Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Award-Winning Israeli Film Headed for U.S. Stage

Americans have grown accustomed to seeing Israeli entertainment adapted for U.S. screens big and small, and now an Israeli production is making its way to the stage.

Ynet reports that “The Band’s Visit,” a 2007 movie that won three prizes at Cannes, will be staged as an off-Broadway play, with a cast that includes the father and brother of one of the film’s stars. The article doesn’t say when or where the show will be staged, but says it will be directed by off-Broadway director Maxwell Williams and produced by Orin Wolf, whose previous credits include Broadway’s “A View From the Bridge.”

Set in a fictional town in southern Israel, “The Band’s Visit” should offer some interesting challenges for its creative team. The film tells the story of an Egyptian military band that gets lost on its way to a performance at an Israeli cultural center. Instead of playing as planned, the musicians spend a night in a small southern city, where they and their unexpected hosts struggle to communicate in English, and strike up a charming, if temporary, friendship.

One of Israel’s biggest hits on the international film festival circuit, “The Band’s Visit” claimed top prizes at the European Film Awards and at Israel’s versions of the Oscars, but had to sit out the American Academy Awards because too much of its script was in English to qualify for the foreign-language film category.

Playing an Egyptian conductor and musician in the stage version will be Mohammed and Adam Bakri, a father-and-son team from one of Israel’s most prominent acting families. The role of the musician was originated onscreen by Saleh Bakri, Mohammed’s son and Adam’s brother.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.