Review: Lovely ‘The Band’s Visit’ gets an intimate staging at Writers Theatre
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Great Broadway musicals invariably are made up of one of two things: a community under stress (think “Fiddler on the Roof”) or a relationship between two good people dancing on the edge of Eros (think “Once”).
“The Band’s Visit,” the lovely little musical by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses about a traveling Egyptian police band lost in a boring Israeli town in the middle of the desert, actually has both of those themes in play at the same time. That’s why it works so beautifully. The show is based on an obscure 2007 Israeli movie and premiered on Broadway in 2017, and comes with uncommon warmth, as currently intensified by an intimate Writers Theatre production from director Zi Alikhan that interprets Yazbek’s superb score in surround sound.
There’s another full-circle aspect to this staging, in that “The Band’s Visit” originally was the work on Broadway of the director David Cromer, a Skokie native who cut his teeth often at this particular theater. This you might say that a Chicago, even specifically a Writers Theatre, sensibility was already baked into the material. Cromer has long specialized in shows about people living lives of quiet desperation and the two main characters in “The Band’s Visit” certainly fall into that category. You have the band leader Tewfiq (Rom Barkhordar, doing the best work I’ve ever seen him do), trying to pass the time until he and his guys can get out of there and Dina (Sophie Madorsky), a local woman who runs a sad cafe and wonders for a second if this Tewfiq guy in the Sergeant Pepper suit might just be the right match for her own ennui.
There is something about Moses’s book that taps into the persistent difficulty of late-in-life relationships, I think, whether they are taking place in Bet Hatikvah or Highland Park — the inevitable intrusion of past experiences, the likely presence of previous losses, the craving for a soulmate, the sense that this might have worked years ago, but now, how? That’s the secret sauce here, a kind of sad passion, if you would, as reflected in a score suffused with longing. You can hear vitality and hope fighting tooth and nail with resignation.
And, it has to be said, a musical set in Israel puts the events of last fall in mind, as does the arrival of Egyptians. Egypt has been something of a mysterious presence in the current Middle East crisis and “The Band’s Visit’ explores that nation’s role in cultural memory, especially its Hollywood diaspora. But this show is really focused on how ordinary people can reach across these divides, given open hearts. This is not a story about war but about the human need for connection; that’s manifest not only with the leading couple but through a character called Telephone Guy (Harper Caruso), who we see longing for a phone call, Haled (Armand Akbari), whose suave skills with women mask his loneliness, and the Egyptian musician Simon (Jonathan Shaboo), who finds himself stuck while trying to complete a concerto.
Madorsky sings the difficult lead role exceptionally well and she’s a dynamic presence to boot, which puts you in mind of what I think Moses intended: spectacular people can get stuck. That’s the message of “Once,” of course, another small musical that Writers staged with similar success last year and has clearly learned from the experience: “The Band’s Visit” is conceived here as immersive. As on Broadway, where I adored this show, the cast plays the score and their unusual instrumentation (by Broadway standards, at least) but at Writers, they can envelope the audience musically in a way that was not possible in a traditional proscenium theater.
You might have seen “The Band’s Visit” when it toured here in 2019. I’d argue this staging (and this fine cast) adds a whole lot to the piece and it merits another look, especially if you are a fan of what Yazbek achieved here musically.
At 90 minutes, it leaves you wanting more. Aptly enough.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Band’s Visit” (4 stars)
When: Through March 24
Where: Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe
Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Tickets: $35-$90 at 847-242-6000 and www.writerstheatre.org
