A critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning musical is soon set to delight audiences at Teatru Manoel for its Malta premiere.
The brand-new production of The Band's Visit from Revamp MT will offer theatregoers a uniquely different musical theatre experience from 6 May.
Touted as a "remarkable and boundlessly compassionate and humanistic piece of theatre" by The Chicago Tribune, The Band's Visit opened in 2016 to critical acclaim and a twice-extended sell-out run. It twice broke the all-time box office record a year later when it opened on Broadway, with The New York Times calling the production "one of the most ravishing musicals you will ever be seduced by... a Broadway rarity seldom found these days outside of the canon of Stephen Sondheim: an honest-to-God musical for grown-ups."
From left: Actor-musicians - Godfrey Mifsud, Simon Abdilla Joslin, George Curmi (Il-Pusè), Marc Alan Spiteri Stafrace, Michael Camilleri.
The Band's Visit has won 10 Tony Awards - including Best Musical and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album. In fact, it remains one of only four musicals in Broadway history to win the unofficial 'Big Six' Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical.
Based on Eran Kolirin's 2007 film of the same name, The Band's Visit is a portrait of one night in a small Israeli desert town. It tells the story of an Egyptian police band, scheduled to perform in Israel but lost due to an error in pronunciation. The group of lost Arab musicians and their provincial Israeli hosts move tentatively towards each other, through breaking bread together, sharing secrets, suffering and - most profound of all - their mutual love of music, whether traditional Middle Eastern ballads or American jazz and Chet Baker.
Raphael Pace (playing Haled), Dorothy Bezzina (playing Dina), Charles Sammut (playing Tewfiq).
"The Band's Visit appeals to the universal romance and passion people find in music, no matter where they are from," says director Dorothy Bezzina, who leads the show's cast and creative team alongside musical director Edward Mifsud and production manager Karl Borg. "Its understated tone and raw realism make it a quietly powerful piece celebrating how music, longing and laughter can bring people together on a truly human level. Shifting gently between encounters silly, sad and bittersweet - with zero razzle-dazzle or glossy belts - The Band's Visit shows that sometimes it's good to get lost, to explore who you are. This story reminds us that even the briefest visit can stay with you forever."
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra.
For the Malta premiere, Charles Sammut, Dorothy Bezzina, Raphael Pace, Sean Borg and Jamie Busuttil Griffin lead a top cast of local performers, bringing to life the musical's sophisticated, non-traditional score by Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner David Yazbek, and the book by Itamar Moses - Tony, New York Drama Critics' Circle, Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle award-winner. To achieve the authentic dialects of the story, the cast is working with esteemed dialect coach Roy Horovitz, from the Israeli National Theatre. And, in another departure from the typical musical experience, The Band's Visit also features live actor-musicians on stage including George Curmi (Puse), Simon Abdilla Joslin, Godfrey Mifsud, Mark Alan Spiteri Stafrace and Michael Camilleri, playing various instruments such as the violin, violoncello, clarinet, saxophone, percussion and oud.
The Revamp MT production of The Band's Visit will run for two weekends from 6-14 May 2023 at Teatru Manoel. This production was made possible by arrangement with Music Theatre International, with the support of Arts Council Malta and with the generous sponsorship of official partner, JMV Group. Tickets are available online from www.teatrumanoel.mt, via email to [email protected], or by telephone on (+356) 2124 6389. For further information visit www.revamp.mt or www.facebook.com/revampmt.