There’s a lot of drama in the Public Theater’s The Visitor, a musical adaptation of the well-received 2007 film. Unfortunately, most of it took place offstage for this production which lost one of its leading players during previews and has gone through significant behind-the-scenes turmoil over its depictions of race and representation. It would be a pleasure to report that the show featuring a score by Pulitzer and Tony winners Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal, If/Then) has triumphed over its rocky creative process, but it never fully comes to life despite some noteworthy qualities and fine performances. It’s a perfectly respectable effort that feels more dutiful than inspired.
If you’re not familiar with the movie for which Richard Jenkins received a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination, it concerns a widowed and depressed economics professor, Walter (David Hyde Pierce) who returns to his New York City apartment after a long absence. He’s shocked to find it occupied by a couple, Zainab (Alysha Deslorieux) and Tarek (Ahmad Maksoud), undocumented immigrants from Senegal and Syria respectively, who were apparently swindled by a mysterious man named Ivan who claimed to own the apartment. Walter, taking pity on them, offers to let them stay with him temporarily. Tarek, a street musician who plays an African djembe drum, excitedly accepts, but Zainab, who designs homemade jewelry, is far more wary.
A friendship gradually develops among the three, with Walter even letting down his shell and tentatively attempting to play the drum under Tarek’s instructions. He even accompanies him to Central Park, where they join other percussionists, providing the opportunity for the show’s most vibrant musical number, “Drum Circle.” Shortly afterward, Tarek gets into an argument with a pair of NYC cops after jumping a subway turnstile when it malfunctions, leading them to arrest him. His undocumented status is discovered, and he’s suddenly faced with the threat of deportation, with Walter vowing to do everything he can to help.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
There has been some controversy over the show trafficking in the familiar but politically incorrect “white savior” theme, and it’s certainly true that the middle-aged, whiter-than-white Walter is the primary focus. One might have thought that the show’s creators, who include co-book writer Kwame Kwei-Armah and director Daniel Sullivan, would have labored to give more depth to the foreign-born characters, including Tarek’s deeply caring mother Mouna (Jacqueline Antaramian), with whom Walter forms an emotional attachment. Instead, the musical, which runs an intermissionless 90 minutes (shorter than the film, despite the many songs), feels intent on rushing the story along at such a breakneck pace that character development, not to mention many plot details, gets lost.
More importantly, the show seems to have little reason for being a musical at all. In addition to the thematically problematic aspects, which can be debated, there’s little that the generally pallid, unmemorable score does to enliven the material, other than to provide the opportunity for Pierce to demonstrate his drumming skills as Walter finds his rhythm. The actor has also been given a stirring 11 o’clock number, “Better Angels,” in which Walter decries our national treatment of immigrants, but he doesn’t quite possess the vocal chops to pull it off.
It’s easy to see why the film seemed ripe for adaptation, since its issues of immigration and cultural identity are more relevant than ever. The storyline worked on film largely due to writer/director Tom McCarthy’s sensitive handling which he infused with welcome doses of humor. Everything in the stage version seems heavy-handed by comparison, despite the strenuous efforts of everyone involved to make it all seem low-key.
Emotional repression is in Pierce’s wheelhouse, so it’s no surprise that he delivers an affecting performance as the sad sack professor who finds his passion for justice reawakened. Maksoud (who replaced Ari’el Stachel in previews) makes Tarek appealingly charismatic, Deslorieux provides the evening’s most powerful vocals as Zainab, and stage veteran Antaramian proves so luminous as Mouna that you long for her character to rescue Walter from his loneliness. But their strong contributions are not enough to lift The Visitor from its doldrums.
The Visitor opened November 4, 2021, at the Public Theater and runs through December 5. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
