WHAT'S HAPPENING BROADWAY FANS?! Can you believe it's just 9 DAYS LEFT till Broadway's biggest night? However, we've been helping you start your morning with a different musical performance on our TOP 40 TONY AWARDS COUNTDOWN. Are you ready for another great performance from the past 73 years of the Tony Awards? Let's go!
At # 9 on our countdown, we travel to Israel in the year 1996. There, an Egyptian Police Band arrives there in a small quiet part due to a miscommunication for their initial destination. However the residents, let them stay for the night till they catch the bus the next morning and their lives change. This is The Band's Visit. With a score by last year's Tony winner (and nominee again this year) David Yazbek and a book by Itamar Moses, the show is bassed on an acclaimed 2007 Israeli film of the same name.
From last year's telecast, Tony winners Tony Shaloub as "Tewfiq", Katrina Lenk as "Dina", and company are chilling as a small Israeli cafe in Bet Hatikva dreaming of a certain movie star in song…. OMAR SHARIFF.
THE BAND'S VISIT was first coniced by producer Orin Wolf after seeing the original movie at a Film Festival in 2008. He was immediatly moved of how the story was. A few weeks later, the film started coming back to him so often, he gave himself the courage to reach out to the film's writer and director Eran Kolirin of adaptating it into a musical. However, Kolirin at first refused at the idea. It wasn't till something inside of him began to have a change of heart, he finally decided YES. From there, the development of the stage musical began going through several years of readings and workshops.
The show had its official world premiere OFF Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in 2016. It received rave reviews and a huge word of mouth following from Theatergoers everywhere, the show officially transferred to Broadway a year later. The ON Broadway run played the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and most recently closed after 38 previews and 589 regular performances. Under the direction of David Cromer, the cast included…
Tony Shaloub (later Dariush Kashani and the film's leading man Sasson Gabai) as "Tewfiq",
Katrina Lenk as "Dina",
Tony nominee John Cariani (later Brandon Uranowitz and Pomme Koch) as "Itzik",
Tony winner Ari'el Stachel as "Halded",
George Abud (later Samir Shukry) as "Camal",
Etai Benson as "Papi",
Adam Kantor as "Telephone Guy",
Bill Army as "Zegler",
Andrew Polk as "Avrum",
Rachel Prather as "Julia",
Jonathan Raviv as "Sammy",
Sharone Sayegh as "Anna",
Kristen Sieh as "Iris",
and Alex Tewari as "Simon".
The show was nomianted for 11 Tony Awards last year winning 10 including Best Musical.
THE BAND'S VISIT is gearing up to launch a National Tour these next few weeks. It offical launch in Providence, Rhode Island at the end of June before making its way all over North America.
Isn't this musical so beautiful, laid back, relaxing, and intimate?
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