It is so frustrating to hear about a new show and not be able to really learn anything about it. I like to be able to dive in and learn as much as I can.
I heard about this show on the Broadway channel, so I looked it up. It was Off Broadway and just recently got transferred to Broadway proper, opened this last Friday as a matter of fact. I listened to what I could and then watched the movie which was lovely.
It has great word of mouth, and has great Tony buzz, but I just wanna know more. I can not wait for the recording.
I did enjoy it Off-Broadway and hope it's not too over produced for Bway.
I think I told you that while the book to Come From Away is better, this show has such a lovely score.
When are you going to see this again. Damn, I want the cast recording.
This show is very intriguing. I would like to see it as well. A grade school friend of mine went to see in the past couple of weeks. I'll have to go see if he posted any thoughts about the show.
edit - Nope, he never posted anything about the show except that he was about to see it. (at least not on FB)
Interesting:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BREAKING-Original-Film-Star-Sasson-Gabai-will-Join-THE-BANDS-VISIT-on-Broadway-as-Tewfiq-this-Month-20180611
I think my mom and I are heading to NYC in January and I really want to see this. I keep getting nervous about Katrina Lenk still being there but I haven't heard anything to the contrary...
One of the actors from This Time (https://issuu.com/home/published/thistimeimages_small) (the play I designed for Kareem about a year and a half ago, about his grandmother) has been an understudy in The Band's Visit since the beginning, I believe, of at least its B'way run. I recall an excited announcement on his FB page, sometime in the past year, that he had gone on several times -- for Telephone Guy, if memory serves, though I could picture him as a great Haled too.
Ms. Lenk seems to still be there, as does Sasson Gabay, the original Tewfiq from the film, who replaced Tony Shaloub not long after the Tonys. Maybe I should try to get back in for another look -- it's been at least six months, and while I've seen Ms. Lenk in the role twice and would be delighted to do so again, I haven't seen Mr. Gabay at all (onstage) yet.
It really is a gorgeous show, and there's nothing else like it on Broadway. (If its run had overlapped with that of Fun Home, I might have compared the two in certain ways: mostly, admittedly, both just happen to hit a certain vague sweet spot for me. I guess both shows are small; introspective -- though also, now that I think of it, finely attuned to the interaction between character and place -- and refreshingly free of anything resembling a barn-burning anthem or a power ballad).
I'm glad TBV has had some staying power; here's hoping that continues -- I won't even be jealous if it outruns FH (according to IBDB, TBV is currently about a hundred performances behind FH's final tally, so a few more months should do it).
Closing April 7, sadly. (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/theater/bands-visit-broadway-closing.html) :'(
At which point its run (625 total performances, including previews) will indeed have surpassed Fun Home's (609) by sixteen performances.
(Or only six, if you discount previews -- of which TBV had 36, FH only 26 -- leaving 589 and 583 regular performances, respectively).
I really would like to see this once more before it goes. On the upside: a U.S. tour will launch (https://thebandsvisitmusical.com/tour/) near the end of June, and several international productions (https://variety.com/2019/legit/news/bands-visit-broadway-1203127542/) may be in the works, too.