Review: ASU Gammage Presents The National Tour Of THE BAND'S VISIT

We are again delighted to welcome David Appleford as a guest contributor to the pages of BroadwayWorld ~ as always, featuring his distinctive, well-balanced, and intelligent perspective on theatre. In this case, he shines the light on the National Tour of THE BAND'S VISIT.

Here now ~ From the keyboard of David Appleford:

It begins with the following title projected on a screen: "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."

If you look at life from the grand perspective of history and its effect on world events, then, yes, the titles are correct; that night when the band came to town really wasn't important. But look closer and you'll suddenly see that characters, all of whom have almost nothing culturally in common, are realizing they share the same emotions - desires that are felt; hopes that are not always expressed; dreams that are shared; and frustrations that are perpetually experienced. And it's all expressed in a quiet, unassuming way that practically coerces audiences through charm into becoming thoroughly engaged.

The national touring production of THE BAND'S VISIT, now playing at ASU Gammage in Tempe until February 13, may tell the small, modest tale of a group of musicians from another country stranded overnight in the middle of nowhere, but it's really about friendship, loneliness, and wasted opportunities; characters discovering how similar they really are, and it does this in a deeply affecting yet witty and often very funny way.

With a running time of 100 minutes, no intermission, THE BAND'S VISIT is perhaps the most successful Broadway musical that many may never have heard about. Besides receiving almost unified critical acclaim when it first opened, at the 72nd Tony Awards in 2018, the show was nominated for 11 awards and won 10, including Best Musical.

Based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name and following the same narrative arc, THE BAND'S VISIT takes place in 1996. After receiving an invitation from a local Arab cultural organization in Israel to play at a concert in the nearby city of Petah Tikvah, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel one day ahead of the performance. Clearly traveling on a shoestring budget, the band takes the bus from the airport, but due to accents and a mispronunciation at the ticket office, the musicians arrive not in Petah Tikvah but at the considerably smaller and desolate town of Bet Hatikva. With no more buses scheduled for the day, the men of the Egyptian Police Orchestra are forced to remain overnight in the wrong place and nowhere to stay. With unexpected generosity, the owner of the local cafe invites everyone to a place for the night.

What follows is not so much a string of conflicts or comic situations that characters will need to overcome before the band leaves. It's more a quiet, leisurely-paced, fish-out-of-water story from a book by Itamar Moses that tells of unexpected hospitality; people from totally different backgrounds forging a connection in unexpected ways.

There are individual situations - a lovesick young man guards the only payphone in town in the hopes his girlfriend will call; one of the band members stays at a family home and connects with the father-in-law through a story of how music was the foundation that kept their marriage together; another band member attends the local roller skating rink and helps a local boy finally embrace his crush - but the center of this tender musical is the relationship between bandleader Tewfiq (superb, understated performance from Sasson Gabay, who originated the role in the 2007 film) and the owner of the local cafe, Dina (usually played on tour by Janet Dacal, but on opening night in Tempe by understudy Hannah Shankman who delivered an outstanding performance).

Once you realize where the town is situated and what cultures are now suddenly thrown together, you can't help but be constantly aware of Israeli/Arab tensions that should be festering in the background. After all, it was on this very land where deadly conflicts were previously fought. Yet there they are, Egyptian band leader and Israeli cafe owner, sitting together, drinking coffee, exchanging pleasantries, and finding out how much they like each other. But there's more going on that a surface look doesn't always reveal.

The exchanging of cultures can often lead to a much deeper understanding between people. If band leader Tewfiq and cafe owner Dina were of the same culture, they might have had little interest in each other. He might have seen her as perhaps a little too open and morally brazen; she might find him overly stiff and reserved while looking somewhat awkward in his antiquated powder-blue Sgt. Pepper's style uniform. But while sharing food and time at the dinner table, both parties ultimately see each other for what they are, struggling, vulnerable people, while overcoming ethnic barriers at the same time.

Director David Cromer coordinates the movements and scene changes in a perfectly fluid manner, created mainly on a revolving stage as characters glide in and out of each other's lives. The score by David Yazbek can often be as melodic and certainly as charming as the characters singing them, though nothing quite reaches the emotional heights the final song, Answer Me, manages to climb. With all the town's folk assembled - their lives and longings already exposed - despite all of their differences, everyone comes together to sing as one in a single, soaring, emotionally charged voice. As night slowly turns into day, you sense it's as if they're doing it for the very first time.

The show's sense of intimacy may be lost on some in ASU Gammage's vast auditorium. There's an awareness of melancholy experienced by all characters that pervades throughout the production, emanating from the subtle expressions of the performers, though the effect of this almost tangible feeling will be more effectively felt by those closest to the stage who can see the detail of a performer's pained expression rather than those seated further away.

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.

Photo credit to Matthew Murphy

THE BAND'S VISIT runs through February 13th at: ASU Gammage ~ https://www.asugammage.com/ ~ 1200 S. Forest Avenue, Tempe, AZ ~ 480-965-3434

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