Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria, forefront (Tony Shalhoub)  (photo credit Ahron Foster)

 

                                           by Deirdre Donovan

 

Weary of the razzle-dazzle and special effects that go along with most Broadway musicals?  Well, The Band’s Visit, which opened Off Broadway on December 8^{th at} the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater, might be the best antidote to that glitzy fare.  Intelligently directed by David Cromer, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, this production succeeds by that old adage:  less is more.

 

Based on Eran Kolirin’s screenplay, the story is charmingly offbeat:  An Egyptian Police Band travel to Israel in 1996 to perform a concert.  Arriving at the airport terminal, there is a mix up about their desired destination and they are sent to a remote desert village called Bet Hatikva.  Stranded in the middle of nowhere with no room and board or immediate transportation, the band is accommodated by the locals.  What happens in this desert place during one solitary night, under the moonlight, is far from ordinary and tinged with the miraculous.  But, significantly, people from two different cultures unexpectedly bond and learn a new truth about their common humanity.

 

Musically, this production is pitch-perfect.  David Yazbek’s (remember his Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Full Monty?) music and lyrics are alternately laced with Middle Eastern chants and more contemporary-sounding songs.  We listen early on to songs like “Welcome to Nowhere” and “It Is What It Is,” which not only anchor this musical in a specific time and place but provide a fittingly reflective atmosphere and mood.   Later, the songs get more romantic and soul-searching with the solo “Omar Sharif” (wistfully sung by Katrina Lenk as Dina) and the affecting duet “Something Different” (Lenk and Tony Shalhoub team-up terrifically as Dina and Tewfiq).  Yazbek explores excitingly new musical textures here, pairing traditional and modern rhythms drenched in poetry.

 

 

 Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk   

                                            

The acting couldn’t be better.  The aforementioned Shalhoub, as the proud conductor of the Egyptian Band, gets his character down pat.  Shalhoub infuses his musician with just the right balance of proprietary, reserve, and vulnerability.  Lenk, as the local café owner Dina, delivers a deeply-felt performance as an Israeli woman who realizes that life can hold surprises at unexpected moments.  Other notable performances? John Cariani as the young husband Itzik and Kristen Sieh as his wife Iris, both believably portray the plight of spouses with a new baby, trapped in a village where few opportunities for career or cultural enrichment exist.  A shout out to Erik Liberman too, who plays the Telephone Guy who makes a virtue out of waiting for a phone to ring.

 

The creative team is solid.  Scott Pask’s rotating set, abetted by Tyler  Micoleau’s shadowy lighting, inventively summons up a desert village in the Mideast. Patrick McCollum’s choreography adds a number of dynamic dance routines to contrast with the more contemplative moments.  And Sarah Laux’ costumes are spot on for Arabs and Israelis alike.

 

This musical belongs in a category of its own.  No other production that I have seen in recent years quite compares with it.  True, it shares the intimate feel and tenderness of the Broadway musical Once.  Still, The Band’s Visit explores different geographic and dramatic terrain, not to mention themes.  In fact, one of its dominant themes is that the dreams of youth often go unrealized.  Many of the principals’ conversations revolve around the fact that life has a way of stepping in, upsetting plans, and forcing one to do the necessary—and sooner or later dreams tend to be forgotten.  Sound depressing?  Not at all.  The charm of this musical is that it clearly deals with reality but also shows how people with open-minds can transcend their bleak and boring situations. 

 

The Band’s Visit is not overly affecting at first blush.  After all, how could a show about a hapless Egyptian Band stuck in the middle of an Israeli desert be anything but ho-hum.  This new musical, though it might not hit you over the head with its dramatic potency at first, ultimately gets you where you live.  Itmar Moses, who wrote the book, has steered clear of sentimentality but retained the sincerity of the original screenplay.  What we get here is a wonderful blending of reality, luck, and old-time hospitality. Who said Good Samaritans no longer exist?  Or that hope—or love--can’t spark in a godforsaken village?

 

As helmed by David Cromer, this new musical, which is making its world premiere at the Atlantic, is a welcome new addition to the season.  Unfortunately, The Band’s Visit has an all-too brief run.  If you caught it during its sojourn at the Linda Gross Theater, you caught something special.

 

Off Broadway Musical

Through January 1^st.

At the Atlantic Theater Company, Linda Gross Theater, 336 West 20 Street, Manhattan.

For tickets, phone 866-811-4111 or in person at The Linda Gross Theater box office.

Running time:  90 minutes with no intermission.