For a quiet and intimate musical, The Band鈥檚 Visit certainly created a whole lot of noise on its opening night on Broadway.
After a long journey from downtown鈥檚 Atlantic Theater Company last fall, Drama Desk wins this past spring鈥攆or Outstanding Direction (David Cromer), Outstanding Music (David Yazbek), Outstanding Lyrics (Yazbek)鈥攁nd, now, a glowing review from the New York Times following a November 9 Broadway bow, the cast and creative team of the original musical based on the 2007 film of the same name were ready to celebrate.
But before joining the festivities at Manhattan鈥檚 Copacabana, the company joined 半岛体育 Live on the opening night red carpet to talk about the transition from Off-Broadway to Broadway, bringing a Middle Eastern story to the stage, and leaning in to the quietude and pregnant pauses at the heart of this story about the bonding power of music.
鈥淚t was clear that we wanted to honor the spirit of the movie,鈥� said book writer Itamar Moses. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 sure that it would work, but we liked it so much we had to be true to that impulse and let the chips fall where they may.鈥�
As for writing the structure of the show, Moses revealed his collaborative process with the show鈥檚 composer, David Yazbek. 鈥淗e said from the very beginning that his favorite way to discover song ideas was for something to be written completely as a scene or as a monologue as though it was a play. Our first creative conversation about what the songs should be happened after I had written a complete draft of the show just as though it were a play with no songs, and then we sat down together in his kitchen and went through page by page and circled everything we thought [could be a song].鈥�
From there the show became a hit downtown, and director Cromer was tasked with the challenge of transferring the show to Broadway. 鈥淲e were able to realize the core of what we wanted downtown,鈥� said Cromer. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 able to finish it, you just run out of time. We didn鈥檛 think we had to reinvent the wheel coming uptown, but we knew we had to finish it, polish it, make it built to last, and we were able to amplify it a little.鈥�
Star Tony Shalhoub, a three-time Tony nominee, feels like they got it right. 鈥淭his material, it seems to fit better in this house in this theatre,鈥� he told 半岛体育 on the carpet.
As 半岛体育 greeted more of the company鈥攊ncluding choreographer Patrick McCollum, music director Andrea Grody, and actors Andrew Polk, Alok Tewari, Ari鈥檈l Statchel, Etai Benson, Jonathan Raviv, Billy Army, Kristen Sieh, Sharone Sayegh, Rachel Prather, Adam Kantor, and Katrina Lenk鈥攁ctor George Abud articulated what he feels is the the beauty and strength of the show: 鈥淚 love visual storytelling 鈥� but I love when you can just stand there and create a tension or create a connection or an attraction, or this give and take and an audience will understand that because I think theatre is very much a visual art form.鈥�
鈥淎ny kind of creative process or art that we attempt, it鈥檚 really impossible to describe in words,鈥� said Shalhoub. 鈥淚n fact, once you try to describe it, you kind of kill it. You destroy it because it鈥檚 really something beyond words. It鈥檚 outside of us.鈥�
Watch the full interviews in the live stream video above.
