Of everything that I will say, the one that I hope won’t remain true is that 2022 is the best year of live theater I’ve had. While not every show has been a runaway success, the diversity and quality were a sublime mix. It could be that this was the first full year where productions were finally touring and many that were backlogged made it to the west coast. Maybe it’s the unfortunate reality that the passing of Stephen Sondheim meant that local theaters had better access to his many hits. I would even argue that being in quarantine makes shows like Wicked and Moulin Rouge! more welcoming sights of maximalist pleasure. Whatever it was, I was there to revel in the art of what a stage can do. I finally saw Hadestown… TWICE! I leave behind so many memories, but there was one in particular that stood out above the rest. It was one that walking out I was eager to call a favorite, whose impact on stage greatly altered my enjoyment of the soundtrack. I wanted to grow old with the show.
I’m talking about The Band’s Visit.
There are several shows I loved more (some mentioned in the previous paragraph), but the experience of sitting in that theater watching the first David Yazbek production I saw this year (the other being Tootsie) was sublime. Sure, there were bigger, noisier shows, but none of them moved me like The Band’s Visit. I know it wasn’t the most popular show to play at The Segerstrom Theater in Orange County in 2022. Even arriving a week into its run found more posters for Wicked up than their new production. It could just be that this was never going to be a blockbuster musical. It’s rare that a show would consider stripping things down, but that was the appeal. It was small, intimate, driven less by spectacle than characters’ dreams. The Tony Award performance of “Omar Shariff” is about a woman finding escapism through cinema. At no point does it break into fantasy but more embraces the grounded nature of reality. As an opening title card would suggest, this meeting was “nothing special,” and yet it made it all the more so.
I am someone who has only ever been able to appreciate theater from the outside. The closest I came to being an actor was in a middle school production of The Giving Tree. By high school, I was friends with a lot of actors so I had this built-in admiration for what they did. The hours seemed long and our lead in Fiddler on the Roof would get a scholarship off of that performance. After that, it was mostly just seeing shows where I could. As much as I’ve become someone who likes marking up a calendar with dates, I struggle to call myself a theater kid. I didn’t grow up in that world. Poetry and creative writing, yes. I know they’re adjacent, but there is a world of difference in how we see the same art.
I think that The Band’s Visit falls closer to the creative writing side of the coin. From my experience, I have been more in love with character development and insular moments that allow audiences to understand the human condition. I understand the point of entertainment as a naked excuse to have fun, but for me being able to connect to a total stranger is more meaningful. Getting to spend some time with this band of characters had a profound impact on me. Sure, it’s “nothing special,” but at the same time, it allows for the quiet moments to hide these beats that I’d never get from Wicked. As much as big emotions exist inside The Band’s Visit, they’re often something you find more in the dead of night, when the world has fallen away and all that’s left is this ominous after hours essence that you cannot understand unless you’ve been there.
The fact that Yazbek captured it through a perfectly brisk running time means a lot. This is a show that’s unafraid to take a pause to sing a lullaby or capture the ache of waiting for a phone call. The cross section of Egyptian musicians having to spend an evening in Iran while waiting for a ride to their concert means that there’s a lot of great disconnect that is slowly broken down. The goal is to discover how these people from two opposing cultures can put aside differences and find a human connection. In some ways, it’s a global story of humanity, where finding empathy is the ultimate goal.
A lot of it can be read as predictable and cornball, but that is to miss the magic of The Band’s Visit. Through music, these two cultures are able to feel unified, exposing their deepest desires through the arts. It’s on tracks like “The Beat of Your Heart” where the idea of “love starts on a downbeat” is fleshed out and the audience understands the allure of art. It brought together two lovers, so passionately embracing the moment. Elsewhere, songs like “Haj Butrus” find musicians wandering the stage, playing in a silhouette in such a way that they almost seem angelic, like muses brought to earth. The way music works through those late hours is wonderful, and I can’t praise enough how great the lighting is, how the simple use of overhead lights capture an evening passing into dusk, how the end of “Answer Me” beautifully blends those hours before dawn with the ultimate sunrise as harmonies break out into this unified peace. For a story so involved with the individual, it’s amazing how perfectly this moment plays both on the soundtrack as it does in the show.
There are a lot of shows that feel like they use “music is the essence of life” as a crutch. As much as I loved it, I would include Moulin Rouge! on that list. For a show like The Band’s Visit, that would be too simple. They are musicians who end the show with a fantastic post-curtain call performance. I think one of the greatest hindrances is that while the soundtrack is excellent, I think it’s one of those that doesn’t do it justice. So much of it is merely instrumental, meaning that those like me who look for clues to the plot will be disappointed. The big numbers have the mellowness of a club act, swaying back and forth as the evening crowd shuffles home. Even then, every choice adds this inspiration when put into context. Sometimes it’s about stopping to interpret the melody and understand something lyrics can’t. It may at times be a very immobile show, driven less by plot than emotion, but only then does it allow this profound sense of personal exploration. We’ve all had that loneliness, of feeling displaced from the comforts of home. Even then, theater has rarely captured it so excellently. It also has roller skating, which is always an easy way for me to give anything five stars.
There’s so much that I have written about this show and I can only hope that future audiences latch onto it as much as I have. It’s one that I’d love to see tour for years and maybe even decades. I want to know how these subtle moments speak to me as I mature. With that said, the quarter-full theater convinces me that it may be a foolish dream. The optimistic argument is that this was the final vestige of theater being plagued with fears of COVID-19 protocols, where to get in you needed to present vaccination cards and wear masks. The more realistic answer is that it’s just not flashy, where its appeal is its humbleness and warmth.
Even then, it ranks as my favorite theater experience of the year in part because of the discovery of the stage. There was also the lobby where I bought a t-shirt and took in the scenery. Off in this corner was a telephone booth, not unlike the one used in the show. On the other end was the actor who played Tewfiq, whose minute-long message welcomed me to the show. It ended by referencing, quite cheekily, one of the show’s early tracks “welcome to nowhere.” Even in a crowded room as people shuffled to their seats, this small gimmick managed to capture how small the show was. Only one person could listen at a time. The way it feels like you’re in on a secret makes it a psychological stroke of genius. For those coming to the show unaware, it also is a curious novelty that has this impressive meaning once you see the context.
Then there’s the cast themselves. In what may be one of the greatest surprises of the year, I saw an actor who originated the role on film but didn’t originate it on Broadway. Given that it was a film from Israel and France, I understand the need to have Tony Shalhoub play it to draw an audience. Even then, seeing Sasson Gabal reprise the role of Tewfiq in a different medium is something that feels meaningful and special. This feels like more than type-casting, where it feels like something speaks directly to him about the character, who is lonely and looking for love. Small moments like Dina watching him orchestrate an invisible band and wondering if he’s fishing have these small flashes of reality in it that resonate with you. The effort to feel connected and even then holding our secrets is delicately handled and I love how listening to the soundtrack takes me back to the moments. It’s now as nostalgic as the atmosphere the show captures.
In one of the more fortunate events, The Band’s Visit ended up being the only show where I got to attend a Q&A after. Venues like Segerstrom have been known to have 15 minutes after the curtains fall where audiences get to ask the cast questions about their experiences. I will say that of all shows I could’ve gotten the opportunity for, I’m glad it was this one. From the navigation of the band on stage to the struggles with language barriers and authentic casting, so much of the show took on a deeper meaning when you know how everything comes together. It’s not the biggest ensemble or the most difficult choreography, but it’s still an impressive feat how everything falls into place, where the dropping out of sound or the rise in harmonies allows for something special. You feel the chills down your spine. Nothing special has happened, and yet the relatability of finding solace in a stranger’s company can have this cosmic effect on you.
This is an amazing year for me with theater. I got to see high schoolers do Les Misérables with very few props. I got to see college students pull off Merrily We Roll Along on an even smaller stage. I even saw Sally Struthers in Young Frankenstein. If you open it up to general theater, I also got to see Marc Maron honing material for his upcoming special. Every now and then I stop and appreciate the fact that I have such access to the arts, where these people put on shows that make me feel less alone. There are people who care about storytelling and the potential to just enjoy the small moments in our lives.
Still, I can’t help but think that The Band’s Visit is going to be one that remains very high on the list not so much because of the razzle dazzle, but because of how much the music even now feels like a warm hug. This is the essence of a friend coming over late one night to keep you company and talk out the problems you had at work. It’s how you can come to terms with so much just by having that extra time to sit in silence and think. There’s a lot to love about this show and I hope it finds enough of an audience to keep touring. I need to see it again, to revisit these moments and see what grows on me. Like every favorite piece of theater, the reasoning behind loving something is personal. For me, it’s the way that something as external as a stage can capture an inherently internal part of life. It’s a perfect work that I don’t know will be easy to top. I suppose that’s one thing to look forward to in the year to come.
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