The Band's Visit is a stage musical with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Itamar Moses, based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name. The musical opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in November 2017, after its off-Broadway premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company in December 2016.
The Band's Visit has received critical acclaim. Its off-Broadway production won several major awards, including the 2017 Obie Award for Musical Theatre, as well the year's New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. At the 72nd Tony Awards, it was nominated for 11 awards and won 10, including Best Musical. The Band's Visit is one of four musicals in Broadway history to win the unofficial "Big Six" Tony Awards, which include Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical. It won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
Productions
The original production premiered in Off-Broadway previews at the Atlantic Theater Company on November 11, 2016, had its official opening on December 8, 2016, and closed on January 8, 2017. The musical was developed and produced with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's National Fund for New Musicals. Harold Prince was slated to direct but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by David Cromer, with choreography by Patrick McCollum, movement by Lee Sher, and starring Tony Shalhoub, Katrina Lenk, and John Cariani.
The musical began previews on Broadway on October 7, 2017, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre prior to an official opening on November 9, 2017.
On September 10, 2018, the producers announced that it had recouped its $8.75 million capitalization cost.
The Broadway production closed on April 7, 2019 after 589 regular and 36 preview performances.
The musical began its first national tour at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island on June 25, 2019. The tour will have 27 stops across North America.
The musical had its international premiere in Manila, Philippines, with a preview performance on March 10, 2020, at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium. The show was scheduled to have its full opening on March 13, 2020, at the but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show features Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Rody Vera, Nino Alejandro, Reb Atadero, Steven Conde, Maronne Cruz, Rhenwyn Gabalonzo, Jep Go, Leanne Mamonong, Jill Peña, Bibo Reyes, Dean Rosen, and Floyd Tena.
The musical had its European premiere at the Donmar Warehouse in London directed by artistic director Michael Longhurst from 28 September to 3 December 2022.
Synopsis
The Band’s Visit opens with a message on a projector screen that displays during the overture, reading: “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.”
In 1996, the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, just arrived in Israel, are waiting in Tel Aviv's central bus station. They expect to be welcomed by a representative from a local Arab cultural organization, but no one shows up. The group's leader and conductor, the reserved and dignified Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria, gets annoyed with the behavior of Haled (the young trumpet player and ladies’ man of the band). He explains to the band that they will act with professionalism and avoid any embarrassments, lest they give their critics and sponsors ammunition against them. Tewfiq decides that the group will take the bus and instructs Haled to purchase the group's bus tickets. At the ticket office, Haled asks the clerk for a ticket to the city of Petah Tikvah, but due to his Egyptian accent, she misunderstands him and sells him tickets to the isolated desert town of "Bet Hatikvah".