By Adam Bloodworth
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra have been booked to appear at the opening of an Arab cultural centre in Petah Tikva, part of metropolitan Tel Aviv. But a misunderstanding while ordering bus tickets at the airport finds the band stranded overnight in Bet Hatikva, a fictional nowheresville in the middle of the Negev Desert.
What follows is a series of loosely connected, but finely drawn vignettes, that speak to the importance of music and human connection. The Band’s Visit was fêted in the US, where the original run took the Obie for Musical Theatre in 2017 and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical.
When it transferred to Broadway, The Band’s Visit was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, of which it won 10, including the so-called “Big Six”; Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical. The cast recording received the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2019.
All of this might set up an audience with expectations of glitz, grandeur, and razzmatazz, but they should prepare to be confounded by a production which is pared down, unassuming, and intimate.
Given the scenario of Egyptian police arriving without warning in a remote Israeli settlement, an audience might also expect political tension, but the story – such as it is – is personal, and
the larger issues of the region are only addressed obliquely.
This proves both a strength and a weakness. By presenting a succession of small, individual dramas it encourages audiences to look beyond reductive binaries, and offers hope that ordinary people can find social and cultural commonalities that will overcome their differences. However, such a narrow focus cannot encompass the greater reality of the situation within which the events take place.
The performances of the ensemble vary in quality, but are good in aggregate. Alon Moni Aboutoul plays the role of the band’s conductor, Colonel Tewfiq, with the sort of repressed adherence to duty typical in a Merchant Ivory production. But it is his possible romance with local café owner Dina, played by Miri Meskia, which is the story’s central thread.
Meskia’s vocals are show-stopping, especially in a song which celebrates the cultural bridge built between Egypt and Israel by figures such as the Alexandrian matinee idol Omar Shariff and singer Umm Kulthum. The lack of truly memorable songs is eclipsed by mesmeric onstage performances from the band, especially Baha Yetkin’s oud and Andy Findon’s klezmer-inflected clarinet.
A peppering of comedy and an undercurrent of melancholy ultimately save the production at the Donmar Warehouse from becoming twee. But it is the empathetic treatment of characters and fantastic musical performances that conjure a vital sense of place out of nowhere. The Band’s Visit is not a feel-good show, but it should make you feel better.
The Band’s Visit plays at the Donmar Warehouse until 3 December 2022
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