Theater News

The Band's Visit Tour Resumes With Sasson Gabay and Janet Dacal

The Tony-winning musical halted its first national tour for Covid, but now it’s back.

Sasson Gabay reprises his Broadway performance for the national tour of The Band's Visit.
Sasson Gabay will reprise his Broadway performance for the national tour of The Band's Visit.
(© Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

The 2018 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, The Band's Visit, will resume its national tour on Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The production will continue on to more than 25 cities through Summer 2022, including Nashville, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Portland, and Cincinnati. Click here for a complete list of tour stops.

"After what everyone has been through, we are thrilled, proud, and relieved to return to the road and share this story of the power of music, the need for connection, and the undying spark of human decency," said director David Cromer.

Based on the 2007 film by Eran Kolirin, The Band's Visit is about an Egyptian police band scheduled to play a concert at the Arab cultural center in Petah Tikvah. When the group accidentally gets diverted to the sleepy hamlet of Bet Hatikva, they have to rely on the kindness of strangers — because there's no hotel and no bus until the morning.

Israeli actor Sasson Gabay reprises the role of band leader Tewfiq, which he originated in the film and played on Broadway. He will star opposite Janet Dacal (In the Heights) as Dina, the lonely cafe owner who takes him in.

The cast will also include Joe Joseph as Haled, Clay Singer as Itzik, Yoni Avi Battat as Camal, Coby Getzug as Papi, Joshua Grosso as Telephone Guy, Kendal Hartse as Iris, David Studwell as Avrum, Billy Cohen as Zelger, Layan Elwazani as Julia, Marc Ginsburg as Sammy, Ariel Reich as Anna, and James Rana as Simon, along with Ali Louis Bourzgui, Loren Lester, Dana Saleh Omar, Nick Sacks, and Hannah Shankman.

The Band's Visit features music and lyrics by David Yazbek, a book by Itamar Moses, and direction by David Cromer. The musical premiered at the Atlantic Theater Company in November 2016, before opening on Broadway in November 2017. It recouped its $8.75 million capitalization in September 2018, less than 12 months after its first preview. The Broadway production is the recipient of 10 Tony Awards.

Click here to read TheaterMania's review of Sasson Gabay in The Band's Visit.

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The Band’s Visit

Closed: June 19, 2022