As distinct as night and day are the electrifying Hamilton, and the bittersweet The Band’s Visit. Both deservedly showered with Tony awards, and utterly compelling in utterly different ways.
How could the sweet, short, and succinct tale of a hapless Egyptian band, stuck in the middle of Israeli nowhere for a single night, stand up to the fresh memory of Hamilton? After seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s towering hip-hop opera I wondered how anything could survive comparison. Especially given the close proximity of each experience, with only one night’s break in between seeing the two shows.
And I still can’t figure out how it was possible. But it was.

In the magic realist tale turned stage musical by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses, a band of musicians from Alexandria Egypt, outfitted in powder blue uniforms intended to imply dignity, find themselves in a one-horse town called Bet Hatikva (the name itself triggers endless sarcasm and humor). The last bus to where they’re going, a place called Petah Tikvah (yes, it does sound very close to “Bet Hatikva”) has just left. And a small group of bored cafe denizens—including the cafe’s spitfire owner Lina—find themselves reluctantly forced to extend what rough hospitality they can manage. It’s just one night, after all. And the desert casts a spell.

The vignettes that follow, in which we meet a young couple already fighting over lack of money; the town’s unhappy young bachelor; a love-sick young man who stands in front of the single telephone booth waiting for his beloved to call; Dina herself, and her divorced husband; the young couple’s father-in-law and his unquenchable passion for life. Each small story within the village’s dusty little world has its moment in the spotlight. In between, various members of the band create interludes performing mesmerizing Egyptian jazz, klesmer, folk ragas all rolled into one electrifying genre. The music is the soothing and irresistible tie that will bind all these people, Israelis and Egyptians, together for a night that will last for the rest of their lives.

At the center of all these small, vibrant interactions, is the edgy repartée between Dina (Katrina Lenk), with her dreams and cynicism, and the band’s leader, Tawfiq (Tony Shalhoub), a sad man riddled with rich life experience.Over dinner, they talk about the movies and movie stars they loved when they were young, romances lost, dreams destroyed.

And we dance with them on a jasmine scented wind,
From the west, from the south
Honey in my ears
Spice in my mouth.
Dark and thrilling,
Strange and sweet
Cleopatra and the handsome thief
And they floated in on a jasmine wind

And here’s where The Band’s Visit casts its spell. At first, it seems a rather modest, nicely-played series of scenes, each one crowned by some sweet song. The show is small, intimate, and deceptive. But somewhere in the middle it blossoms into a full dimension of enchantment. Poignant and hilarious—many tears, many tears—the show offers a portal into something as simple, and huge as what it is to be human, to have longings, and to find a reason to press on. Daring to open her much-bruised heart, Dina sings, “Something Different” —the powerful center of the show.

For a few hours, in the middle of a monotoned nowhere, the stories Dina and Tawfiq have shared have created something new. Certainly it is a kind of love at first sight, and yet it’s bigger than that.

And I don’t know what I feel
And I don’t know what I know
All I know is I feel something different

We all know what that is, that elusive yet priceless feeling. Especially when all hope of feeling anything has gone.

The show is short – 1 1/2 hours. Every moment is both ancient and modern. And the music! After the stage goes dark. The lights come up again, and the band sits down—all dozen of them—and plays music like I’ve only heard once in my life: under a full moon on the banks of the Nile.