Sometimes, a Broadway show is not just a performance. It is a dream set to music.
That was my experience when I saw “The Band’s Visit”, the multi-Tony Award-winning musical version of the Israeli film of the same name. “The Band’s Visit” is the story of an Egyptian police band, booked to sing in the Israeli city of Petach Tikvah (“with a p”). Through a simple linguistic error, the band winds up in a small desert town — Beit Hatikva (“with a b”). There, a café owner, Dina, invites them to stay the night, as an unresolved romantic tension between her and the captain of the band grows.
“The Band’s Visit” portrays Israeli Jews and Egyptian Muslims as dwelling together for a single night. Forty-five years ago, Israel and Egypt fought a war against each other. No one seems to remember. Their individual cultures flow imperceptibly between them. The music is enchanting in its blurring of Arab and Middle Eastern Jewish modes.
“The Band’s Visit” is almost a messianic moment. Israeli Jews provide hachnasat orchim, hospitality, for Egyptian strangers — just as our common father Abraham did for sojourners in the same desert that now houses Beit Hatikva. People see themselves as merely people – with secrets, longings, and love.
As I write this essay, the Red Alert app on my phone reminds me that rockets from Gaza are aimed at Israeli towns. “The Band’s Visit” reminds us of what could be.
Jeff Salkin is an author and senior Rabbi at Temple Solel in Florida. www.templesolel.com
