The Visitor at the Public Theater, a new musical derived from Thomas McCarthy’s 2007, Oscar-nominated indie film, wants to be relevant, but turns out to be a half-hearted effort. Kwame Kwei Armah and Brian Yorkey’s book is like a watered-down, condensed version of McCarthy’s original screenplay about Walter, a recently widowed economics professor who finds an undocumented couple staying in his pied-à-terre apartment. The film focuses on Walter’s grief and his gradual, unlikely friendship with the couple who run into trouble with the authorities. The show seems to be embarrassed that the protagonist in a musical about the struggles of at-risk immigrants is an old white man.
As a result and in effort to build up the roles of the couple, Tarek and Zainab, Walter becomes almost a cipher and David Hyde Pierce plays him as emotionally numb, even in his big climactic “woke” number. There have been reports in the press of conflicts among the cast and creative team with the opening delayed and Tony winner Ari’el Stachel, who played Tarek, leaving the show before previews began. The original running time of two hours and 20 minutes has been cut down to an intermissionless 90 minutes. That’s never an encouraging omen.
Daniel Sullivan’s direction is efficient but passionless. The score by Yorkey (lyrics) and Tom Kitt (music) does contain a few high spots (such as a joyous group percussion circle for Tarek to teach Walter to drum), but the songs aren’t particularly memorable and occasionally border on the cliche. Despite the best efforts of Hyde-Pierce, Ahmoud Maksoud (Tarek), Alysha Deslorieux (Zainab), Jacqueline Antaramian (Mouna, Tarek’s desperate mother) and a versatile ensemble, The Visitor is well-intentioned but slight, with characters so slender, it’s difficult to work up an investment in them.
