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The Band's Visit (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

December 15, 2017 18 Songs, 42 minutes ℗ 2017 Sh-K-Boom Records, LLC

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Soundtrack Information

The Band's Visit - Original Broadway Cast Recording

Release Date: December 15, 2017

Formats: CD, Digital

• The Band's Visit (2016) [Stage Musical]
• David Yazbek

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The Band's Visit [Original Broadway Cast Recording]

David yazbek.

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The Band's Visit (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

David Yazbek

19 SONGS • 42 MINUTES • DEC 15 2017

• TRACKS TRACKS
• DETAILS DETAILS

A singer/songwriter who cites Elvis Costello and XTC (whom he's produced) among his biggest inspirations, David Yazbek became better known as a Tony-winning musical theater composer/lyricist. He is also recognized for his work in film and television, which includes the theme song for Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego? in the early '90s. He released his first solo album, Laughing Man, under the mononym Yazbek in 1996 before partnering with writer Terrence McNally on The Full Monty, which marked his Broadway debut in 2000. He continued to release solo material into the 2000s in between theater projects such as 2005's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and 2017's The Band's Visit, both Tony Award winners for Best Musical. The latter won Yazbek the Tony for Best Original Score.

Born and raised in New York City, David Yazbek's first instrument was the cello, which he began playing in elementary school. He took up piano as a teenager. Yazbek went on to earn a degree from Brown University, graduating in 1982. He won an Emmy as part of the writing team for The Late Show with David Letterman in 1986 before deciding to focus on music professionally. At first finding success as a commercial jingle writer, he was part owner of the Manhattan Recording Company studio alongside founder Billy Straus from 1987 to 1989.

Yazbek partnered with a friend from high school, Sean Altman of Rockapella, to write the memorable theme song to the PBS educational series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, which premiered in 1991. Over the next several years, he composed for film shorts and began to find regular work as a music producer, collaborating with such artists as the Persuasions, Tito Puente, and songwriting influence Andy Partridge's band XTC. In turn, Partridge co-produced and played guitar on Yazbek's solo debut album, Laughing Man. It was released by What Are Records? in 1996, credited to simply Yazbek. Another '80s college rock-influenced Yazbek LP, Tock, followed on the same label in 1998. It included the song "You Are Here," which was penned by Partridge, who also performed on the album.

In the meantime, celebrated playwright Terrence McNally was preparing a book for the musical The Full Monty, an adaptation of the 1997 British film of the same name. Originally, composer/lyricist Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza) was approached to provide the show's music, but when he had to turn it down, he recommended his former bandmate, Yazbek, for the job. The show opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in October of 2000 and became a hit, premiering on the West End two years later. Yazbek's score was nominated for a Tony Award, and he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in 2001. Also in 2001, Yazbek released his third solo album, Damascus. A year later, he contributed additional lyrics for the A.R. Rahman musical Bombay Dreams.

His next project was an adaptation of the 1988 comedy film, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. With music and lyrics by Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane, it arrived on Broadway in 2005. Later that year, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels received 11 Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. What Are Records? also released the Yazbek song collection Tape Recorder (Collected Works) in 2005.

In 2007, the songwriter returned with another solo album, Evil Monkey Man, this time on Ghostlight Records and under his full name. The same year, Yazbek provided two songs for the film comedy The Ten ("Written in Stone" and "Who Am I and Where Do I Go from Here?"). Back on the stage, the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown reunited the composer with Lane. Based on the 1988 Pedro Almodóvar film, the show opened on Broadway in October 2010 and went on to earn Tony Award nominations for featured actresses Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti, as well as for Yazbek's score.

Another musical adaptation of a film, this time with its book by Itamar Moses, Yazbek's The Band's Visit premiered off-Broadway in late 2016, then opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre in November 2017. About an Egyptian ceremonial band stranded for a day in a remote, one-café Israeli town on their way to a gig, the musical addressed cultural differences and prejudices, as well as a lack thereof. Its score incorporated Egyptian folk, Arab classical music, klezmer, improvisational jazz, and more into songs and instrumental performances (Yazbek himself is of Jewish-Italian and Arab-Lebanese descent). The show was nominated for 11 Tony Awards in 2018, and won ten, including Best Musical and Yazbek's first for Best Original Score. He also won the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for the show. ~ Marcy Donelson

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Review: ‘The Band’s Visit’ Is a Ravishing Musical That Whispers With Romance

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By Ben Brantley

• Nov. 9, 2017

Breaking news for Broadway theatergoers, even — or perhaps especially — those who thought they were past the age of infatuation: It is time to fall in love again.

One of the most ravishing musicals you will ever be seduced by opened on Thursday night at the Barrymore Theater. It is called “The Band’s Visit,” and its undeniable allure is not of the hard-charging, brightly blaring sort common to box-office extravaganzas.

Instead, this portrait of a single night in a tiny Israeli desert town confirms a lyric that arrives, like nearly everything in this remarkable show, on a breath of reluctantly romantic hope: “Nothing is as beautiful as something you don’t expect.”

With songs by David Yazbek and a script by Itamar Moses, “The Band’s Visit” is a Broadway rarity seldom found these days outside of the canon of Stephen Sondheim: an honest-to-God musical for grown-ups. It is not a work to be punctuated with rowdy cheers and foot-stomping ovations, despite the uncanny virtuosity of Mr. Yazbek’s benchmark score.

That would stop the show, and you really don’t want that to happen. Directed by David Cromer with an inspired inventiveness that never calls attention to itself, “The Band’s Visit” flows with the grave and joyful insistence of life itself. All it asks is that you be quiet enough to hear the music in the murmurs, whispers and silences of human existence at its most mundane — and transcendent.

And, oh yes, be willing to have your heart broken, at least a little. Because “The Band’s Visit,” which stars a magnificent Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub as would-be lovers in a not-quite paradise, is like life in that way, too.

There were worries that this finely detailed show, based on Eran Kolirin’s screenplay for the 2007 film of the same title, might not survive the transfer to Broadway. First staged to sold-out houses late last year at the Atlantic Theater Company, it exuded a shimmering transparency that might well have evaporated in less intimate quarters.

Yet “The Band’s Visit” — which follows the modest adventures of a touring Egyptian band stranded in an Israeli village significant only for its insignificance — more than holds its own on a larger stage. Its impeccably coordinated creative team has magnified and polished its assets to a high sheen that never feels synthetic.

This show was always close to perfect musically. (Mr. Yazbek’s quietly simmering score, which inflects Broadway balladry and character songs with a haunting Middle Eastern accent, felt as essential as oxygen.) But it felt a shade less persuasive in its connective spoken scenes.

That is, to say the least, no longer a problem. Though the lives it depicts are governed by a caution born of chronic disappointment, Mr. Cromer’s production now moves wire to wire with a thoroughbred’s confidence.

Such assurance is all the more impressive when you consider that “The Band’s Visit” is built on delicately balanced contradictions. It finds ecstasy in ennui; eroticism among people who rarely make physical contact; and a sense of profound eventfulness in a plot in which, all told, very little happens.

The story is sprung when the members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Band, led by their straight-backed conductor, Tewfiq (Mr. Shalhoub), board a bus in 1996 for an engagement at the Arab Cultural Center in the city of Petah Tikva. Thanks to some understandable confusion at the ticket counter, they wind up instead in the flyblown backwater of Bet Hatikva.

They register as unmistakably alien figures there, looking like refugees from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in their powder-blue uniforms. (Sarah Laux did the costumes.) And there’s not a bus out of this godforsaken hole until the next morning.

Just how uninteresting is Bet Hatikva? Its residents are happy to tell you, in some of the wittiest songs ever written about being bored. The “B” that begins its name might as well stand for “basically bleak and beige and blah blah blah.”

Leading this civic inventory is a cafe proprietor named Dina (Ms. Lenk, in a star-making performance), a wry beauty who clearly doesn’t belong here and just as clearly will never leave. Like her fellow citizens, she sees the defining condition of her life as eternal waiting, a state in which you “keep looking off out into the distance/ Even though you know the view is never gonna change.”

Scott Pask’s revolving set, so fitting for a world in which life seems to spin in an endless circle, captures the sameness of the view. But Tyler Micoleau’s lighting, and the whispers of projections by Maya Ciarrocchi, evoke the subliminal changes of perspective stirred by the arrival of strangers.

Connections among the Egyptian and the Israeli characters are inevitably incomplete. To begin with, they don’t share a language and must communicate in broken English. And as the stranded musicians interact with their hosts, their shared story becomes a tally of sweet nothings, of regretful might-have-beens.

That means that the cultural collisions and consummations that you — and they — might anticipate don’t occur. Even the frictions that emerge from uninvited Arabs on Israeli soil flicker and die like damp matches.

The show is carefully veined with images of incompleteness: a forever unlit cigarette in the mouth of a violinist (George Abud); a clarinet concerto that has never been completed by its composer (Alok Tewari); a public telephone that never rings, guarded by a local (Adam Kantor) waiting for a call from his girlfriend; and a pickup line that’s dangled like an unbaited hook by the band’s aspiring Lothario (Ari’el Stachel, whose smooth jazz vocals dazzle in the style of his character’s idol, Chet Baker).

All the cast members — who also include a deeply affecting John Cariani, Kristen Sieh, Etai Benson and Andrew Polk — forge precisely individualized characters, lonely people who have all known loss, with everything and nothing in common. A marvelous Mr. Shalhoub (“Monk”) has only grown in the role of a man who carries his dignity and private grief with the stiffness of someone transporting perilously fragile cargo.

As for Ms. Lenk, seen on Broadway last season in Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” she is the ideal avatar of this show’s paradoxical spirit, at once coolly evasive and warmly expansive, like the jasmine wind that Dina describes in the breakout ballad “Omar Sharif.”

Listening to Tewfiq sing in Arabic, she wonders, “Is he singing about wishing?” She goes on: “I don’t know what I feel, and I don’t know what I know/All I know is I feel something different.”

Mr. Yazbek’s melody matches the exquisitely uncertain certainty of the lyrics. That “something different” is the heart-clutching sensation that throbs throughout this miraculous show, as precise as it is elusive, and all the more poignant for being both.

The Band's Visit Tickets

The critically acclaimed new musical that celebrates the deeply human ways music and laughter connect us all.

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Performances ended on Apr. 7, 2019.

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Spend an evening in the company of unforgettable strangers at The Band’s Visit —now one of the most celebrated musicals ever. It rejoices in the way music brings us to life, brings us to laughter, brings us to tears, and ultimately, brings us together. In an Israeli desert town where every day feels the same, something different is suddenly in the air. Dina, the local café owner, had long resigned her desires for romance to daydreaming about exotic films and music from her youth. When a band of Egyptian musicians shows up lost at her café, she and her fellow locals take them in for the night. Under the spell of the night sky, their lives intertwine in unexpected ways, and this once sleepy town begins to wake up.

"It's time to fall in love again! One of the most ravishing musicals you will ever be seduced by." The New York Times Ben Brantley

"Worlds collide, and hearts and minds open. It's ravishing! Unlike any musical I've ever seen." Vogue Adam Green

Cast & Creative

In addition to his turn in The   Band's Visit film, Gabay has been seen on-screen in Rambo III, Mermaids, Anachnu BaMapa and Shtisel . He won an Israeli Film Academy Award for his performance in the drama Gett and an Israeli Television Academy Award for his turn in the comedy series Polishuk.

Katrina Lenk is a triple threat artist who segues seamlessly between stage and screen. She most recently starred as Dina in Broadway’s Tony Award-winning production of The Band’s Visit and earned a Tony Award, Grammy Award, Emmy Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, Chita Rivera Award nomination, Drama League Award nomination, Theatre World Award’s Dorothy Louden Award, and a Clarence Derwent Award for Breakout Female of the Year. Lenk starred on Broadway in Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel’s Indecent (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination). Her other Broadway credits include Once, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark  and The Miracle Worker . Additional theater credits include iWitness (Mark Taper Forum), Lost Land (Steppenwolf), Caucasian Chalk Circle (South Coast Rep) and Lovelace: A Rock Opera (L.A./Edinburgh). To television audiences, Lenk is known for her pivotal roles on hit series including a recent major series arc on the The Village, The Good Fight, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Elementary, The Get Down, The Blacklist, According to Jim  and Will & Grace . On the big screen, she appeared in Look Away, Evol: The Theory of Love, Elan Vital, Crime Fiction, Kiss Me in the Dark  and Space Daze . Lenk is the ringleader of the band/performance art piece called Moxy Phinx.

Ari'el Stachel is making his Broadway debut after originating the role of Haled in The Band's Visit at the Atlantic Theatre Company (Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations). His regional credits include  The Golem of Havana (Barrington Stage Company). He appeared in workshops for  We Live in Cairo (NYTW) and  The Visitor (Public Theatre). On screen, he's been seen in  Blue Bloods  and Jessica Jones .

George Abud is a proud Arab-American actor. Broadway:  The Band’s Visit  starring Katrina Lenk & Tony Shalhoub (Daytime Emmy Award, OBC Recording);  The Visit  starring Chita Rivera & Roger Rees (OBC Recording). Off-Broadway:  The Beautiful Lady  directed by Anne Bogart (La MaMa Experimental Theatre);  Cornelia Street  opposite Norbert Leo Butz (Atlantic Theater Company); Nerd Face in  Emojiland  (Drama Desk nomination, OOBC Recording);  The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui  opposite Raúl Esparza,  Nathan The Wise  opposite F. Murray Abraham, Ibsen’s  Peer Gynt , and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s  Allegro  directed by John Doyle (all for Classic Stage Company); also, at Atlantic,  The Band’s Visit  directed by David Cromer; and  Lolita, My Love  opposite Robert Sella (York Theatre Company). Regional: Richard Nixon in  The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical  directed by Christopher Ashley, and Marinetti in  Lempicka  directed by Rachel Chavkin (La Jolla Playhouse, Craig Noel nominations for both productions); Lewis Chapman in  August Rush  (Paramount Theatre);  Annie Get Your Gun  directed by Sarna Lapine (Bay Street Theater); and Puck in  A Midsummer Night’s Dream  (Geva Theatre Center).

Adam Kantor's Broadway credits include  The Band’s Visit  (Telephone Guy - Grammy & Emmy Awards),  Fiddler On The Roof  (Motel),  Next To Normal  (Henry), and  RENT  (Mark). Off-Broadway:  The Last Five Years  (Jamie),  Avenue Q  (Princeton/Rod). Regional:  Diner  (Signature Theatre),  Nobody Loves You  and  Two Gentlemen of Verona  (The Old Globe). TV: Billions on Showtime (Pununzio), The Good Wife on CBS (Ezra). Training: Northwestern University and British American Dramatic Academy. Co-Founder of StoryCourse - theatrical dining experiences.

Etain Benson is an Israeli-American actor based in NYC. On Broadway, he originated the role of Papi in the Tony Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit . Broadway/National Tour: Wicked (Boq); An American in Paris (Adam). TV: “God Friended Me.” Regional: The Fortress of Solitude (premiere, Dallas Theater Center), A Room with a View (premiere, The Old Globe), Next to Normal (Weston Playhouse), My Name is Asher Lev (GableStage). Workshops: The Band’s Visit (directed by Hal Prince), The Devil Wears Prada (directed by Anna Shapiro), Little Miss Sunshine (directed by James Lapine). Benson trained at the University of Michigan and the legendary Moscow Art Theatre. He is a Grammy Award winner as Principal Soloist on The Band’s Visit Original Broadway Cast Album.  

David Cromer is a New York-based director and actor. He appeared on Broadway as Karl Lindner in the 2014 revival of  A Raisin in the Sun , and Off-Broadway as the Stage Manager in  Our Town , which he also directed, at the Barrow Street Theatre. He appeared in the HBO series The Newsroom , the Showtime series Billions , and in the motion picture  The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) . As a director, his New York credits include  The Band’s Visit  (2018 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, Ethel Barrymore Theatre); the Broadway revivals of  Brighton Beach Memoirs  and  The House of Blue Leaves ;  The Treasurer  (Playwrights Horizons);  Man from Nebraska  (Second Stage Theatre);  The Effect, Orson’s Shadow,  and  Tribes  (Barrow Street Theatre);  Women or Nothing (Atlantic Theater Company);  Really Really  (MCC Theater);  When the Rain Stops Falling  and  Nikolai and the Others  (Lincoln Center Theater); and  Adding Machine (Minetta Lane Theatre). Other directing credits include  Come Back, Little Sheba  (Huntington Theatre Company);  The Sound Inside  (Williamstown Theatre Festival); and  Our Town  in London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Kansas City. Cromer has received a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, three Obie Awards, three Lucille Lortel Awards, a Joe A. Callaway Award, four Jeff Awards, and in 2010 was made a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

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Broadway's 'The Band's Visit' Tells A Story Of Common Ground Between Cultures

Jeff Lunden

Katrina Lenk's and Tony Shalhoub's characters have an almost-romance in The Band's Visit . Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Katrina Lenk's and Tony Shalhoub's characters have an almost-romance in The Band's Visit .

When songwriter David Yazbek, whose mother is Jewish and father Lebanese, decided to write a musical that fused his two cultural backgrounds, he knew he didn't want it to be about tribal conflict.

His new Broadway show, The Band's Visit , attempts to do something that seems almost unfashionable: look at two historically antagonistic cultures and tell a story about their commonality.

It all started when a producer contacted Yazbek about adapting a 10-year-old Israeli movie for the stage: The Band's Visit . In the movie, an Egyptian ceremonial police band gets stranded in a town in the middle of the Israeli desert. When the townspeople discover the musicians are stuck for the night, they invite them into their homes. That's pretty much the plot.

Yazbek says the musical follows the film's lead in dramatizing the situation by not overtly dealing with the tensions between Israel and Arab countries.

"If you were to point a finger at it, you would distract from what the movie is really about," Yazbek explains. "This could be a movie about any two groups, even Democrats and Republicans."

Itamar Moses, the playwright who adapted the film's script, says the show's message resonates more now than when he and Yazbek were writing it.

"It suddenly felt really urgent to say that people are people," says Moses. "And when you strip away politics and the sort of rigid tribes that we seem to cling to and belong to, everybody can connect over the need for food and shelter and music and the need for love itself."

As for the musical's score, it certainly doesn't sound like a typical Broadway musical. Tony Shalhoub, best known as the TV character Monk, plays the Egyptian band leader. He says that it's the first musical he's ever heard that "has Arabic music and Israeli music and people singing in both languages."

Some of the actors also play instruments, like violinist George Abud.

"When you're a Lebanese actor, or an [Arab] actor, in New York, you go in for certain roles," Abud says. "And you are kind of destined to play certain situations. And most of the situations are politicized or religious or terrorists. And then finally we get a play where everybody's just being a person."

In a series of vignettes, the Egyptian band members and their Israeli hosts get to know one another. There are stressed-out parents, angsty teens, and a band member obsessed with Chet Baker. Shaloub's band leader has an almost- romance with a café owner played by Katrina Lenk.

Lenk says that these two somewhat lonely characters, with complicated histories, discover "that magical thing that can happen when you meet a stranger and suddenly you feel like you can tell them things that you can't tell people that are your good friends."

Shalhoub thinks that the musical's choice to not emphasize the political conflicts between Egyptians and Israelis has almost become a political choice in itself.

"[The musical is] political almost by virtue of the fact that it isn't," Shalhoub says. "It isn't a story about politics. And somehow, today everything becomes political. It's the prism we all look through now."

Which, The Band's Visit suggests, might not be the only way to look at things.

The Band's Visit Tour 2021

The band's visit - 2021 - us tour history , info & more.

Koger Center for the Arts

After a mix-up at the border, an Egyptian Police Band is sent to a remote village in the middle of the Israeli desert. With no bus until morning and no hotel in sight, these unlikely travelers are taken in by the locals. Under the spell of the desert sky, their lives become intertwined in the most unexpected ways. THE BAND'S VISIT celebrates the deeply human ways music, longing and laughter can connect us all. eaturing music & lyrics by three-time Tony Award nominee & Drama Desk Award winner David Yazbek and a book by NY Drama Critics Circle, Lortel and Outer Critics award winner and Drama Desk nominee Itamar Moses, based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin, THE BAND'S VISIT will be directed by Drama Desk, Lortel & Obie Award winner and Outer Critic & Drama League Award nominee David Cromer.

The Band's Visit - 2021 - US Tour Cast

Janet Dacal

Ali Louis Bourzgui

Joshua Grosso

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The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has announced that THE BAND’S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony® and Drama Desk Award®-winner David Yazbek, will be returning to Washington, D.C. from July 5–17, 2022.

Now playing the Fisher Theatre through May 1st, recent Tony Award darling The Band's Visit is a musical with a lot of heart and a deeply ingrained mission to unify cultures, rather than divide. The genius of The Band's Visit lies not in flashy musical numbers or costumes, but in the honest (and modest) storytelling.

The Band's Visit is an intimate 90 minute musical with no intermission, no big show-stopping numbers, and no 'flash' as we say in show biz. It is a very real performance about a random moment in history, based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name.

Premera Blue Cross Broadway at The Paramount has announced that THE BAND’S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony® and Drama Desk Award®-winner David Yazbek, will be coming to The Paramount Theatre in Seattle from March 8 - 13, 2022.

The North American tour of the 10-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical THE BAND'S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony and Drama Desk Award®-winner David Yazbek, has hit the road!

I’m happy to admit that while I am indeed euphoric, I remain clear-eyed in the knowledge that this particular cultural offering is unique in its storytelling and in the characters who will live for years to come until the very last person who remembers experiencing the exhilaration of the return of live Broadway theater to Nashville speaks their names for the last time.

The North American tour of the 10-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical THE BAND'S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony and Drama Desk Award®-winner David Yazbek, has hit the road, currently playing at Nashville's TPAC Andrew Jackson Hall. Upcoming stops include Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Worcester, Hartford, and Los Angeles.

When the national tour of 'Anastasia' closed on March 1 at Des Moines Performing Arts, no one could have imagined it would be 19 months before another national tour of a Broadway show would hit the stage again at the Civic Center. 19 months. Who would have thought an intermission could last that long? On Tuesday, October 12, the stage was filled again with all the entrancing pieces that go into making a Broadway show when the national tour of 'The Band's Visit, which plays through October 17, 2021, opened.

Coming home to the theater – even when it means returning to a role he first played more than two years ago – is a surreal experience for Joe Joseph, the thoughtful, reflective and multi-talented University of Michigan graduate now playing Haled in the national touring company of The Band’s Visit, the 2019 Tony Award-winning best musical.

THE BAND’S VISIT is an incredibly gentle, but very human musical about a band of Egyptian musicians who end up stranded in a small Israeli town. It’s a show about unlikely connections as we see the Arab musicians bond with those in the small town.

The North American tour of the 10-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical THE BAND’S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner David Yazbek, takes to The Bushnell stage November 16 - 21.

The North American tour of the 10-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical THE BAND’S VISIT, featuring music and lyrics by Tony and Drama Desk Award®-winner David Yazbek, will resume its national tour on Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at the Durham Performing Arts Center and continue on to more than 25 cities through Summer 2022.

The Band's Visit History

Other productions of the band's visit.

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Nashville Resort Welcomes Back  ICE! Featuring Frosty the Snowman™ as Signature Attraction During 41st Annual Holiday Event.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville’s most extraordinary frozen holiday attraction, ICE! , announces its 2024 return with the holiday classic, Frosty the Snowman ™, as part of Gaylord Opryland Resort’s 41st Annual A Country Christmas event, beginning Nov. 8, 2024, through Jan. 4, 2025. The long-standing ICE! tradition began in 2001 at Gaylord Opryland and is now a holiday staple at all five Gaylord Hotels properties.

When entering ICE! featuring Frosty the Snowman, overnight and local day guests will embark on a magical journey alongside the famous snowman who came to life. The attraction includes 11 immersive walk-through scenes, larger-than life ice sculptures, awe-inspiring passageways, and photo-worthy moments the entire family can enjoy. This year the attraction will also feature more slides than ever before: 6 thrilling two-story ice slides, plus a kids’ peak-a-boo slide. Inside the attraction, guests can also visit an artisan performing live carving demonstrations. The ICE! experience concludes in a separate area dedicated to the Nativity scene, meticulously carved, and shaped into a dramatic display of crystal-clear ice.

Starting with more than 6,000 massive ice blocks, the carvers work approximately six weeks–more than 12,000 man-hours–to create the nearly 17,000-square-foot frozen attraction. The artisans, using skills passed down through generations, follow a 300-page design book to create the ice spectacle. Ice carvings range in size from details as tiny as a coin to soaring scenes. The attraction is kept at a chilly 9 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve the intricate, frozen detail. To stay warm, guests will don the attraction’s signature blue parkas.    

The carvers will travel more than 6,400 miles from their homes in Harbin, China, to Nashville, Tenn. Known as the “Ice City,” Harbin is home to the world’s largest annual ice and snow sculpting festival. At Gaylord Opryland, some of the same artisans who create the Harbin festival will carve 300-pound blocks of ice into larger-than-life, whimsical scenes. Carvers will use chisels, chippers, tongs, handsaws, grinders, chainsaws, and hand-made tools to bring the winter wonderland to life.

While ICE! is the signature attraction of A Country Christmas , there are plenty more merry activities, events, and dazzling decorations, both indoors and outdoors. A true winter wonderland, the resort boasts more than five million twinkling lights, elaborately themed Christmas trees including a fully adorned 48-foot tree, 15,000 poinsettias, 15 miles of green garland, and 10 miles of hand-tied ribbon. Additionally, guests can experience exciting rides at Pinetop, an outdoor Appalachian-esque village, along with a variety of other experiences.

Here is a listing of other events, live entertainment, hands-on activities, and exciting attractions taking place at the resort this holiday season:

• This year’s “A Country Christmas Dinner Show” will begin November 23 and run through Christmas Day. It will feature two different shows including Terri Clark’s “It’s Christmas…Cheers!” (November 23-24, and 27-30; & December 1, 4-6, and 17-22) and The Frontmen’s “Holidays & Hits” (November 25-26 & December 2-3, 15-16, and 23-25). The unforgettable experience highlights classic and original holiday music plus favorite country hits, paired with a festive meal crafted by the resort's award-winning chefs.
• Join the jolliest hostess for a brand-new experience, Mrs. Claus’ North Pole Breakfast. This one-of-a-kind dining and photo opportunity with Mrs. Claus includes a delicious breakfast to enjoy with friends and family.
• A frozen flurry has swept through the atrium, scattering vibrant clothing and accessories meant for decorating Christmas snowmen. Embark on a festive quest to find these scattered pieces and use them to design your very own snowman, bringing the Christmas spirit back to life during the Snowman Scramble Scavenger Hunt .
• Thrilling activities await outside at Pinetop including ice tubing down a 15-foot-high, four-lane ice tubing hill, a classic bumper car experience, Snowball Build & Blast where guests can throw real snowballs at interactive targets created by Santa’s Elves, ice skating or ice-skating lessons on a 10,000 square-foot rink, and the Merry & Bright Skating Spectacular live show featuring champion skaters, big jumps, fast spins and awe-inspiring throws and lifts.
• The Very Merry Breakfast Show features a savory and sweet breakfast buffet and live holiday music by Ten Year Town.
• Guests can hop aboard Nashville’s famous 300-foot paddlewheel riverboat, the General Jackson Showboat , for the Tennessee Christmas lunch cruise or the Music City Christmas dinner cruise while enjoying scenic views of the Cumberland River and Nashville Skyline. Guests can look forward to a delightful Southern meal and world-class live musical performances.
• Christmas creativity runs wild in the Gingerbread Decorating Corner . Achieve confection perfection by decorating your very own Gingerbread cookies or house.
• Mailing a letter to the North Pole is great, but nothing can beat a personal visit with Santa Claus to let him know what you want for Christmas and make sure you're on his nice list. Guests can capture the moment with a keepsake photo during the Photos with Santa experience.
• Hop aboard the Delta Riverboat Christmas Cruise to explore A Country Christmas in the Delta Atrium while cruising down a quarter mile-long river inside of the Delta Atrium.
• Take in a breathtaking synchronization of light, water, and holiday music during a free fountain show inside of the Delta Atrium.
• Visit the Build-A-Bear Workshop  to experience the fun of personalizing furry friends and taking part in our one-of-a-kind Heart Ceremony.
• Other outdoor activities include the resort’s millions of Christmas lights displayed on the Magnolia lawn, a nightly tree lighting , Dickens Carolers , carriage rides , and a stunning Nativity display featuring special lighting effects and an audio rendition of the beloved biblical story. 
• Relâche Spa inside the resort will feature Winter Wellness spa treatments like massages, facials, and pedicures for seasonal relaxation.
• The resort’s upscale water attraction, SoundWaves , has an 84-degree, 110,000 square-foot inside area which is open year-round. Float down the lazy river, zip along the rapid river, jump aboard a mega raft ride, or take a stab at surfing on Nashville’s only double FlowRider®. The attraction also features a restaurant, cabana rentals, multi-level play structures for kids, and an adult only pool and adult only bar. Downstairs, all hotel visitors can visit The Bass-ment, a full arcade room with a rock-climbing wall. Soundwaves is only available to guests who pre-purchase a SoundWaves package.

Beginning today, guests can book special early bird packages or tickets to receive a limited-time discount. Terms, conditions, and blackout dates apply. The resort is offering an ICE! Signature Package including one night room accommodations and ICE! tickets (plus a Chill & Thrill package option to also include SoundWaves). All overnight guests will enjoy additional perks including:

• Complimentary “Chill Pass” privileges to ICE! offering front-of-line access and shorter wait times.
• Complimentary “Extra Cool Hour,” which provides early entry into ICE! one hour before it opens to the general public.

For capacity management and to ensure an enjoyable environment, resort access will be guaranteed after 2pm CT for overnight guests and indoor/outdoor ticket reservation holders only, every Friday/Saturday/Sunday beginning November 15 plus daily Nov 25-28 and Dec. 19-31, 2024. For event tickets, to book an overnight stay, and more information, visit ChristmasAtGaylordOpryland.com .

The annual ICE! events bring to life beloved Christmas stories hand-carved by master artisans from Harbin, China at resorts around the United States. Created and designed by Gaylord Hotels, ICE! debuted at Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee in 2001. ICE! has been visited by tens of millions of visitors who travel to each resort to see more than 2 million pounds carved into beloved scenes and characters, two-story ice slides, photo-worthy tunnels, and archways, and more. ICE! takes place at each Gaylord Hotels resort across the United States, including Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Md., Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn., Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Fla., Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora, Colo. and Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas. In 2024, ICE! makes its debut at JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country in San Antonio, Texas. More information can be found at ICE.marriott.com.   

About Gaylord Opryland

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, located at 2800 Opryland Drive in Nashville, Tenn., is the flagship property of Gaylord Hotels, part of the Marriott portfolio of brands. The 2,888-room hotel offers “everything in one place”— SoundWaves upscale indoor/outdoor water attraction, diverse dining options, a full-service spa, top-notch entertainment, on-site shopping, an award-winning golf course and more. For more information, visit www.GaylordOpryland.com.

About Build-A-Bear

Build-A-Bear is a multi-generational global brand focused on its mission to “add a little more heart to life” appealing to a wide array of consumer groups who enjoy the personal expression in making their own “furry friends” to celebrate and commemorate life moments. More than 500 interactive brick-and-mortar experience locations operated through a variety of formats provide Guests of all ages a hands-on entertaining experience, which often fosters a lasting and emotional brand connection. The brand’s newest communications campaign, "The Stuff You Love," commemorates more than a quarter-century of creating cherished memories worldwide. The Company also offers engaging e-commerce/digital purchasing experiences on www.buildabear.com including its online “Bear-Builder” as well as “HeartBox” and its age-gated adult-focused “Bear Cave.” In addition, extending its brand power beyond retail, Build-A-Bear Entertainment, a subsidiary of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., is dedicated to creating engaging content for kids and adults that fulfills the Company’s mission, while the Company also offers products at wholesale and in non-plush consumer categories via licensing agreements with leading manufacturers. Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (NYSE: BBW) posted total revenues of $486.1 million for fiscal 2023. For more information, visit the Investor Relations section of buildabear.com.

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When will Trump be in Nashville? Former president expected in Music City this weekend

Former President and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is coming to Nashville. But to see him comes with a pretty hefty price tag .

Trump is expected to be in Nashville this weekend for the Bitcoin2024 conference that starts Thursday. Along with that appearance, there will be other high-dollar events in Music City to meet the businessman/reality television star turned politician.

Bitcoin2024 , the cryptocurrency's largest industry conference for the year, announced that Trump would be speaking at some point during the three-day event just ahead of the Republican National Convention where Trump received the nomination.

Here's when Trump is expected to speak at Bitcoin2024 and other events he's expected to be at in Tennessee.

When will Trump be in Nashville?

Trump is expected to speak at the Bitcoin conference on Saturday, July 27 at 2 p.m.

He is also expected to host a "VIP reception" after giving his speech that people can attend.

How much does it cost to see Trump in Nashville?

Passes for Bitcoin2024 took a jump recently, the VIP "Whale Pass" tickets for the three-day conference went from $10,999 before the RNC to $21,000 per person now.

The more basic ticket packages are priced at $699 and $3,999. Oh, you do get a 21% discount when paying with Bitcoin.

Want to go to that "VIP reception"? Be ready to sell a property or take out a hefty loan.

The cost for the after-event starts at $60,000. For $844,600, donors can attend the reception, take a photo with Trump and participate in an exclusive roundtable. A ticket just for the photo op and reception costs $60,000 per person or $100,000 per couple, according to  the Trump 47 Committee .

Donald Trump Jr.'s Nashville event

Donald Trump Jr. will host a  catered meet and greet event on Friday, July 26, in collaboration with the Trump campaign, at the L27 rooftop lounge at the Westin Hotel. This price is a bit more reasonable. Tickets cost $3,000 per person or $5,000 per couple.

Is Trump expected to make any other appearances in Tennessee?

According to Trump's campaign website, he has two scheduled events in the near future. One in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday. His first rally since winning the Republican presidential nomination.

Per the website, his next engagement is Saturday night in St. Cloud, Minnesota, at 7 p.m. CT with his running mate, JD Vance. The travel time between St. Cloud and Nashville is about a two hour plane ride, per TravelMath . Meaning, Trump only has less than four hours in Music City before flying to his next rally.

No other trips to Tennessee were listed on the website at this time.

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Kamala Harris used Beyoncé's 'Freedom' in 1st campaign ad. What does the song mean?

Kamala Harris' first 2024 presidential campaign video makes a statement, and uses a Beyoncé song to help.

The video features Beyoncé's 2016 song " Freedom " to reinforce Harris' stance and values as the de facto Democratic nominee leading up to the presidential election.

"In this election, we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in?" Harris says in the ad. "There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us? We choose something different. We choose freedom."

"The freedom not just to get by, but to get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body. We choose a future where no child lives in poverty, where we can all afford healthcare, where no one is above the law," she continues. "We believe in the promise of America and we're ready to fight for it because when we fight, we win."

On Instagram , Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles , shared a photo and endorsed Harris, who is currently serving as President Joe Biden's Vice President.

"New, Youthful, Sharp , , energy !!!!" she wrote. "You asked for it and our President Biden did what was best for the country ! Putting personal Ego , power and fame aside. That is the definition of a great leader, . Thank you, President Biden for your service and your leadership . Go Vice President Kamala Harris for President. Let’s Go ❤️❤️❤️❤️ #kamala2024."

What is 'Freedom' by Beyoncé about?

The song, which features Kendrick Lamar, was originally on Beyoncé’s album “Lemonade," and has become a protest anthem since its release in 2016.

The lyrics are about freedom and liberation on both personal and societal scales.

"Freedom" could be read as someone seeking change in his or her life, which is in line with the broader arc of the album. "Lemonade" is often read as a journey through deception, infidelity, awakening and forgiveness in a romantic relationship.

Beyoncé sings, “Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move / Freedom, cut me loose! Yeah / Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? / ‘Cause I need freedom, too / I break chains all by myself / Won’t let my freedom rot in hell.”

In the outro, Beyoncé plays a recording of her husband Jay Z’s grandmother Hattie White talking about her hardships and how she overcame them.

“I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade,” she says in the recording.

The song's sentiment could just as easily be applied to American society at large.

Beyoncé has aligned "Freedom" with the civil rights movement and the history of slavery in the U.S., making it an inherently political tune.

The lyrics reference the 19th century spiritual “Wade in the Water” sung during the period of slavery.

Beyoncé sings, “I’ma wade, I’ma wave through the waters / Tell the tide, ‘Don’t move.’”

During a performance of “Freedom” at the 2016 BET Awards, Beyoncé introduced the song with a voice-over of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

"Freedom" also seems to reference the Black Lives Matter movement when she sings, “I’ma riot, I’ma riot through your borders / Call me bulletproof.”

Beyonce paid tribute to the victims of police brutality with an a capella rendition of “Freedom” at a July 2016 concert in Glasgow, According to footage from concertgoers .

During a moment of silence, the “Formation” singer displayed a screen with the names of people who have been killed by police violence. After the moment was over, she performed “Freedom” to a cheering crowd.

Read the lyrics to 'Freedom'

Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder

Tell the storm I’m new

I’ma walk, I’ma march on the regular

Painting white flags blue

Lord, forgive me, I’ve been running

Running blind in truth

I’ma rain, I’ma rain on this bitter love

Tell the sweet I’m new

I’m telling these tears, “Go and fall away, fall away,” oh

May the last one burn into flames

Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move

Freedom, cut me loose! Yeah

Freedom! Freedom! Where are you?

‘Cause I need freedom, too!

I break chains all by myself

Won’t let my freedom rot in hell

Hey! I’ma keep running

‘Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves

I’ma wade, I’ma wave through the waters

Tell the tide, “Don’t move”

I’ma riot, I’ma riot through your borders

Call me bulletproof

Lord, forgive me, I’ve been runnin’

Runnin’ blind in truth

I’ma wade, I’ma wave through your shallow love

Tell the deep I’m new

Freedom, cut me loose!

Ten Hail Marys, I meditate for practice

Channel 9 news tell me I’m movin’ backwards

Eight blocks left, death is around the corner

Seven misleadin’ statements ‘bout my persona

Six headlights wavin’ in my direction (Come on)

Five-O askin’ me what’s in my possession

Yeah, I keep runnin’, jump in the aqueducts

Fire hydrants and hazardous

Smoke alarms on the back of us

But mama, don’t cry for me, ride for me

Try for me, live for me

Breathe for me, sing for me

Honestly guidin’ me

I could be more than I gotta be

Stole from me, lied to me, nation hypocrisy

Code on me, drive on me

Wicked, my spirit inspired me, like yeah

Open correctional gates in higher desert (Yeah)

Open our mind as we cast away oppression (Yeah)

Open the streets and watch our beliefs

And when they carve my name inside the concrete

I pray it forever reads

What you want from me?

Is it truth you seek? Oh, father, can you hear me?

Hear me out

Joyann Jeffrey is a trending news reporter based in New York City

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Tony Bennett, one of the most beloved voices in the history of American music, dies at 96

Tony Bennett, one of the most beloved and recognizable voices in the history of American popular music, died Friday at 96, less than two weeks shy of his birthday, his publicist said in a statement.

Bennett died in his hometown of New York, Sylvia Weiner said. A cause was not immediately disclosed.

Bennett provided the soundtrack for generations of romantic evenings and proved that his timeless brand of standards could have broad, consistent appeal as the music industry shifted with the rise of rock and rap.

In recent years, even as his velvety voice found purchase with a new generation, he privately faced a cognitive disorder. On Feb. 1, 2021, his family said in AARP magazine that Bennett had Alzheimer’s for the previous five years  — even though he still managed to record more music.

“ Life is a gift — even with Alzheimer’s ,” Bennett’s official account tweeted at the time.

And what a gift it was: The life and career of Bennett, a World War II veteran and a  civil rights activist , could provide fodder for a number of biopics, but his most enduring legacy is likely to be his unique vocal style, which made him a superstar in the 1950s and helped him enjoy a remarkable second act over the last 25 years of his life.

“The way that we dispose of music all the time, and dispose of art and decades (past) all the time, as if they’re dated, that being nostalgic is for geeks — it’s painful,” Bennett’s friend and frequent collaborator  Lady Gaga said  in 2015. “So much of the music that has been introduced through the Great American Songbook, through Fred Astaire, is passed on through generations of men and women, and Tony is one of those men.”

Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on Aug. 3, 1926, in Astoria in the Queens borough of New York City, he got his start in music after having studied singing at the American Theatre Wing. He was reported to have been discovered by the legendary African American singer Pearl Bailey, who hired him to open for her in 1949.

A year later, Bennett began to make his own mark, signing with Columbia Records and crooning hits such as “Rags to Riches” and “Because of You.” His signature hit, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” arrived in 1962 as a B-side that launched him to the A-list.

The songs effectively straddled the worlds of pop and jazz while earning critical acclaim: Bennett won the 1962 Grammys for record of the year and solo vocal performance.

The statuettes would prove to be the first of 20 Grammys over his seven-decade career, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He won his last Grammy for his collaborative album with Lady Gaga, “Love For Sale,” which was released in 2021. 

Other accolades in his celebrated career include two Emmy awards and being named a Kennedy Center honoree, a Gershwin Prize honoree and a NEA Jazz Master.

Perhaps because of his close connection with jazz musicians, among them Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Bennett also launched himself into the civil rights movement of the era. He was recruited by the actor Harry Belafonte for Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 march from Selma, Alabama, a career risk at a time when his audience was predominantly white.

“I said I’m not, I’m walking away from all this,”  Bennett told CNN in 2013 . “This is just insane. It’s so ignorant. But then he told me what went down, what was going down, how some Blacks were burned, had gasoline thrown on them and they were burned. When I heard that, I said, ‘I’ll go with you.’ You know, I just realized that this is insanity.”

As popular music evolved, Bennett’s style fell out of fashion. And while aficionados praised some of his work in the late 1960s, the ‘70s and the ‘80s, audiences backed away. During this dark period, Bennett got heavily involved in drugs.

“I used to take pills — uppies, downies and sleepies,” he  wrote  in his 2011 autobiography. “I was in a completely self-destructive tailspin.”

And yet, Bennett survived and kicked his drug habit cold. He would emerge triumphant in the ‘90s, completing one of the most impressive comebacks in music history. He was embraced wholeheartedly by the MTV generation (recording duets with younger pop stars), and his 1994 “Unplugged” set for the network took home the Grammy for album of the year.

“It wasn’t a surprise at all,” Bennett told  The Independent  in 2011. “And I’ll tell you why. Good music is good music. I’m not concerned with whether someone who listens to me is old or young. In fact, in many ways, I’m not interested in the young at all. I’m interested in age. People learn to live properly when they get of an age, you know?

“The late Duke Ellington once said to me that he was really offended by the word ‘category,’” he added. “Music has no category; it’s either good or it isn’t, and I sing good songs, great songs, written by the best songwriters. It’s that kind of quality that makes them last. Trust me, people will be singing these songs forever.”

Between the recording sessions and concerts, Bennett proved that he had a talent for the visual arts, as well. His paintings, brushed under his birth name, have been exhibited in the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

His last public concert performances, "One Last Time” with Lady Gaga, were at Radio City Music Hall on Aug. 3 and 5, 2021, to celebrate his 95th birthday. 

He and his wife also founded the nonprofit group, Exploring the Arts, to support and fund arts education in public high schools. In that endeavor, the New York City public high school, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, was founded in Astoria, his publicist said. 

Tributes poured in for Bennett Friday. 

"The Nanny" star and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said, “He exemplified a person who was good as gold, sweet like sugar & a deeply feeling, empathic human being. I wish more had the stuff you were made of Tony. RIP.”

"What a legacy of not only superb timeless music, but a class act study in cool, grace, and elegance," singer Keith Urban wrote on social media. Musician Carole King called his passing "such a big loss."

Italian American guitarist hailed Bennett as "the most beautiful voice of our lives, our loves and our heartaches."

Bennett is survived by his wife since 2007, Susan Benedetto, and four children, including Antonia Bennett, who has become an accomplished standards singer in her own right.

Ethan Sacks writes for NBCNews.com.

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A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern. A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern. A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern.

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