The Band’s Visit dance away with 10 awards

NEW YORK: The American, grown-up musical The Band’s Visit outmuscled the acclaimed and sprawling British import Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the most Tony Awards yesterday, capturing 10 statuettes, including best musical.

It’s based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name and centres on members of an Egyptian police orchestra booked to play a concert at an Israeli city who accidentally end up in the wrong town. Its embrace of for- eign cultures working together found a sweet spot with Tony voters.

“In The Band’s Visit, music gives people hope and makes borders disappear,” producer Orin Wolf said upon accepting the best new musical crown.

Tony Shalhoub won as best leading man in a musical for his work on The Band’s Visit, connecting the win to his family’s long history of immigration from Lebanon, and the show’s Katrina Lenk, who won best actress in a musical, said the production “filled her stupid little heart with so much joy.”

The Band’s Visit also won statuettes for best direction, orchestration, sound design, best book and score, lighting and featured actor Ari’el Stachel, who gave a heartfelt speech about his past.

“For so many years of my life I pretended I was not a Middle Eastern person,” he said. He thanked the creators of the show “for being courageous for telling a small story about Arabs and Israelis getting along at a time that we need that more than ever.”

The show’s director, David Cromer, said the musical is also about loneliness and despair.

The two-part spectacle Harry Potter and the Cursed Child captured six, including best play, book, lighting, sound design, orchestrations and director for John Tiffany. – AP