Tony Award-winning 'Band's Visit' returns to Benedum Center

The band visited once before, and now it’s coming back again.

“The Band’s Visit,” a Tony Award-winning musical, was in the midst of a PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh run when the pandemic shut down the entertainment industry in March 2020.

“We had done three performances when we left on March 15, and they were wonderful — and now we’re coming back to complete our mission,” said cast member Sasson Gabay, an award-winning Israeli actor who also starred in the original film and the Broadway production.

“The Band’s Visit” is scheduled for six performances, Oct. 28-31, in the Benedum Center in downtown Pittsburgh.

Based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name, the musical follows the fortunes of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra as it arrives from Egypt at the central bus station in Tel Aviv, Israel. When no one from a local Arab cultural organization meets them, the group’s leader — Col. Tewfiq Zakaria, played by Gabay — decides the group will take a bus to the performance venue.

At the ticket office, a young band member asks for tickets to the city of Petah Tikvah. Because of his Egyptian accent, the clerk misunderstands and sells him tickets to the isolated desert town of Bet Hatikva.

Once there, the band must wait overnight for another bus to its intended destination. In the meantime, the members interact with town residents, who open their homes and hearts to the unexpected visitors.

Gentle story

“The story is very gentle,” Gabay said. “It’s about our night spent with the locals and the little dramas of this night and nothing more. It’s gentle and human — there are no car chases.

“Each character has their own story, their own problems,” he said. “They find a way to share with a stranger. They open their hearts to each other to have comfort in each other.”

Gabay said he knew the story and the part he would play were special when he was approached to audition for the film.

“I said I didn’t have to audition,” he said. “I said, ‘Look, I know this person, I feel him in my bones.’ I felt from the beginning there was something very special about it.

“It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that my experience with ‘The Band’s Visit’ has been life-changing,” he said. “It’s changed many things in my career.”

The film won eight Ophir Awards, the Israeli equivalent of the Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gabay. The musical adaptation was first produced off-Broadway, and Gabay joined the cast when it moved to Broadway.

“That is a dream of any American actor, let alone an Israeli,” he said.

Pittsburgh audience members should “come with an open heart and they will have a very special experience,” he said. “This is not a typical musical. It’s not a razzle-dazzle musical, but it’s very delicate and entertaining and fun. It’s about the human condition and our need of one another and the likeness of us all, how people of different cultures are all alike. In a way, we’re all alone and we need each other.”

The musical runs for 95 minutes without an intermission.

Guests at the Benedum Center, and other venues operated by Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, must provide proof of vaccination or negative covid test, along with a valid government-issued ID. Those under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Masks are required for all guests 2 and older.

For more information, visit trustarts.org.