The Band’s Visit won 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical. The action begins when the Alexandra Ceremonial Police Orchestra from Egypt gets on the wrong bus in Israel and ends up in a small village of Bet Hatikva instead of the city of Petah Tikv with the Egyptian Embassy where they are scheduled to perform.
The stranded musicians discover the next bus out of town doesn’t arrive until the following morning. The band’s leader, the stiff Tewfiq (played by Sasson Gaby), reluctantly accepts the offer from the beautiful cafe owner Dina (Janet Dacal) to allow his band members to stay the night with the local residents.
The key to The Band’s Visit revolves around the unusual situation of stranded Arabs interacting with isolated Israelis where they find common ground.
I had two problems with The Band’s Visit. I found it hard to decipher some of the dialogue because of the accents the actors used. My second problem centers around the music. Yes, The Band’s Visit won the Tony for Best Musical, but I don’t care for Middle Eastern music so most of these songs didn’t move me. Your mileage may vary. GRADE: C+
Musical Numbers:
- “Overture” – The Band
- “Waiting” – The Residents of Bet Hatikva
- “Welcome to Nowhere” – Dina, Itzik, Papi
- “It Is What It Is” – Dina
- “Beat Of Your Heart” – Avrum, Itzik, Simon, Camal
- “Soraya” – The Band (added for Broadway, replacing “Aziza”)
- “Omar Sharif” – Dina
- “Haj-Butrus” – The Band
- “Papi Hears the Ocean” – Papi
- “Haled’s Song About Love” – Haled, Papi
- “The Park” (Dialogue Track) – Dina, Tewfiq
- “Something Different” – Dina, Tewfiq
- “Itzik’s Lullaby” – Itzik and Camal (Camal added for Broadway)
- “Something Different” (Reprise) – Dina
- “Answer Me” – Telephone Guy and Ensemble
- “The Concert” – The Band
Must have been a slow year. I would rather have root canal surgery than see this.
Steve, the nominees for BEST MUSICAL were FROZEN, MEAN GIRLS, and SPONGEBOB-SQUIRE PANTS…and THE BAND’S VISIT.
Frozen should have won.
Rick, I agree with you! Diane and I saw FROZEN last month and loved the staging and the music. We saw MEAN GIRLS two years ago…ho-hum. I have no interest in SPONGE-BOB.
Rick, have you seen either of them? I know you haven’t. So no, FROZEN shouldn’t have won.
No, Jeff, but I have heard some of the music from Frozen. I can’t imagine the others were that good, but you’re right, I should have NO OPINION if I haven’t seen the productions.
Sorry you didn’t like it. We did. We saw the original Israeli movie so had no problem following it. Also, Katrina Link and Tony Shalhoub (the originals on Broadway) were easy to understand. And I like Middle Eastern music.
As you said, your mileage may vary.
Jeff, Diane enjoyed THE BAND’S VISIT more than I did.
Tony Shaloub is hard to replace. I always get the audio enhancement devices theaters sometimes have and that helps me a lot.
Patti, I could hear the dialogue in THE BAND’S VISIT just fine, but the accents made the conversations hard to understand.
I agree with you, George.
We saw this a couple of years ago at the Rep. For me, the production was kinda chaotic – a lot going on and the dialogue hard to pick up.
This was a package program and included a lovely and delicious dinner before the show with some of the cast members stopping by to answer questions. That part of the evening was A+.
Beth, Diane and I have attended over a dozen dinner theater productions and have enjoyed them all. My favorite was SAME TIME NEXT YEAR.
NO OPINION.