Small is beautiful in this resonant, revealing and intimate musical
The beauty of the European premiere of this multi-award-winning Broadway musical is partly down to the intimacy of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre – a small gem in the heart of the West End. For as its modest strapline suggests, the musical adaptation of the highly successful 2007 film. The Band's Visit, is indeed the story of a brief visit to a small town: “Once, not long ago, a group of musicians came to Israel from Egypt. You probably didn’t hear about it. It wasn’t very important.”
The band in question is the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra who, instead of arriving in Petah Tikva, a town that boasts an Arab Cultural Centre where they are booked to play a concert, find themselves stranded overnight in the tiny desert town of Beit Tikvah (actually fictional, unlike Petah Tikva), thanks to getting on the wrong bus.
They may not get to play, but in their one-night enforced stay till the first bus out, the locals offer hospitality; and both locals and visitors offer each other new perspectives that will change lives in small ways with wider implications. The band’s clarinettist soothes a crying baby to sleep, providing the sparring parents with much-needed R&R and providing himself with the inspiration he needs to finish his new concerto. Meanwhile, a shy young would-be lover gets the encouragement from a rather more confident visiting alpha male to break the ice at the roller disco with the equally uncertain object of his affections.
So, as the lights go up on the revolve that takes up so much of Soutra Gilmour’s simple yet wonderfully effective set, and the perfectly turned-out line up of band members in their immaculate uniforms, each pulling a matching case, you cannot help but be charmed and intrigued.
Members of the band are cleverly introduced as visitors who speak another language – while allowing both audience and onstage Israelis to understand them – by speaking in Arabic among themselves until one of them suggests: "Maybe we should speak English?" The exuberant and rather more informal Israeli locals bound on stage rolling their eyes at the bandleader’s awkward opening gambit: "Hello, I am musician."
At the heart of the story of this one-night stand are two central characters. Firstly, the incurably formal bandleader Tewfiq (inhabited immaculately by Alon Moni Aboutboul), and the expansive, alluring, big-hearted café owner Dina (glorious-voiced Miri Mesika, who lights up the stage with her warmth and star quality), an unofficial town fixer, mover and shaker – a ‘ganze macher’, as the Yiddish expression has it. No, it’s not a love story as such, more a meeting of minds and souls, an exchange of confidences that is also healing.
Also, you cannot help but notice the public phone box above the revolve and the wistful young man who waits beside it. Unsurprisingly, he is flustered by the visitors needing to use the phone to sort out their mistake, for he’s clearly awaiting the longed-for call that will change his love life.
Michael Longhurst’s direction is satisfyingly sure-footed; cast and band are uniformly wondrous. Marc Antolin and Michal Horowicz are touching as sparring, sleep-deprived couple Itzik and Iris, and Sargon Yelda is quietly charismatic as composer/clarinettist Simon; Sharif Afifi’s confident sexy band member Haled is excellent tutor to Harel Glazer’s shy would-be lover Papi. Peter Polycarpou adds twinkling gravitas as Itzik’s father-in-law Avrum. Ashley Margolis is sweetly touching as ‘Telephone Guy’.
David Yazbek’s music is a magical blend of Broadway and Middle Eastern vibes – both Arab and Israeli. His lyrics paint poetic pictures from the get-go, as with the gorgeous number that introduces the locals to the audience, ‘Time is Like a Sofa’. Words and music work seamlessly with Itamar Moses’s book. The Band's Visit is an evening of Middle Eastern delight that evokes much needed warmth and mutual understanding.
By Judi Herman
Photos by Marc Brenner
The Band's Visit runs until Saturday 3 December. 7.30pm (Mon-Sat), 2.30pm (Thu & Sat) & 2.30pm Tue 29 Nov. From £10-£65. Donmar Warehouse, WC2H 9LX. donmarwarehouse.com