The Band's Visit - Atlantic Theatre Company (Off Broadway) — Page 2

Thank you, PianoMan!

I love seeing "small" musicals Off Broadway. I'm always hoping to catch the next Fun Home or Hamilton (although Hamilton was hardly small, even at the Public). So this weekend I was happy to see The Band's Visit and Ride the Cyclone.

My friend and I enjoyed The Band's Visit very much (she is a huge Cromer fan), although I would caution ticket buyers that this is indeed a small and quiet musical. It encompasses barely 24 hours in the lives of a traveling orchestra from Egypt and the Israeli townspeople who host the band overnight after a travel mixup (humorously dealt with after the fact).

So Hamilton this ain't. The Band's Visit is subtle and slow moving. The pacing didn't bother me. I enjoyed the score very much although some of the songs sounded similar, and I believe there may have been intentional thematic repeats. Plus, most (all?) of the numbers are in minor keys, which I guess is appropriate for music from that region but may lend a degree of sameness.

With both the musicals I saw this weekend, it's apparent how much the production values have been ramped up in some Off Broadway productions. The set design of both were awesome (maybe even overkill). Both productions used revolving sets. But were turntables really necessary? I can't imagine how much they cost to install, maintain and operate.

Anyway, back to The Band's Visit: I enjoyed the performances overall, expecially Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk. Their story line was particularly touching, and she did sing the bulk of the songs. Some of the other singers I thought struggled a bit with the material. Maybe they were supposed to sound like real people rather than trained musical theater voices. I hope I'm not insulting anyone here. But in particular, I thought the Telephone Guy strained to hit the lower notes in his song, which was lovely, by the way. Orchestrations sounded excellent to me.

Also, I thought the sound design was unbalanced. The band really overpowered the voices, but it seemed to get better as the show went on. I thought the lighting was somewhat odd too. It was kind of patchy, with lots of shadows. It didn't seem like an Israeli desert to me (although I've never actually been there). I guess this was an effect that the lighting designer was going for, but the appeal was lost on me.

The revolving sets were used well, and I amazed at what a good skater Bill Army is!

I liked the way the band was used, appearing in the first scene on stage in their snazzy uniforms (another luxe effect). After that, they were either hidden, or posed around the stage in clusters. The sound was wonderful.

As other posters have said, this is a play about the desire to connect with other people, and sometimes the inability to connect. It was charming in an understated way. Don't go in expecting fireworks or lots of choreography, and you won't be disappointed.

Updated On: 11/23/16 at 01:50 PM

I saw this on Sunday and overall found it to be very charming. I saw the movie a while ago and pretty much what I remembered was that I also found it charming, plus that there was a scene in a roller skating rink. On the other hand, I have a lot of family who live in a pretty similar town in the Arava in Israel, so I'm familiar with the quiet desert setting of the show and was interested to see how it would be depicted on stage. In general I've never seen any of Israel or the Middle East in a musical before, so this was a new experience.

I think the show's greatest strength is its music. I loved the Middle Eastern themes in the songs and a few of them were quite catchy and the closing song was just plain beautiful. I think a full out cast recording seems pretty unlikely considering how small this show is but I would love to hear a demo.

I couldn't really decide how I felt about Katrina Lenk. I liked her singing voice and her songs, but I think her bad accent kind of stopped me from fully embracing her acting. It's ironic, because I spent a good chunk of last year living in Jerusalem watching Israelis try and fail to conquer American accents on stage and here I was watching Americans trying and failing to conquer Israeli accents on stage. Also, it was painfully clear that very few of the cast had ever spoken any Hebrew. As exciting as it was to hear Hebrew on a New York stage, they all sounded pretty awkward trying to speak it (aside from the two Israeli-American actors who played pretty small parts). I don't speak Arabic so those parts sounded authentic to me, although I bet an Arabic speaker would probably pick that apart as well. On the other hand, I thought Tony Shalhoub gave a beautiful, understated performance.

This is probably pretty standard theater-going advice but especially here, definitely go to the bathroom before the show. I realized I needed to pee about twenty minutes in and then had to sit through another hour plus of everyone drinking every beverage imaginable and talking and singing about various bodies of water non-stop.

Overall, like the movie, it's very charming and refreshingly apolitical given the plot. It's not life changing or anything, but a good night at the theater and a great night of music.

I saw this on Monday and loved it. Thought it beautifully written, beautifully staged and beautifully performed. I was very moved by it and thought Yazbek's score is one of his best yet. Shalhoub and Lenka are magnificent together. I think it'll be a divisive show, but count me in the camp who really, really enjoyed it.

I'm not in the mood to fully break the show down but I highly recommend checking it out. I was thoroughly charmed by the whole thing. I feel like the less I say, the better experience you'll have. It's not that there are big reveals or that you need to adjust your expectations. It's just that if you go in open and receptive, I think you'll have a really pleasant time. I laughed a lot. The performances were great. I loved what they did with the space and the set. The music told the story really well and the show avoided a lot of possible pitfalls.

I do see where you could criticize it. Most of the plotlines don't get resolved in a very neat way. Characters don't get happy endings. It's not the most emotional story. It gets the most melodramatic/standard musical theatre with the central "romance" but personally I didn't think it was a story that needed to rely on tugging at your heartstrings. You can feel for the characters without needing to identify with a central figure in a big way. I liked the way they told the stories of the entire ensemble (except maybe Telephone Guy and Avrum... their main songs were two of the ones I thought were weaker).

I don't know where this show goes from here. I don't see it transferring to Broadway and being successful, not because it isn't great but because it's a simple story that would feel out of place in a big Broadway house. I wish they could extend so more people could see it.

I saw it over the weekend and it's a beautiful little chamber musical. Great score. I can't see it having a life in a bigger theater, but I do recommend everyone checking it out at the Atlantic.

It was at least announced on Broadway.com...
http://www.broadway.com/buzz/186961/the-bands-visit-starring-john-cariani-tony-shalhoub-extends-off-broadway/

Most dates that I've checked in December that were on sale prior to the extension look all or mostly sold out, so I imagine they feel pretty confident they new batch of dates will sell well, too. It's also a booming time of year for theater, so they should sell those extra shows very easily. I doubt it extends beyond January 1, though. Hopefully they announce a cast recording next!

That's definitely possible, although I don't know how likely they are to transfer to Broadway; it's certainly looking impossible this spring, especially with Shalhoub starring in The Price for Roundabout. It could also play out like Scottsboro Boys did, where they record the Off-Broadway production and then not record the Broadway production. Either way, I just want to be able to listen to Yazbek's score again!