The Bands Visit

mrssondheim · Oct 15, 2017, 06:22 PM

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.

Bobster · Nov 15, 2017, 07:17 AM

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.

mrssondheim · Nov 29, 2017, 06:23 PM

When are you going to see this again. Damn, I want the cast recording.

DiveMilw · Nov 29, 2017, 07:38 PM

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)

scenicdesign71 · Jun 12, 2018, 06:43 AM

Interesting:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BREAKING-Original-Film-Star-Sasson-Gabai-will-Join-THE-BANDS-VISIT-on-Broadway-as-Tewfiq-this-Month-20180611

Jenniferlillian · Nov 17, 2018, 03:28 AM

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...

scenicdesign71 · Dec 24, 2018, 01:07 PM

One of the actors from This Time (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).

scenicdesign71 · Feb 05, 2019, 06:01 PM

Closing April 7, sadly.

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 near the end of June, and several international productions may be in the works, too.