Posted: 12/30/17 at 6:04am
Posted: 12/30/17 at 7:42am
Posted: 12/30/17 at 10:40am
Phantom4Ever said: "I did not get why it was so funny that two towns had similar sounding names."
So the band was supposed to be travelling to a large Israeli city named Petah Tikva for the opening of an Arab cultural center. Instead, they ended up in s small town in the middle of nowhere named Bet Hatikvah (where nothing really important ever happens, and which is also why Dina had plenty of free time on her hands.)
You didn't "get" why the name confusion thing was funny. Not much to say about that, though it would be sort of interesting to hear WHY you didn't think that was funny.
Posted: 12/30/17 at 10:41am
Phantom --- If you are genuinely that baffled by the show and are seeking insight, I would suggest you start by reading a few of the many glowing reviews. If they help but you want some further clarifications, then bring your queries back to the board. If they don't help you, then there is probably nothing anyone here can do for you.
Posted: 12/30/17 at 11:41am
Andy- good idea I will do that. I’m sorry that my post was on the goofy side but I was going on two nights of no sleep lol.
Ok. Just read The NY Times review. Really wish I had read that before I saw it! “It finds ecstasy in ennui; eroticism among people who rarely make physical contact; and a sense of profound eventfulness in a plot in which, all told, very little happens”
Well now it all makes sense. And I’ve been thinking about the town names joke and I realized that the problem there was the coughing audience. The whole scene at the beginning where they buy the wrong tix—-I missed that cuz people were coughing up a lung over and over.
I knew the issue was not that the show was bad per se, it was just that I didn’t get so much about it. I got a lot to think about now.
Updated On: 12/30/17 at 11:41 AM
Posted: 12/30/17 at 11:49am
Hey Phantom, I totally get this show not being everybody's taste! But it remains one of my favorite shows and I'd like to offer my thoughts...
"I did not get why it was so funny that two towns had similar sounding names."
I think it's just phonetically comical. They could have tried to illustrate the cultural differences between the Egyptians and the Israelis in so many more serious, even sad ways, but they leave it to a a simple pronunciation issue between two towns that you have to admit sound uncannily similar. That's just funny, to me at least! (Also, look to the lyrics of "Welcome to Nowhere" for how adroitly Yazbek exploits this joke.) I think it's also a brilliant trick that they use this joke to set aside most of the explicit questions of culture and language by the end of the second scene, leaving the rest of the show to feel completely and entirely human.
"I did not get why the woman who owned/ran the cafe hyad all this time to just hang out and chill with this stranger, and why she seemed absolutely enamored with his dull stories."
Your issue here also ties in with the telephone guy standing in front of the telephone for 90% of the show, and I think is exactly why this show just is or isn't for some people. No character's story in The Band's Visit is objectively or individually that interesting, yes. But for me, the point of the show is that this one night between these two groups of people (which, yes, wasn't very important in the grand scheme of things) evinced all these beautiful moments of self-understanding and the simple act of being heard, felt, understood by another human being. Part of why I love the show is that it does such a brilliant job in creating these gorgeous moments of relationship in staging and music—but it doesn't all end up with a powerful "let's all be friends" message like you say you expected. As Dina herself sings, "And I don't know what I feel / And I don't know what I know / All I know is I feel something different." It isn't a piece of theatre where there's a message to take home because of the band's visit. It simply creates these subtle, beautiful (and I'd also say transcendent) moments that would never, ever happened to these characters without this "unimportant" evening. For me, that's what made it so transporting and beautiful and fleeting and human and real.
Just my two cents! (But for what it's worth, the song at the roller rink was an earworm for me too for a few days, ha!)
Posted: 12/30/17 at 11:55am
Posted: 12/30/17 at 11:59am
Phantom4ever said: "It's a small show filled with little moments that can get past you if you are waiting for The Big Plot to happen."
So well put! I always add a little "Don't go in and expect a big Broadway show" disclaimer when I recommend the show to friends. And I'll admit, my first time seeing the show, I think I was "expecting" something bigger to come until midway through the show when I realized the full scope and intent of the show. It was my second viewing of the show last month (knowing that there wasn't a Big Plot on its way) that I was completely entranced and overwhelmed by it.
