit isn’t one of those “wrap everything up in a tidy bow” entertainments. Much like the history of the land where the story is set, this musical is untidy. No easy answers are provided. But, in this well-directed and -performed production, the show’s powerful look at the longing for connection makes for a stirringly heartfelt experience.

David Greenham is an adjunct lecturer of Drama at the University of Maine at Augusta, and is the former executive director of the Maine Arts Commission. He has been a theater artist and arts administrator in Maine for more than 30 years.

This sounds like a thoughtful, subtle show. I remember critics praising it on Broadway. I hope to see a production somewhere (I don’t live near Boston) and might try to watch the original movie. Thanks for such a detailed and nuanced review.

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“Here there is no culture at all.”

Members of an Arab band find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere in “The Band’s Visit.”

The eight men wear sky-blue uniforms with gold braid on the shoulders. They look like extras in an opera. They dismount from a bus in the middle of nowhere and stand uncertainly on the sidewalk. They are near a highway interchange, leading no doubt to where they’d rather be. Across the street is a small cafe. Regarding them are two bored layabouts and a sadly, darkly beautiful woman.

They are a band from Egypt, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra. Their leader, a severe man with a perpetually dour expression, crosses the street and asks the woman for directions to the Arab Cultural Center. She looks at him as if he stepped off a flying saucer. “Here there is no Arab culture,” she says. “Also, no Israeli culture. Here there is no culture at all.”

They are in the middle of the Israeli desert, having taken the wrong bus to the wrong destination. Another bus will not come until tomorrow. “ The Band ’s Visit” begins with this premise, which could supply the makings of a comedy, and turns into a quiet, sympathetic film about the loneliness that surrounds us. Oh, and there is some comedy, after all.

The town they have arrived at is lacking in interest even for those who live there. It is seemingly without activity. The bandleader, named Tewfiq ( Sasson Gabai ), asks if there is a hotel. The woman, Dina ( Ronit Elkabetz ), is amused. No hotel.

They communicate in careful, correct English; she more fluent, he weighing every word. Tewfiq explains their dilemma.

They are to play a concert tomorrow at the opening of a new Arab cultural center in a place has that almost, but not quite, the same name as the place they are in.

Tewfiq starts out to lead a march down the highway in the correct direction. There is some dissent, especially from the tall young troublemaker Haled ( Saleh Bakri ). He complains that they have not eaten. After some awkward negotiations (they have little Israeli currency), the Egyptians are served soup and bread in Dina’s cafe. It is strange, how the static, barren, lifeless nature of the town seeps into the picture, even though the writer-director Eran Kolirin uses no establishing shots or any effort at all to show us anything beyond the cafe — and later, Dina’s apartment and an almost empty restaurant.

Dina offers to put up Tewfiq and Haled at her apartment, and tells the young layabouts (who seem permanently anchored to their chairs outside her cafe) that they must take the others home to their families. And then begins a long, quiet night of guarded revelations, shared isolation and tentative tenderness. Dina is tough but not invulnerable. Life has given her little that she hoped for. Tewfiq is a man with an invisible psychic weight on his shoulders. Haled, under everything, is an awkward kid. They go for a snack at the restaurant, its barren tables reaching away under bright lights, and Dina points out a man who comes in with his family. A sometime lover of hers, she tells Tewfiq. Even adultery seems weary here.

When the three end up back at Dina’s apartment, where she offers them wine, the evening settles down into resignation. It is clear that Dina feels tender toward Tewfiq, that she can see through his timid reserve to the good soul inside. But there is no movement. Later, when he makes a personal revelation, it is essentially an apology. The movie avoids what we might expect, a meeting of the minds, and gives us instead a sharing of quiet desperation.

As Dina and Twefiq, Ronit Elkabetz and Sasson Gabai bring great fondness and amusement to their characters. She is pushing middle age, he is being pushed by it. It is impossible for this night to lead to anything in their future lives. But it could lead to a night to remember.

Gabai plays the bandleader as so repressed or shy or wounded that he seems closed inside himself. As we watch Elkabetz putting on a new dress for the evening and inspecting herself in the mirror, we see not vanity but hope. Throughout the evening, we note her assertion, her confidence, her easily assumed air of independence. Yet when she gazes into the man’s eyes, she sighs with regret and mentions that as a girl she loved the Omar Sharif movies that played daily on Israeli TV, but play no more.

There are some amusing interludes. A band member plays the first few notes of a sonata he has not finished (after years). A bandmate calls him Schubert. A local man keeps solitary vigil by a pay phone, waiting for a call from the girl he loves. He has an insistent way of showing his impatience when another uses the phone.

In the morning, the band reassembles and leaves. “The Band’s Visit” has not provided any of the narrative payoffs we might have expected, but has provided something more valuable: An interlude involving two “enemies,” Arabs and Israelis, that shows them both as only ordinary people with ordinary hopes, lives and disappointments. It has also shown us two souls with rare beauty.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

The Band’s Visit

• Saleh Bakri as Haled
• Sasson Gabai as Tewfiq
• Mad Jabarin as Camal
• Khalifa Natour as Simon
• Ronit Elkabetz as Dina

Written and directed by

• Eran Kolirin

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Broadway Review: ‘The Band’s Visit’

Seamless transfer of this heart-warming musical brings Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk together in a drowsy Israeli village in the middle of the desert.

By Marilyn Stasio

Marilyn Stasio

Theater Critic

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The set’s a bit grander and the music sounds richer, but success hasn’t spoiled this embraceable musical fable about the surprising friendships that bloom in the middle of a political desert. In this Broadway transfer of an Off Broadway hit , human error sends an Egyptian military band to a depressed Israeli outpost in a desert wasteland — and human connections bring Arabs and Israelis together on common ground.

Tony Shalhoub remains steadfast as lovable Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria, the modest commander of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra. The band was headed for the Arab Cultural Center in sophisticated Petah Tikvah, but was misdirected to Bet Hatikvah, a bleak little village in the middle of nowhere. Katrina Lenk is even more earth-shaking as Dina, the beautiful and incredibly vital café owner who is wasting away in Bet Hatikvah but comes alive when the band unexpectedly arrives in her little ghost town.

Broadway theatergoers looking for something off-the-beaten-musical-track should be charmed by this unassuming show, written by Itamar Moses (book) and David Yazbek (music & lyrics) and tenderly directed by David Cromer . But this disarming musical has the emotional depth that holds up to repeated viewings and the offbeat charm that could make it a cult hit.

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“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.”  That unassuming statement, projected on the back wall of Scott Pask’s plain and simple (and amusing) set, is enough to grab the most jaded audience.

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Actually, the visit turned out to be very important, on a universally human level. But not at first glance, when Tewfiq turns up at a bus station in Israel with his little band of musicians. The show’s musicians are onstage, trying to look like villagers, but members of that extraordinary band are occasionally called upon to pick up instruments of their own — and in some cases, play them very well.

Although the band is smartly outfitted in costumer Sarah Laux’s baby-blue ersatz-military uniforms, their government funding is in peril, and they absolutely must not screw up their assignment to perform at the initiation ceremony of the Arab Culture Center in Peta Tikva. The political and cultural significance of this mission weighs heavily on the fanatically steadfast Tewfiq, who stands ramrod straight (but is dying inside) in Shalhoub’s painfully honest performance.

Like other obsessive characters he has played, most notably Adrian Monk, the beloved OCD-wracked detective he inhabited for seven years on TV, Tewfiq transcends conventional character comedy. In Shalhoub’s hands, he is simultaneously funny and sad and a little bit crazy, and you absolutely have to love him.  When disaster strikes, Tewfiq stiffens his spine and stands straighter. And strike it does when the musicians are misdirected at the bus station. Instead of sophisticated Petah Tikvah, they find themselves in Bet Hatikvah, a dreary town in the middle of the desert.

Thanks to the revolving set and some quicksilver lighting changes by Tyler Micoleau, we can take in the whole town at a glance.  In “Waiting,” the first of the many nuanced (vaguely Arabic, vaguely Israeli, altogether enchanting) musical numbers in Yazbek’s wonderful score, the depressed residents are quick to tell the band what their uneventful life is like.  And in “Welcome to Nowhere,” Dina is joined by other disheartened residents to express their sense of isolation and their hopeless yearning for some kind of human connection.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do until the first bus arrives in the morning, the Egyptians are warily taken in by the Israelis, who reluctantly feed them, house them, and in one scene that is simply out of this world, entertain them at the circa 1970s roller rink.

Although no one exchanges a word about incendiary Arab-Israeli political matters, visitors and hosts slowly begin to acknowledge their common humanity. In “Haled’s Song About Love” (sung with romantic intensity by Ari’el Stachel), the tall, handsome ladies’ man in the band takes pity on a bashful young man (Etai Benson) and shows him how to woo a girl.

There’s nothing big or grand here. Connections are made on little things, everyday things, common things we all share. The transcendent moment of the show comes when the so-called Telephone Guy (the fantastic Adam Kantor) makes one final, desperate effort to reach someone on that infuriatingly silent telephone.  “Can you answer me?” he begs. And the entire ensemble does exactly that.

Broadway Review: ‘The Band’s Visit’ Ethel Barrymore Theater; 1,046 seats; $169 top. Opened Nov. 9, 2017. Reviewed Nov. 4. Running time: ONE HOUR, 35 MIN.

Production A presentation by Orin Wolf, StylesFour Productions, Evamere Entertainment, Atlantic Theater Company, David F. Schwartz, Barbara Broccoli, Frederick Zollo, Grove*Reg, Lassen Blume Baldwin, Thomas Steven Perakos, Marc Platt, The Shubert Organization, The Baruch / Routh / Frankel / Viertel Group, Robert Cole, Deroy-Carr-Klausner, Federman-Moellenberg, Roy Furman, FVSL Theatricals, Hendel-Karmazin, Horipro, IPN, Jam Theatricals, The John Gore Organization, Koenigsberg-Krauss, David Mirvish, James L. Nederlander, Al Nocciolino, Once Upon a Time Productions, Susan Rose, Paul Shiverick, and Executive Producer Allan Williams of a musical, originally presented by the Atlantic Theater Company, in one act with book by Itamar Moses, based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin, and with music & lyrics by David Yazbek.

Creative Directed by David Cromer. Choreography by Patrick McCollum. Music director & additional arrangements by Andrea Grody. Orchestrations, Jamshied Sharifi. Sets, Scott Pask; costumes, Sarah Laux, lighting, Tyler Micoleau; sound, Kai Harada; projections, Maya Ciarrocchi, hair & wigs, Charles G. LaPointe; production stage manager, Richard Hodge

Cast Tony Shalhoub, Katrina Lenk, John Cariani, Ari’el Sachel, Andrew Polk, Etai Benson, George Abud, Adam Kantor, Bill Army, Rachel Prather, Jonathan Raviv, Sharone Sayegh, Kristen Sieh, Alok Tewari, Ossama Farouk, Sam Sadigursky, Harvey Valdes, Garo Yellin.

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Review: ‘The Band’s Visit’ brings its musical poetry to Dolby Theatre

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A musical doesn’t have to make a lot of noise to dazzle. “The Band’s Visit,” the exquisitely delicate Tony-winning show now receiving its Los Angeles premiere at Dolby Theatre, treads lightly across the stage in a hush of magic.

Based on Israeli writer-director Eran Kolirin’s screenplay for his 2007 film of the same title, “The Band’s Visit” follows a group of Egyptian musicians who are stranded overnight in a sleepy desert town in Israel. Strangers in a suspicious land, they don’t expect to be welcomed. But instead of enmity, they find hospitality — their differences bridged first by courtesy, and later, as they get to know each other better, a somber-hued humanity.

Composer and lyricist David Yazbek infuses Itamar Moses ’ book with lyrical poetry. Discreetly flecked rather than dolloped, music provides a vehicle of shared expression for grief, longing and hope — a universal language that recognizes no borders.

The state-of-the-art Dolby, where the production runs through Dec. 19, is an ideal venue for a show that relies on quiet clarity. The theatergoing experience is refreshingly unharried. Spacious enough to comfortably accommodate a crowd, the Dolby manages through the crispness of its sound system and the sharpness of its lighting to feel intimate even at a distance.

And intimacy is essential for “The Band’s Visit,” a musical that moves lightly yet deeply into Chekhovian territory. The tone is playful, almost casual. But some essential truth about life is captured in the insouciant flow.

The scene is drolly set in a few sentences projected onto the stage at the start of the show: “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.”

Insignificance, however, marks the majority of our days. And what doesn’t make headlines turns out to matter a great deal.

The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, which was invited to perform at an Arab cultural center in Petah Tikva, is blown off course by a pronunciation error. The band winds up in Bet Hatikva, a fictional backwater that its own residents dismiss as “boring,” “barren” and “bland” in the wry number “Welcome to Nowhere.”

Dina (Janet Dacal), the owner of a café, greets this troupe of men with brusque bemusement. Tewfiq (Sasson Gabay, reprising the role he played in the film), the commander of the orchestra, asks with impeccable manners whether he and his musicians may dine at her establishment. With a businesswoman’s shrug, she consents.

Formality is out of place in Bet Hatikva. “Pick a sandhill of your choosing,” jokes Papi (Coby Getzug), one of the friendlier locals. But Dina is drawn to Tewfiq’s gravity and thinks he looks cute in his powder-blue Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band suit. She offers to find sleeping accommodations for the musicians after breaking the news that there are no more buses today.

The town is reluctant to open its doors, but Dina proves to be as formidable a commander as Tewfiq. She divides the men up, taking Tewfiq and Haled (Joe Joseph), a young romantic trumpet player obsessed with Chet Baker, to her place.

Haled has reason to be nervous. It was his innocent miscommunication that landed the band on the wrong bus. Tewfiq has made his impatience with dreamy-headed Haled loudly known. Haled, however, is like a puppy unable to stop chasing after fun even after getting whacked with a newspaper.

As in a Chekhov play, a busy plot isn’t needed for revelations to emerge. “The Band’s Visit” relies on the alchemy of unexpected encounters. Dina and Tewfiq, ships in the night that aren’t supposed to be in the same waters, discover a shared love of old Egyptian movies, which Dina sings about in a lovely ode appropriately called “Omar Sharif.”

The characters catch glimpses of one another’s souls. Music leads the way by lifting the banal exchanges into a sudden sublime. In one of the most moving instances of this elevation, Simon (James Rana), a clarinetist and aspiring conductor who’s staying with a husband and wife (played by Clay Singer and Kendal Hartse) in the throes of marital problems, soothes their crying baby with some strains from his instrument.

Peace breaks out in this tempestuous household, and suddenly all of the built-up resentments don’t seem all that important. Simon hasn’t been able to finish the concerto he started writing long ago, but his art has done its job of easing the daily suffering.

The unspoken hangs between Dacal’s Dina and Gabay’s Tewfiq as they share a drink in the evening air. An affectionate melancholy fills the gaps in what they have time to say.

Joseph’s Haled radiates a sensual enjoyment, made all the most precious by his awareness that his days of youthful freedom are drawing to a close. The eclectic blend of musical styles — traditional Arab, klezmer and jazz, among them — enhances the cast’s subtle emotional chemistry.

David Cromer’s fluidly directed production glides from the café to domestic settings to a roller disco, all the while keeping tabs on a phone booth, where a forlorn-looking guy (Joshua Grosso) waits eternally for a call from his girlfriend that never seems to come.

The scenic design by Scott Pask has the same jaunty quality as the show itself. The settings are sketched with a simplicity that is more like a diagram than a photograph. Yet the moonlit atmosphere lends this elsewhere a haunting individuality.

At a time when everyone seems to be so angry, conflicts appear to be irresolvable and communion no longer within reach, “The Band’s Visit” is like balm for a tired spirit. The musical touched me deeply when I saw it on Broadway in 2017, but after such a long period away from the theater, I found the show even more profoundly affecting.

Operating on a subtler-than-usual Broadway frequency, Yazbek and Moses’ musical drama invites us to transcend our rifts. I didn’t realize how badly I needed “The Band’s Visit,” but this gift of a show has arrived in just the nick of time.

'The Band's Visit'

Where: Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 19 Tickets: Start at $30 (subject to change) Contact: 1-800-982-2787 or BroadwayInHollywood.com or Ticketmaster.com Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes Also Segerstrom Center for the Arts March 22-April 3 at scfta.org

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Charles McNulty is the theater critic of the Los Angeles Times. He received his doctorate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama.

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Movie Review | 'The Band’s Visit'

Strangers in a Land That’s Not So Strange

By Manohla Dargis

• Dec. 7, 2007

Stranded in the Israeli desert, the eight Egyptian members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra look a bit like a joke in search of a punch line. If “The Band’s Visit” were any other kind of film — a little more pat, say, and rather less knowing — these eight souls might quickly transform into mere props in a small-scale sermon about Middle East man’s humanity to Middle East man, minus the politics of course.

“The Band’s Visit,” the first feature by the Israeli writer and director Eran Kolirin, flirts recklessly with obviousness, cuteness too. This sweet-and-sour comedy opens with the band, which has traveled to Israel to perform at an Arab cultural center, arriving at an airport without a welcoming committee. Dressed in nearly identical uniforms and smart caps, their nut-brown skin working a vivid, chromatic contrast with the robin’s-egg blue of their costumes, the men enter the film in silence, immobilized by professional reserve or perhaps just bewilderment. For the orchestra’s unsmiling leader, Tewfiq — the magnificently sober Sasson Gabai — the initial lack of a welcome will prove to be only the first bump on an increasingly rough and rutted road.

A few phone calls and one bus ride later, the band has arrived in an Israeli town, the wrong Israeli town, having successfully journeyed from forgotten to mislaid. There, amid the dust and the wind, the Egyptians meet a handful of curious (and agonizingly bored) Israelis who, with degrees of easy and grudging hospitality, offer them shelter, food, distraction, engagement, a few nips of booze, some shaky turns around a roller-skating rink and curious, fleeting companionship. Amid the awkward conversations (spoken in lightly halting and fluid English), the even more uncomfortable silences, bits of music and some nicely executed physical comedy, the Egyptians and the Israelis circle one another warily. Love doesn’t exactly bloom in this desert, but a sense of unarticulated longing does.

There’s something gently comical about the contrast between the Egyptians’ gravely masculine faces and the prettiness of those blue costumes, especially when they’re lined up like French schoolgirls (or ducklings). Mr. Kolirin wrings even more visual humor from this contrast by placing the men in the center of the image and ensuring that they don’t move for several beats, which locates them in spatial and existential isolation. It’s a facile, familiar movie trick, and Mr. Kolirin comes close to wearing it out before the band even leaves the airport, largely because massing the men in this fashion threatens to diminish their individuality. But it’s a clever stratagem too, because the comedy eases you into the story and obscures the currents of seriousness swirling under the film’s surface.

Mr. Kolirin, it emerges, is wrenching comedy out of intense melancholia. Much of that melancholy involves Tewfiq; the band’s roguish violinist, Haled (Saleh Bakri, smooth as glass); and an Israeli restaurant owner, Dina (the great Ronit Elkabetz), a brusque, untamed beauty who offers the two shelter. (The other band members bed down elsewhere.) Over the course of a long, peripatetic evening, these three will unite and separate, fumble and parry. Finally they will reunite in Dina’s apartment, where, as they sit wearily around a table, Mr. Kolirin will cut from one face to the next in tight close-up. Despite their tentative, sometimes tender exchanges, the three remain essentially alone, an isolation underscored by the shallow depth of field that leaves only their faces in poignant focus.

The terminal loneliness that haunts this scene may be universal, but Mr. Kolirin also seems to be saying that a specific loneliness haunts Israel as well. At one point Dina blurts out to Tewfiq that she and her family used to love watching Egyptian movies on television. The streets of Israel, she says, her voice swelling, were empty because everyone else was watching too. But that was then, and now Dina and the rest of these Israeli townspeople sit in this seemingly barren land with its pregnant silences and wait. Surrounded by desert, a few longingly invoke the sea, summoning a desire, but for what? Mr. Kolirin, I think, suggests that this longing is for something the poet Marcia Falk calls the “Eternal wellspring of peace.”

“The Band’s Visit” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Some adult language.

THE BAND’S VISIT

Opens today in New York and Los Angeles.

Written (in Arabic, English and Hebrew, with English subtitles) and directed by Eran Kolirin; director of photography, Shai Goldman; edited by Arik Lahav Leibovitz; music by Habib Shehadeh Hanna; production designer, Eitan Levi; produced by Eilon Ratzkovsky, Ehud Bleiberg, Yossi Uzrad, Koby Gal-Raday and Guy Jacoel; released by Sony Pictures Classics. In Manhattan at the Lincoln Plaza, Broadway at 62nd Street. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes.

WITH: Sasson Gabai (Tewfiq), Ronit Elkabetz (Dina), Saleh Bakri (Haled), Khalifa Natour (Simon), Imad Jabarin (Camal) and Tarak Kopty (Iman).

A film review in Weekend last Friday about “The Band’s Visit,” using information provided by the film’s public relations firm, referred incorrectly to the actor Sasson Gabai, who plays the band’s leader. He is an Israeli Jew, not an Israeli Arab.

How we handle corrections

Review Roundup: THE BAND'S VISIT National Tour Takes the Stage; What Did the Critics Think?

The tour returned to the stage at the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, NC.

LATEST NEWS

The North American tour of the 10-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical THE BAND'S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony and Drama Desk Award®-winner David Yazbek , has hit the road! The tour returned to the stage at the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, NC.

Award-winning Israeli film actor Sasson Gabay reprises the role of Tewfiq, the role he created in the 2007 film of THE BAND'S VISIT and has played on Broadway and in more than 17 cities on the First National Tour. Joining him to lead the company is the critically acclaimed actress Janet Dacal (Prince of Broadway, Wonderland, In The Heights) in the role of Dina.

Let's see what the critics are saying...

Durham Performing Arts Center - Durham, NC

Nicole Ackman, BroadwayWorld : Gabay is an accomplished Israeli actor who also played the role of Tewfiq in the film that the musical is based on. It's very exciting to get to see him bring the role to life again onstage. Dacal brings a sultry and confident air to Dina that is perfect for her character. Another standout of the cast is Joshua Grosso as the Telephone Guy, who guards the telephone waiting for his faraway girlfriend to call and has a beautiful voice in his song, "Answer Me."

Garrett Southerland, Talkin' Broadway : Gabay created the role of Tewfiq in the original film, and he played the role on Broadway after Tony Shalhoub (who originated the role there) left. Bookwriter Itamar Moses limits our understanding of Tewfiq until near the end of the show, and by then the audience has barely a chance to empathize with him. This is the case with many of the characters in fact-all but cafe-owner Dina (portrayed sternly by Janet Dacal ), who clearly is the focus of development. The musical runs about 80 minutes without an intermission, and it feels as though there was room to develop the other characters more. Ms. Dacal's performance is credible though lacking some passionate resonance. All of that said, The Band's Visit pushes back against common American stereotypes of Middle Easterners with authentic and positive representation.

Civic Center Of Greater Des Moines - Des Moines, IA

DC Felton, BroadwayWorld :

The cast of "The Band's Visit" is mesmerizing. They drew the audience in from the top of the show, no matter what size of a role their character had in the show. Leading the show in the role of Sasson Gabay as Tewfiq, the role he originated in the movie "The Band's Visit" and then later joined the Broadway cast as a replacement for Tewfiq. I appreciated the nuances he brought to the character, which influenced how he interacted with each cast member. As he revealed more about his character to the audience, what drove his relationships with each actor onstage became very clear.

Tennessee Performing Arts Center - Nashville, TN

Jeffrey Ellis , BroadwayWorld : The musicians and their conductor, Tewfiq ( Sasson Gabay warmly recreates onstage the role he first played in the film version that inspired the musical) arrive in the village of Bet Hatikva as the result of miscommunication when Haled's (the band's trumpet player brought to vivid life by Joe Joseph ) Egyptian accent doesn't sound quite like "Petah Tikva," their destination. With no other bus available until the following morning, the musicians find refuge with townspeople eager for something different to happen in their lives. The resulting confluence of cultures and personalities might, at first blush, seem rather predictable and somewhat mundane, but as the disparate figures get to know one another, something far more consequential transpires and the Egyptians find common ground and friendship with their Israeli hosts, buffeted by a shared sense of loneliness and melancholy that somehow proves hopeful and redemptive.

Amy Stumpfl, Nashville Scene : Still, there are some really gorgeous performances here, and it's exciting to see Sasson Gabay reprising the role of Tewfiq (the part he originated in the original film and later took on as a replacement on Broadway). Janet Dacal also puts her own stamp on the pivotal role of Dina, drawing us in with numbers like " Omar Sharif " and "Something Different." But some of the evening's most memorable bits come from the supporting cast - including Joe Joseph , who delivers a dreamy rendition of "Haled's Song About Love," and Clay Singer , who infuses "Itzik's Lullaby" with aching honesty. "The Beat of Your Heart" provides yet another highlight, featuring the wonderful David Studwell as Avrum, an Israeli widower who bonds with his Egyptian guest over memories of music and youthful romance.

Shea's Performing Arts Center - Buffalo, NY

Michael Rabice, BroadwayWorld : Janet Dacal is mesmerizing as Dina. Physically beautiful, with a deadpan dry delivery, Dacal inhabits this fascinating character with elegance. Given Dina's background as a dance, Dacal's every movement is choreographed with subtlety. She houses the orchestra leader Tewfiq and trumpeter Haled for the night and becomes captivated by Tewfiq, played brilliantly by Sasson Gabay . Mr. Gabay has the distinction of playing the same role in the movie version, upon which the musical is based. He is a self confident man who hides his emotions and leads with authority.

Melinda Miller, Buffalo News : "The Band's Visit" doesn't have that "big" moment. This story exists in a place where it's the small moments that count. On this night in a small town in Israel, humanity breaks out between Arabs and Jews. And, in the morning, the bus to Petah Tikva arrives.

Peter Hall, Buffalo Rising : The stage is very clever, using those rotating concentric circles that we've seen before in HAMILTON. For me it isn't a musical without a counterpoint duet and here we get the Israeli Itzik singing a lullaby with the Egyptian Camal singing in Arabic. Very cool. And I only feel I've gotten my money's worth at a musical when I get choked up. It always happens during Act II of CAROUSEL, it happens during "Paul's Story" in A CHORUS LINE, and now here, in a brief moment late at night in Dina's apartment, it happens again.

Ann Marie Cusella, Welcome 716 : The Middle Eastern music is one of the stars of the show. It is spectacular. From the rousing Overture at the start and Concert at the end, we are treated to such beautiful music that our spirits take wing and we are transported to a place that is sweet and spicy, filled with love and longing. Chet Baker shows up, too, as does George Gershwin. Hmmm.

Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts - Hartford, CT

Christopher Arnott, The Hartford Courant : This is a special show, one that is not only calm and contemplative but laid back and aggressively humble. David Yazbek creates some lovely emotional songs about loss, delayed dreams and, yes, endless waiting. But he also is happy to bring other composer's melodies onto his turf. There's an amusing Israeli/Egyptian singalong to the Gershwins' "Summertime" from "Porgy & Bess." Boney M.'s over the top disco version of Bobby Hebb's soul/pop classic "Sunny" soundtracks a roller disco scene.

Nancy Sasso Janis, Patch : Janet Dacal (who was part of the original Broadway cast of "In the Heights" and "Prince of Broadway") is wonderful in the leading role of Dina, a restaurant owner in this small Israeli town. Israeli actor Sasson Gabay is very strong in the role of the band leader Tewfiq, the role he played in the film version of "The Band's Visit." Joe Joseph, who appeared on Broadway in "The Band's Visit," is charming and handsome in the role of band member Haled and Clay Singer, who has appeared onstage at the Westport Country Playhouse, plays the role of the young father Itzik.

Mark G. Auerbach, The Westfield News : David Cromer's staging brings out the many wonderful nuances of "The Band's Visit," and the sets, costumes, lighting and sound are as polished as one might have experienced seeing the show on Broadway. Janet Dacal (who was fantastic in Goodspeed's "Bye Bye Birdie") and Sasson Gabay, an Israeli actor who starred in the original film, are terrific.

Bonnie Goldberg, The Middletown Press : One wrong turn, one misunderstood direction, the lack of a map or GPS and one can find oneself stuck in the middle of nowhere. That is the fate of a band of musicians traveling from Egypt on their way to perform a concert in Petah Tikvah in Israel. Through mistakes and poor language skills, they end up in the forsaken town of Bet Hatikva, unexpected and uninvited.

Jarice Hanson, In The Spotlight : "The Band's Visit" is what we need after the prolonged pandemic has beaten so many of us down. It is simple, honest, and transformative. On opening night, the sound quality in the auditorium at the Bushnell (often problematic) made it difficult to understand every word spoken by the heavily accented actors, but the message was clear, and "The Band's Visit" is an encouraging reminder that simplicity can be a good thing, and finding a way to communicate with others, lifts our hearts.

Dolby Theatre - Hollywood, CA

Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times : At a time when everyone seems to be so angry, conflicts appear to be irresolvable and communion no longer within reach, "The Band's Visit" is like balm for a tired spirit. The musical touched me deeply when I saw it on Broadway in 2017, but after such a long period away from the theater, I found the show even more profoundly affecting.

Cary Ginell, BroadwayWorld : If the very human story depicted in The Band's Visit can be seen as a painting, the on-stage orchestra serves as the palette of colors with which it is painted. The music played by the members of the on-stage seven-piece band, which includes conventional orchestral instruments like clarinet, cello, and violin, combined with Arabic instruments like the twelve-string oud, and the crisp percussion of the bongo-like darbouka, float in and out of every scene, either appearing on the periphery to accent dialog or featured in between-scene interludes. Even the band's powder-blue uniforms, which one villager likens to the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" outfits, brighten up the drab desert hamlet.

Deborah Howell, The Wave : The cast is led by Sasson Gabay as the band's conductor, Tewfiq, reprising the role he played in the 2007 movie "The Band's Visit" and the role he inherited from Tony Shaloub on Broadway. He's a delight as he riffs with L.A.'s own Janet Dacal (Dina) the café owner who against all odds invites the band to stay for dinner and then to stay the night at the homes of various friends.

Imaan Jalali, LA Excites : Janet Dacal is mesmerizing as Dina, who, despite being frazzled by the travails and regrets in her life, sees a reawakening upon finding serendipitous common ground between herself and Gabay's Tewfiq. This is never more evident than during "Omar Sharif" and "Something Different," thanks to Dacal's breathtaking voice which soars with joyful expectation out of the dreariness that envelops her. More importantly, the bonding of Dina and Tewfiq highlights a lovely vulnerability, humanity, and co-existence that should always, but sadly doesn't, epitomize relationships in the strife-ridden Middle East.

Victor Riobo, Indulge Magazine : The Band's Visit has none of the splashy musical and dance numbers that seem to define its genre, but neither does it need them; the sublime story, message, and heart are far more captivating than the typical bells and whistles of most musicals. Scenic Design by Scott Pask is appropriately minimal and effective, never distracting from the performances. The cast is in top form, and even fans of the movie will have a tough time picking which version they love more. Joe Joseph (Loveless Texas, Baghdaddy) as Haled, the Chet Baker crooning band member brings comedy and cassanova swagger, seducing us with one of the evening's most exquisite numbers - the jazzy, Haled's Song About Love.

Keller Auditorium - Portland, OR

Krista Garver, BroadwayWorld : The ensemble, led by Janet Dacal as Dina and Loren Lester (the standby for Tewfiq who went on the night I went), is excellent. There's a lot of white space in the show - silent moments where communication happens via glances and facial expressions. I can see it being tempting to clobber these moments - we're not so used to silence, especially in a space as big as the Keller. But the cast resists that temptation, giving the words room to breathe and also heightening the impact when the music and emotions soar.

Golden Gate Theatre - San Francisco, CA

Lily Janiak, Datebook : The show, directed by David Cromer, believes in the force of a lonesome melody - how a humble air on the clarinet can lull a squalling infant and soften its squabbling parents, how a remembered strain can summon a lost partner and suggest a yearning, however inchoate, for something new. It believes that no matter how small we seem, arias burn inside us.

Steve Murray, BroadwayWorld : The show needs to be in a more intimate theatre setting a some of the gentle subtleties can be lost in a cavernous space. The musicianship is superb and a joy for the ear. Tony Award-winner Scott Pask 's set designs convey the drabness of the desert town and Tony Award-winner Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Design) and Tony Award-winner Kai Harada (Sound Design) add to the atmosphere and musical setting.

Karen D'Souza, Mercury News : While the leads in this touring production may not have the same explosive chemistry that Tony Shaloub and Katrina Lenk had on Broadway, the romance of the musical retains its incandescent glow. Dacal enchants in the "Omar Sharif" number and Gabay, reprising the role he played in the 2007 movie, touches your heart with his keenly developed sense of honor.

ASU Gammage - Tempe, AZ

Herbert Paine, BroadwayWorld : If you've seen the film, you may recall feeling that some of the characters were drawn a little too broadly, yet here, on stage, without any significant changes, they come across as perfectly natural. So, too, does the humor. Reactions a character makes to something spoken are often expressed with a slow, silent burn. For some used to a broader, more direct, play-to-the-back-of-the-house style of comedy, patience is required, but it's this very tender, leisurely paced, understated style not usually experienced in a live performance, that makes THE BAND'S VISIT such a genuine delight.

Civic Theatre - San Diego, CA

E.H. Reiter, BroadwayWorld : Dacal's Dina is lonely, direct, and dreams of leaving the town, even though she knows she never will. She is as changeable as the wind, one minute being warm and welcoming to being cold and confrontational. Gabay's Tewfiq is formal, stiff with both the responsibility as leader of this band and as someone who is haunted by the ghosts of his past.

Pam Kragen, The San Diego Union-Tribune : Sasson Gabay - the same actor who played the orchestra's widowed conductor, Tewfiq, in the film - reprises his role on tour. Now 74, Gabay is exactly the same as the reserved and wounded but lovable character, though he sings less in the musical than he did in the film. Janet Dacal stars as Dina, the frank, uninhibited and bitter Bet Hativkah café owner who falls ever-so-slightly for Tewfiq. Dacal has a gorgeous singing voice and a commanding stage presence.

Pat Launer, Times of San Diego : At the center of the (minimal) action is the orchestra conductor, the widowed Tewfiq (a wonderfully still, controlled Sasson Gabay, who originated the role in the film, winning the Best European Actor Award); and his meeting and coming-together with the sensual, aching but cynical divorcée, Dina (Janet Dacal, a Cuban-American whose Israeli accent often sounds less than credible, though her singing is superb).

Paramount Theatre - Seattle, WA

Jay Irwin, BroadwayWorld : The show is certainly not your typical, rollicking musical. You may not leave the theater dancing or humming your favorite tune (although you may since I find many of the tunes incredibly infectious). But thanks to the gorgeous music of David Yazbek and soul invading book from Itamar Moses as well as the deliberately paced direction of David Cromer , you will leave with a renewed faith in the humanity across all cultures, something we desperately need to remember these days. But it is a slow pace, with many pauses due to the broken English dialog, so allow yourself to sit back and let the jasmine wind sweep over you.

Eccles Theatre - Salt Lake City, UT

Tyler Hinton, BroadwayWorld : The ensemble cast, compellingly directed by David Cromer , is world-class with highly nuanced, screen-worthy performances. These include Janet Dacal as Dina, who played memorable roles in the original Broadway casts of IN THE HEIGHTS (Carla) and WONDERLAND (Alice), and Sasson Gabay as Tewfiq, who interestingly originated the same role in the film.

Ryan Painter, KUTV : Janet Dacal's performance as Dina, the café owner, is a scene stealer. And yes, she's written that way, but that makes Dacal's performance more impressive. The spotlight is on her and she knows exactly what to do with it. It's lovely to have the opportunity to see Sasson Gabay as Tewfiq, he played the character in the original film and the touring production in 2019. They're the heart of the story and there's something tender and tragic to be found in their meeting.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts - Costa Mesa, CA

Michael Quintos, BroadwayWorld : Deceitfully charming despite feeling mostly like a musical where no real obstacles or evils take place or where "nothing" really happens, A LOT does happen in THE BAND'S VISIT, if you peer between the lines and get lost in its hypnotic machinations. There is a quiet beauty at work here, from the simple but lovely musical interludes that transition from scenes and locales to the aching vocal delivery of its characters. The musical posits that even the most seemingly insignificant events in our lives make a lasting effect in our way of thinking or behaving.

Christopher Smith, Orange County Register : A fear I had coming into this evening was how well the jewel that is "The Band's Visit" might shine in a bigger venue like Segerstrom Hall. But at early points in the story's telling - with less music and pauses in the pacing of dialogue to establish the work's muted themes of longing and hope - I was relieved that the audience didn't resort to coughing and throat-clearing to break up the silence, always a tell-tale sign of a disengaged crowd.

Cori Graham, SoCal Thrills : The combination of a rotating stage and musical transitions played by on-stage band members made for a dynamic staging and captivating imagery. My eyes were drawn all over the stage despite the simple (yet effective) set pieces and minimal cast. I was blessed to see Sasson Gabay reprise his role as Tewfiq from his award-winning performance in the 2007 film The Band's Visit . Janet Dacal is an absolute treasure as Dina; with insane comedic timing and warm vocals, she was truly a standout that led me to YouTube when I got home just to hear her sing "Omar Sharif" again.

Lied Center - Lincoln, NE

Analisa Swerczek, BroadwayWorld : Janet Dacal gives a memorable and admirable performance as Dina, a role originated by Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk . While Dacal's vocals are strong, there was a stark contrast between the full resonance of her speaking voice and her higher mask-forward vocals when singing that was a bit jarring at times. Her Dina was grounded and made the audience feel as though she served as the backbone of the town. Her rendition of Omar Sharif was simply stunning, and the dry humor she presented through her line delivery was wonderfully charming.

Orpheum Theatre - Memphis, TN

AniKatrina Fageol, BroadwayWorld : Janet Dacal 's Dina steals the spotlight as soon as she enters the scene. She is drawn to the conductor of the orchestra, Tewfiq, played by Sasson Gabay . Gabay actually portrayed the same character in the film as well as the 2019 touring production. In one of my favorite songs of the show "Itgara'a", Dina takes Tewfiq to a "park" which is just a bench in the middle of Bet Hatikva. However, Dina encourages Tewfiq to use his imagination and describes the park as she sees it. Tewfiq reveals a tragic past and begins to sing. The song is in Arabic so the audience does not necessarily understand the lyrics but it is a touching moment of how music can bring people to laughter and to tears.

Straz Center - Tampa, FL

Drew Eberhard, BroadwayWorld : From top to bottom this cast exquisitely delivers this human-conditioned driven tale with sheer grace and elegance. As Dina, Janet Dacal is alluring, beguiling, and charismatic. You can sense that she is a woman of the world and yet in her heart all she knows is Bet Hatikva. Her delivery during " Omar Sharif ," and " Something Different," is exceptional. Her vocals stand out and make you take notice with every graceful note. You feel something stir in your heart every time Janet sings, and her Dina is perfection.

Rochester Broadway Theatre League - Rochester, NY

Colin Fleming-Stumpf, BroadwayWorld : While "The Band's Visit" boasts interesting characters and expected other trappings of an entertaining stage production, music is indeed the connective tissue that holds the entire story together. Everything from traditional Middle Eastern music to jazz to soothing clarinet concertos get their due, and all the music in this production is thrilling and top-notch. The musicians that occupy various spaces on stage and add flair and color throughout the story were one of my favorite aspects of the show, particularly after the curtain call when the band takes center stage for "The Concert."

Hanover Theatre - Worcester, MA

Kevin T. Baldwin, Telegram : The cast is sublime and all the performances solid, including several last-moment "swings" who hit the stage and performed flawlessly. Swings at the June 16 performance included Dana Saleh Omar as Julia, Hannah Shankman as Iris and Nick Sacks as Itzik.

Kennedy Center - Washington, DC

Pamela Roberts, BroadwayWorld : Janet Dacal as Dina powers the show with her gorgeous voice and high-energy performance. But Dacal also has touching, quieter moments like her memories of watching Omar Sharif movies on tv as a girl. Her scenes with band leader Twefiq, played by Sasson Gabay , are filled with light and humor as Dina encourages the shy and uptight conductor to loosen up and explore the small village with her. Gabay originated the role of Tewfiq in the Israeli film on which the musical was based. Gabay balances both gravitas and reserve in his portrayal of Tewfiq. Dina also plays host to Haled ( Ali Louis Bourzgui ), the smooth trumpeter who seeks to win acclaim with his Chet Baker renditions. Bourzgui brings an earnestness and ease to the role, keeping it sweet rather than slick.

Andre Hereford, Metro Weekly : David Comer's staging also beautifully fuses day-in-the-life storytelling with the naturally performative aspects of onstage musicians. Comer and choreographer Patrick McCollum dance, turn, and revolve the impassioned cast around Scott Pask's evocative sets with subtle, sometimes deadpan, precision.

Susan Brall, Maryland Theatre Guide : This is not a traditional musical with big production numbers with dozens of "gypsies" in bright costumes. The songs here are like poems sung to music. They tell their story, and then they are over-brief, wonderful interludes with just the right ingredients to fill up our senses. Like a seven-course dinner, it's on to the next, wonderful flavor.

Aronoff Center - Cincinnati, OH

Taylor Clemons, BroadwayWorld : At its core, the show is about human connection, and what we mean to one another. The characters of the musical come into each others lives by chance, and while the connection is brief, the show really shines a light on how even the smallest of interactions can bring joy or clarity into someone's life.

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‘The Band’s Visit’ review

This bittersweet, idiosyncratic musical about a lost Egyptian band gets a gorgeous UK premiere

Time Out says

The original US production of ‘The Band’s Visit’ stormed the 2018 Tony Awards and spent 18 months on Broadway. Which is pretty wild when you consider it’s a barely 90-minute musical with no interval, no dance routines, no power ballads and performed in Arabic, Hebrew and heavily accented English.

I’m sure that production was great. But it feels like the right decision to have David Yazbek and Itamar Moses’s musical effectively start from scratch in the UK, in a new production from the Donmar’s Michael Longhurst that couldn’t be in a more perfect theatre.

It’s adapted from a 2007 Israeli indie film about an Egyptian police band that arrives in Israel to play at the opening of an Arab cultural centre in the city of Petah Tikvah, but accidentally gets a bus to Bet Hatikvah , a fictional one-horse town in the middle of the desert. It has no Arabic cultural centre, or, indeed, hotel – something that becomes a problem when the band realise they’re stranded there overnight.

For a moment, it looks like ‘The Band’s Visit’ will be a sort of Middle Eastern ‘Come from Away’ – an aggressively heartwarming drama about a group of people who randomly end up in a small town and everybody grows and learns something, vom vom vom.

In fact it’s a beautiful, haunting work about loss, loneliness and the desire for human warmth. Though an ensemble production, its headed up by Alon Moni Aboutboul’s stiffly dignified old band leader Tewfiq and Miri Mesika’s restless, unfulfilled local cafe owner Dina. She takes a shine to him and much of their night is spent sat at a local restaurant, making small talk, obliquely flirting and enquiring about each other’s pasts – which they only get into tangentially, with huge revelations kept to a minimum.

The other strands to the story are similarly delicate. There’s the band member who calls the Egyptian embassy from a pay phone jealously guarded by a local lad who has been waiting a month for his girlfriend to ring. There’s Sharif Afifi’s Casanova-ish younger band member Haled, who is desperate for something to do and blithely inveigles his way onto a double date at the town’s roller rink. And there’s the stressed young married locals whose tensions are exacerbated by having clarinettist Simon (Sargon Yelda) stay with them.

All of the stories are marked by a gossamer fragility and a wilful incompleteness, a sense we’re just getting flashes. Yazbek’s songs don’t add razzle dazzle. They offer a delicate magic: exotic instrumentals, hesitant ballads and the odd, sparing bit of witty wordplay. Longhurst’s still yet fluid production feels full of the hush and intimacy of the night – the songs are little bursts of wonder, none of them blowing the roof off, all of them making the air tingle. Soutra Gilmour’s set is minimalist in the extreme, but a nifty little revolve keeps the pace up perfectly when needed. 

Much of the magic is to do with the exceptional casting (big props to casting director Anna Cooper). In an international ensemble of mostly (possibly entirely) Middle Eastern extraction, the band members all really play instruments, with many taking on substantial acting roles too. There’s something ineffably beautiful about the mournful solo trumpets or clarinets that cut through the night air; and then the percussive, rhymic roar of their final ensemble instrumental tune is pure joy, morning sun exploding over the horizon after a long night. 

It’s anchored by Israeli actors Mesika and Aboutboul: her Dina tough, charming, lost; his Tewfiq dignified, wounded, wise. They’re not big flashy roles though: everyone on stage essentially has a small part that they nail, and it feels like the sum is greater than the individual parts, a vivid snapshot of a temporary community. 

Should we make anything of the fact it’s a show about Arabs and Israelis getting on with each other? It certainly doesn’t lay it on very thick: nationality, ethnicity and religion are barely touched upon. Indeed, the wry message that bookends the show – ‘it wasn’t very important’ – is perhaps testimony to the fact the writers are wary of making a Big Statement. 

Instead it’s a romantic, inventive, deeply disarming show about how we’re all defined by the need for connection. Given it was a hit on Broadway, I’m sure it could be a hit on the West End. But I wonder how easy it would be to hold this sprawling and uniquely talented international ensemble together; and, frankly, it’s hard to see how such an intimate show could possibly have the same impact in a big, formal West End playhouse. Catch it before it slips away into the night.

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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The Band’s Visit: From Movie to Musical

The Band’s Visit has the rare honor of becoming a phenomenal success twice, first as a film and later as a musical. Both times, this beloved tale transcended its modest origins to capture the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere.  

Written and directed by Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin in his directorial film debut, The Band’s Visit movie tells the story of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra who mistakenly travel to the wrong Israeli town. Intending to go to an Arab cultural center in Petah Tikva, the sixth largest city in Israel at the time, the Orchestra ends up on a bus to the fictional town of Bet Hatikva in southern Israel’s Negev Desert. Kolirin cast several famous actors in his film, including the Baghdad-born Israeli actor Sasson Gabai, the Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz, and the Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri.  

Selected for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard (“At a Glance”) category, which highlights films made by newer directors or ones with non-traditional stories and innovative filmmaking techniques, The Band’s Visit charmed audiences at the festival, winning a Special Jury Award ( Coup de cœur du jury ). Released in Israel later that year, the film would go on to win seven Ophir Awards from the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, including Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Music. Submitted by Israel for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars, the film was disqualified because the majority of the dialogue is spoken in English, not Hebrew or Arabic.  

Although the plot is wholly original, the film’s embrace of Egyptian cinema and Middle Eastern music was influenced by experiences from Kolirin’s childhood. “ When I was a kid, my family and I used to watch Egyptian movies,” he shared in 2007. “This was a fairly common Israeli family practice, circa the early 1980’s. In the late afternoon on Fridays, we’d watch with bated breaths the convoluted plots, the impossible loves and the heart-breaking pain of Omar Sharif, Pathen Hamama, I’del Imam, and the rest of that crew on the one and only TV channel that the country had. This was kind of weird, actually, for a country that spent half of its existence in a state of war with Egypt, and the other half in a sort of cold, correct peace with its neighbor to the south. Sometimes, after the Arab movie, they’d broadcast a performance of the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s orchestra.” Established in 1948, the IBA’s Arabic Orchestra, whose members were mostly Jewish immigrants from Iraq and Egypt, made it their mission to uplift and celebrate Arabic music in Israel and beyond.  

When The Band’s Visit was screened in New York at the Other Israel Film Festival, which is dedicated to the work of both Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, it caught the eye of theatre producer Orin Wolf. “I immediately hungered to put the story onstage,” he said in a 2018 interview with Dramatics . “For me, the filmmaker Eran Kolirin made what felt like a piece of theatre about people being stuck. That’s something that always interests me theatrically: people being stuck in one place. The story dealt with language barriers, people struggling to find the right words, and it was about musicians. It felt to me like it was a natural fit for the stage.” After several conversations, Wolf convinced Kolirin to grant him the stage rights to the story. At which point the producer, who had recently found success as part of the Broadway producing team for the film-to-musical Once, pondered whether to pursue the story as a play or a musical.  

Legendary Broadway producer Hal Prince, who was mentoring Wolf, connected him with playwright Itamar Moses (whose Bach at Lepzig played at Writers Theatre in 2007 ) and composer David Yazbe c k ( The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women of the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ) in 2013. Moses, whose parents are Israeli, and Yazbek, whose mother is Jewish and father Lebanese, both connected strongly with the material and saw its potential. Moses remembered, “I felt the intimacy of the story, how much it depended on small connections between individuals, which theatre excels at. How still it was. And there was a very organic reason for there to be music in it. First, there’s this band. And second, music is one of the zones of connection between the people, a language that the characters use to communicate. I thought, ‘OK, that justifies it being a musical.’”  

The team soon added its final member, director David Cromer, who hails from Skokie and has directed at WT many times over the years, most recently with Next to Normal in 2019 . Atlantic Theatre Company in New York produced the world premiere of the musical in late 2016, where it ran for two months. Reviews and response for the Off-Broadway production were strong, with the show winning several Drama Desk and Obie Awards. Could the musical successfully transfer to Broadway and find a broader audience for its quieter tale of human connection? Would it survive in a season that also included far more familiar titles, such as the original musicals Frozen , SpongeBob SquarePants , and Mean Girls as well as splashy revivals of beloved classics My Fair Lady, Carousel and Once on This Island?  

The answer was a resounding yes. The musical opened to rave reviews in November 2017, with The New York Times calling it “a Broadway rarity seldom found these days outside of the canon of Stephen Sondheim: an honest-to-God musical for grown-ups.” The production would end up running for over a year and a half. At the 2018 Tony Awards, the show went home with ten awards, including Best Musical, Book, Score, Actor, Actress and Director, making it only the fourth musical to win the unofficial “Big Six” awards. The cast recording would also win a 2019 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album.  

Writers Theatre and TheatreSquared’s co-production of The Band’s Visit marks the musical’s regional premiere, the first original production in America since the Broadway national tour.   

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The Band's Visit

NOTE: This is a review of the Off-Broadway world premiere of The Band's Visit at the Linda Gross Theater.

The Band's Visit is a modern Middle-Eastern fairy tale of a musical. Based on the 2007 Israeli film by Eran Kolirin, the stage version has a book by Itamar Moses and music and lyrics by David Yazbak. Directed by the brilliant David Cromer, it's being presented by The Atlantic Theater Company. These days it's hard to find a quiet little spark of hope and humanity reflected at us from any direction, let alone the Middle East. So, I was delighted to find my tight muscles relaxing, and my smile growing as The Band's Visit unfolded.

The official Band of the Alexandria, Egypt Police Force has arrived at a bus station in Israel. They have been invited to perform at the opening ceremonies of the new Arab cultural center in the town of Petah Tikvah outside Tel Aviv. The six-member band in their bright blue "Michael Jackson" uniforms, led by uptight, by-the-book conductor Tewfiq (Tony Shalhoub), must now buy tickets for their final destination.

Haled (Ari'el Stachel), their trumpet player, and resident horn-dog, is charged with purchasing the tickets. Unfortunately, Haled can't stay on task when confronted with a young female, inevitably complementing her eyes and breaking into a crooning version of "My Funny Valentine." This unfortunate propensity, combined with the fact that there is no "P" sound in the Egyptian language, lands the band in the middle of the southern Negev desert at Bet Hatikva. Not in the north at Petah Tikvah.

The band gets off the bus in what they think is their final destination, in front of a little cafe. To be sure, they are a curious sight in this little Israeli desert town where there is nothing but the café and an apartment complex. And where absolutely nothing ever happens, and where the residents seem to do nothing but wait for something...anything...different to happen.

Itzik (John Cariani) and Papi (Daniel David Stewart), the café's workers who are hanging around with nothing to do, call for the owner Dina (Katrina Lenk) when Tewfiq appears and greets them. Apparently, when something different finally happens, they are dumbfounded. Remember the adage, be careful what you wish for.

ITZIK: Where are you from? TEWFIQ: We are from Egypt. ITZIK: (Wow!) Egypt! TEWFIQ: Um. Yes. DINA: And who invite you?... TEWFIQ: The Betah Tikva Cultural Department. ITZIK: Petah Tikva? Or Bet Hatikva? TEWFIQ: Betah Tikva... DINA: Do you need Petah Tikva? TEWFIQ: Yes. Betah Tikva. DINA, ITZIK (Variously.): No, not Bet Ha. Petah. Not Beh. Peh. Peh. Peh. Petah Tikva. DINA: There is not Arab Center here. TEWFIQ: No Arab Culture Center? ITZIK: No. DINA: No. Not culture, not Israeli Culture, not Arab, not culture at all.

There are many ways The Band's Visit could have gone from here. But the quiet brilliance of this fairy tale is that nobody is angry, nobody is frightened, and nobody is threatened by the appearance of someone from another tribe in their midst. Instead, funny thing, the Jews and Arabs all behave like, well...neighbors! They extend hospitality, accept it gratefully, and listen non-judgmentally to each other. They offer sympathy and understanding and generally leave each other better than they found them just by having been there.

Now don't get your undies in a twist, this is not a treacly sweet confection that will leave you with rotting teeth. No this is fine dining at its best. The creators of the meal, inspired by Eran Kolirin's original, Itamar Moses and David Yazbek, have incorporated something for every taste. A little sweet but not sappy in the relationship that develops between the suave Haled and the fumbling Papi. The shaggy, terminally shy, Papi (played with bumbling perfection by Daniel David Stewart) sings his confession that around girls "if they have breasts and they're not my mother" all he hears is the sea. The experienced Haled shows him how to melt the ice and his fears in a heart stopping song "Haled's Song About Love".

And the relationship between the hardened, sarcastic, café owner Dina and the tightly controlled, rigid Tewfiq provides the sauce with a tinge of smoky, salty bitterness with a hint of something unnamed as she shows him around town for the evening. Both Shalhoub and Lenk embody tightly controlled longing, with hints of remorse and failure that have brought them to this point. Both stunning performances, and the two best accents in the cast.

But the real star of the show is David Cromer's staging on Scott Pask's innovative set. Essentially, three concentric rings on different turntables. There aren't many set pieces, but there are no annoying scene changes. Because the set and people flow seamlessly on and off stage as the rings turn or stay still as needed. It gives a marvelous sense of continuous movement and life and we never lose interest or momentum. Bravo.

(Photo by Ahron R. Foster)

"Boredom has never sounded sexier than it does in 'The Band's Visit,' the beautiful new musical by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses." Ben Brantley for New York Times

"We leave the Atlantic Theater with our senses flush and tingling, having journeyed a long distance to discover home truths." David Cote for Time Out New York

"Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk deliver superb performances in this quietly affecting charmer." Frank Scheck for Hollywood Reporter

"It's impossible to resist the quirky appeal of 'The Band's Visit,' a modest but charming musical directed by David Cromer and featuring Tony Shalhoub. David Yazbek (music and lyrics) and Itamar Moses (book) have made magic from a slender fable about the accidental cultural exchange that takes place when an Egyptian military band finds itself stranded in an isolated Israeli town in the middle of the desert." Marilyn Stasio for Variety

External links to full reviews from popular press...

New York Times - Time Out - Hollywood Reporter - Variety

Originally published on Sep 22, 2017 00:00

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Stage and Cinema

Arts and Entertainment Reviews

Theater Review: THE BAND’S VISIT (National Tour)

by Marc Wheeler on December 7, 2021

in Theater-Los Angeles , Tours

LOST IN THE DESERT

Winner of 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical of 2018, Itamar Moses’s The Band’s Visit is one of the most highly-awarded shows in musical theater history. And yet, those expecting the razzmatazz of a Big Broadway Musical in The Band’s Visit ’s “post-shutdown” North American  Tour are likely to be at least somewhat disappointed in this understated work, even with its quirkiness and desert-breeze beauty. To its credit, the piece clamps lofty expectations from the start. “Once not long ago a group of musicians came to Israel from Egypt,” it projects onto the stage. “You probably didn’t hear about it. It wasn’t very important.” Potential sarcasm of this statement aside, any importance we do ultimately take away from this piece relies heavily upon what we project into its palpable restraint. 

You see, not much really happens in The Band’s Visit . A small orchestra from Egypt mistakenly travels to the wrong Israeli town for a performance. In kindness, the townspeople welcome them into their homes, offering them a place to crash before the morning bus sends them back on their merry way in time for their concert. That’s it. No big dance numbers. No crashing chandeliers. No revolutions. Just an unimportant day in an unimportant town, after which life returns to relative normalcy. 

Or does it? If transformation is a door, The Band’s Visit is the hinge on that door. By forcing our attention on the axis, not the wide-swinging results, it’s up to audiences to write the ever-afters. With such subtlety at work, it should come as no surprise that The Band’s Visit is inspired by a 2007 Israeli film of the same name (film being more properly suited for magnified nuance). This  is where choice of venue is imperative. Home of many Academy Award ceremonies, Hollywood’s 3,400-seat Dolby Theater is grand and majestic. It’s also a cavernous space in which to tell such a fine-spun story. While I left The Band’s Visit less moved than I had hoped, I think only a fraction of that is due to the work itself. Even without seeing the show in a more intimate venue (200 seats or less, like the original off-Broadway production), I can say with assurance that while the Dolby Theatre (alongside Scott Pask’s scenic design) may have highlighted the ever-present barrenness of the work’s desert town and its inhabitants, it also swallowed a lot of the subtlety this musical requires to thrive. 

With songs like “Waiting” and “Welcome to Nowhere,” it’s clear that existential ache is the primary language of Bet Hatikva, Israel — the fictional “Dodge” of the Middle East where the story takes place. It’s only natural that music must be their second language (how else are they going to process their existence?) This is where David Yazbek brings the work to life. Imbuing his haunting Middle Eastern score of quarter tones and minor chords with fresh, poetic lyricism, he sustains a sense of yearning throughout the show. Rare is a group number; solos and duets work in establishing a sense of isolation and loneliness. Sparingly, like in the sensual “Omar Sharif” and the gorgeous slow-build of “Answer Me,” he allows passions to swell and reveal themselves, then return ever-quickly to the slow drip of humdrum life. Having band members onstage playing background to their own story creates an almost-separate character in the work: one allowed to say the “unsaid.” Brimming with hope for what’s just out of reach, the exoticism of the music reinforces the cultural divide between geographic neighbors, even as it provides a means of connection and understanding. 

Under the direction of David Cromer, the cast plays well with this cultural tug-and-pull. Janet Dacal is fiery and passionate as Dina, the owner of a local café who welcomes band-conductor Tewfiq (a delicately reserved Sasson Gabay) into her home. In the role of Haled, the orchestra’s jazz-loving lothario, Joe Joseph is smooth as silk. And Coby Getzug as Papi, the local shyboy, is delightfully comical in his self-deprecating anthem “Papi Hears the Ocean.” 

Long after curtain, I admit I’m still haunted by The Band’s Visit . It’s a bit short for a musical, with no intermission, and it ends just when it seems to take-off — I guess they left me wanting more. But truly, I can’t seem to shake the notion that in a more intimate venue I could actually have a much richer experience with it. (Oh, the cruel irony of “rewarding” small works with giant theaters that overwhelm their delicacy.) I want to smell the sweet jasmine, taste the deep longing, and behold the slight shift from ennui into possibility. Separately, I want neighbors who aren’t repeatedly reminded to put on their masks. (Yes, returning patrons, “COVID Police” are now part of our theatergoing experience.) Oh, the many desires I’m left with after such a “band’s visit.” Is this L.A. … or Bet Hatikva?

photos by Evan Zimmerman / MurphyMade

The Band’s Visit national tour reviewed at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood tour continues for tickets, dates and cities, visit The Band’s Visit

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