The Band's Visit at The Peace Center
The Band’s Visit may be the most unlikely winner of the Tony for Best Musical (and nine other Tonys) that you’ll ever see. It’s delicate and intimate and incremental rather than brash and big and life-changing. It’s reminiscent of Come From Away, one of the Peace Center’s earlier Broadway touring productions this year, except that instead of hundreds of passengers from scores of jets stranded in one small town for a week, it’s one eight-man band who got on the wrong bus and are stranded in one small town overnight.
The book and music are similarly scaled down. The band — the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra from Egypt, traveling to a gig in a different Israeli city with a similar name — interacts with just three local people and their friends and family, rather than the whole town. Culture clashes are kept to a minimum. In keeping with the show’s cozy scale, the songs are chiefly furtive and confessional, often heartfelt renderings of melancholy memories, such as one character’s past idolizing of “Omar Sharif.”
It’s a show about connections — making them, breaking them and missing them (as when you board the wrong bus) — and it doesn’t spoil anything to quote from the full-cast finale, a lovely song titled “Answer Me”: “All alone in the quiet, ah my ears are thirsty / For your voice, for your voice; can you answer me? … Very soon, very soon, that's the sound of longing / Are you there? Are you there? Will you answer me?” You get the idea.
The one element scaled up to Broadway dimensions is the intricate and beautiful set evoking the desert village of Bet Hatikva, with a smartly utilized turntable. Sections of the set rotate gently to take the story into different spaces: a coffee shop, various apartments, a cafe, a roller rink, a park and so on. Like the scene changes, the direction, by David Cromer, is smooth and seamless and measured.
“Measured” indeed describes the entire show, which plays for about an hour and 45 minutes with no intermission. Based on a 2007 Israeli film, the show follows the movie’s mood, described in one online synopsis as “a sense of unspoken longing and loneliness.” The main characters are the band leader, Tewfiq, and Dina, the Israeli woman who first befriends the Egyptians — both of them middle-aged and single after marriages dissolved by time or tragedy. Their duet, “Something Different,” is one of the show’s more poignant moments.
The problem is, all the simmering emotions never quite come to a boil. This is clearly intentional, an effort to reflect the incrementalism of real life rather than the grand gestures of Broadway tradition, but in practice it keeps the show from being as engaging as it might have been. It also makes for long stretches in which not much happens.
The songs are similarly low-key, the first two tellingly titled “Waiting” and “Welcome to Nowhere.” Dina’s early solo, “It is What it Is,” is a statement of resignation with which many will identify, and it’s followed later by “Something Different,” which amends the apathy without extinguishing it.
The damper on drama that keeps the book (by Itamar Moses) subdued also affects the songs (by David Yazbek, best known for The Full Monty), which are relatively short and underdeveloped, without the cathartic build you expect from a Broadway musical. For example, there’s a visit to a rollerskating disco without the rousing dance number another show would have offered; instead there’s a pre-recorded pop tune followed by an original comic number, “Papi Hears the Ocean,” that’s not as clever as it thinks it is. Even that rather nice finale, “Answer Me,” holds its cast-wide climax for only about half a minute before it fades and everyone disperses, and, well, that’s it for the show.
The music that does perk up the proceedings every time it breaks out is the instrumental work by the band members; many of the supporting actors also accomplished musicians. (There’s also a top-notch band off-stage.) They are frequently scattered about the set and at times provide subtle or rousing accompaniment to the action or songs. Sadly, though, these breaks too are cut short, rarely lasting much more than a few moments. The long-awaited full-band concert at the end of the show is pure joy and the best moment of the evening but also wraps after just a couple of minutes.
The lethargy is not the fault of the talented cast, led by Chilina Kennedy as Dina and Sasson Gabay as Twefiq. Both eke out touching moments. Supporting player Joe Joseph wins over the audience as Haled, a young band member who plays trumpet and is endearingly obsessed with Chet Baker. (Curiously, there’s no trumpet included in the final band concert, essentially negating that subplot.)
The characters in The Band’s Visit are indeed vulnerable, often charming people you wish the best for, and the show may indeed leave you feeling the longing that is its main ingredient. For this reviewer, though, the longing was largely for a lot more “band” and a little less “visit.”
The Band’s Visit runs through September 1 at The Peace Center. Visit peacecenter.org for details and tickets.
(Photo by Matthew Murphy, courtesy of The Peace Center)
