All good things come to an end and on April 7, Broadway will say “Shalom” to multi-Tony winning Israeli musical, “The Band’s Visit.”
“The Band’s Visit” was adapted from Eran Kolirin’s 2007 movie of the same name and is directed by David Cromer. Featuring music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by California Jewish playwright Itamar Moses, the show” is about Arab musicians who accidentally wander into Bet Hatikva and encounter Jewish villagers in the small Israeli desert town.
“I’ve always moved in spheres with a big Jewish presence,” Moses told the Journal in 2018. “There’s also something about the way I think and the way I write that feels Jewish. There’s something talmudic about playwriting. It’s about wrestling with a question that’s somehow unanswerable, considering all sides of it and, in the end, then throwing up your hands at the audience and saying, ‘What do you think?’ That’s very Jewish.”
“The Band’s Visit” opened off-Broadway Dec. 8, 2016, at the Atlantic Theater Company where it sold out. It opened on Broadway Nov. 9, 2017, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater.
According to the New York Times, the show will close due to “insufficient grosses to sustain an extended run,” even though it won 10 Tony Awards in 2018, including best musical, brought in $8.75 million in 11 months and has booked a national tour launching in June. The tour will be in Los Angeles July 2020.
The show stars “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actor Tony Shalhoub, Katrina Lenk, and Ariel Stachel, all who received Tony awards for their roles in the show.
Lenk performed “Omar Sharif” on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Feb. 4. The Band’s visit is nominated for a Grammy for best musical theater album.
Watch the clip below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLccBnIy1xo
