The Visitor

A CONCORD THEATRICALS TITLE

The Visitor

Full-Length Musical, Dramatic Comedy  /  4w, 12m

Music by Tom Kitt
Lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Book by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Brian Yorkey

With heart, humor and lush new songs, Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning team Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey and Kwame Kwei-Armah have created a soul-stirring new musical based on the acclaimed independent film The Visitor by Thomas McCarthy.

Image: 2021 Public Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 12m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

With heart, humor and lush new songs, Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning team Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey and Kwame Kwei-Armah have created a soul-stirring new musical based on the acclaimed independent film The Visitor by Thomas McCarthy.

Widowed and living alone, Walter is a college professor whose life has lost a sense of purpose. When Tarek, a vivacious drummer, and Zainab, an iron-willed jewelry maker, enter his life in the most unexpected circumstances, Walter is swept up into their struggle to stay in America – a country that has become their home but seeks to cast them out.

The Visitor is an unforgettable new musical about friends and lovers caught between two worlds.

History
The Visitor premiered off-Broadway at the Public Theater on October 14, 2021. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the production featured Jacqueline Antaramian, Alysha Deslorieux, Akmad Mahsoud and David Hyde Pierce.

A djembe sounds in the darkness. Walter, a middle-aged, white professor of economics at the University of Connecticut, enters, briefcase in hand, and kneels at a grave. After a moment he stands, lost in thought. Voices grow as students enter a classroom. They turn to look at Walter (“Prologue”). The sudden silence returns him to reality. He half-heartedly finishes a lecture (“Wake Up”).

A Muslim student, whom Walter wrongly assumes is foreign, attempts to turn in a paper late and Walter rebuffs him. Walter’s department chair, Charles, asks him to attend a conference in New York City to deliver a paper. He attempts several excuses, but Charles pushes hard.

In the city, Walter notices a bucket drummer in the subway, but keeps moving. Arriving at his apartment, he surprises a young couple—Zainab, a Senegalese immigrant, and Tarek, a Syrian immigrant—who thought they had found a sublet. Walter explains that he owns the apartment and didn’t authorize guests. Zainab is angry at Tarek (“Tarek and Zainab”) and apologizes to Walter (“Zainab’s Apology”). They leave, but Walter hurries after them and offers to let them stay. They reluctantly agree.

The next day, Walter heads to the conference, encountering a drummer and singers (“Subway Transition”). At the conference, Walter daydreams about Tarek and Zainab and subconsciously drums on his folder, to the chagrin of the other attendees (“In the Middle of the Middle Row”).

That afternoon, Walter returns to the apartment, interrupting Tarek’s djembe practice. They begin to get to know each other. When Tarek takes a call from his mother, Walter experimentally plays the drum. Tarek returns and encourages Walter to practice the basics of African rhythm (“Two and Three”).

Zainab returns from selling her jewelry at a market, where a customer broke her table. Tarek asks Walter to accompany him to Central Park, meeting other musicians in the subway as they go. Walter is swept up in the music and community (“Drum Circle”). Afterward, in the subway station, realizing he’s late to meet Zainab, Tarek pays his fare but accidentally trips the turnstile with his drum, so he jumps over. Two racist transit cops don’t believe his story and arrest him, despite Walter’s attempted intervention.

Back at the apartment, Walter tells a distraught Zainab about what happened. She explains that they’re undocumented. Walter calls the precinct and is told that Tarek has been taken to an ICE detention center in Queens. Walter offers to visit him since Zainab cannot, for fear of arrest herself, and to pay for an immigration attorney. Zainab assumes Walter wants sexual favors in return and details her own horrifying immigration story (“Zainab’s Song – Bound for America”). Walter assures her of his good intentions, but she leaves.

The next day, at the conference, Walter and his fellow economists ironically describe their privileged attitudes (“Here in the First World”). Later, Walter visits Tarek at the detention center, and discuss strategy. Walter suggests that they contact Tarek’s mother in Michigan, but Tarek is understandably panicked and desperate, as are the other prisoners (“World Between Two Worlds”).

A week later, Tarek’s mother, Mouna, arrives at Walter’s apartment, worried that she hasn’t heard from him. Walter explains the situation, to her growing distress. He offers to let her stay with him (“What Little I Can Do – Preprise”). The next day, at the detention center, Walter reads a letter to Tarek that his mother wrote, while she waits in a nearby coffee shop with a friendly waiter, Nasim. Tarek, Mouna, Nasim, and the other prisoners express their loneliness and anger (“Where is Home/No Home”).

Days later, on the Staten Island Ferry, Mouna and Zainab finally meet for the first time. Mouna explains that she didn’t dislike Zainab personally but wanted Tarek to marry an American citizen to help keep him safe from deportation. Together, they miss Tarek and lament America’s hypocritical immigration policies (“Lady Liberty”).

At the detention center, Tarek is pleased to hear that his mother and Zainab are getting along but knows that Mouna is worried that her son will end up like his father: dying in Syria for his political beliefs. Changing the topic, Tarek encourages Walter to keep practicing the djembe (“Heart into Your Hands”).

At the apartment, Walter tells Mouna that the petition for asylum for Tarek is before the judge. Charles calls, frustrated that Walter has disappeared from his academic responsibilities, and Walter asks Mouna to cover for him. He does not want to return to teaching and is using writing his book and his work on Tarek’s behalf as an excuse. Walter and Mouna begin to flirt.

In the market, Zainab, Zinzi, and the other vendors try to keep a positive attitude (“Blessings”). Walter arrives to tell Zainab that he’s continuing to fight for Tarek’s release. She remains extremely skeptical and doesn’t understand his motivations. She finally relents and passes on a message for Tarek.

Back at the apartment, Walter arrives to find Mouna listening to a recording of his late wife’s piano performance (“Such Beautiful Music”). He asks her on a date.

Days later, at the detention center, we learn that Tarek has lost his case and will be deported. Walter is optimistic about an appeal, but Tarek is furious and resigned. He asks Walter to take down a farewell letter to Zainab (“My Love Is Free”).

On their date, Walter and Mouna stroll through Central Park in the evening. Walter says that he is planning to take a leave of absence and doesn’t find meaning in his teaching anymore. Before they can make plans, Tarek’s lawyer calls to tell Walter that ICE is moving Tarek to another facility.

Walter hurries to the detention center, only to find that they have already deported Tarek to Syria. Walter explodes in frustrated rage at his inability to save his friend from an unjust and uncaring system (“Better Angels”).

The next day, Mouna tells Walter that she lied about the immigration proceeding years ago, which eventually led to his deportation. Despite their burgeoning relationship, she needs to return to Syria to be with Tarek, and will thus not be able to return to America again (“What Little I Can Do / Such Beautiful Music – Reprise”).

Principal Roles

MOUNA
ZAINAB
WALTER
TAREK

Supporting Roles

NASIM
ZINZI
CHARLES

Ensemble

COLLEAGUE
DETAINEES
DRUMMER
GUARDSTUDENT
TRANSIT COP

  • Time Period New Millennium/21st Century
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 90 minutes

Media

“Told with ideal simplicity... makes its points with quiet subtlety.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Thoughtful entertainment... A faithful, resonant and well-done musical adaptation of the acclaimed 2007 independent film.” – Theater Scene

“Kitt and Yorkey are wonderful at putting quiet but deep pain to song... The Visitor features several lovely ballads, the most poignant of them going to Tarek’s mother, Mouna, another immigrant from Syria without documentation who risks deportation at any moment.” – The Wrap

The Visitor, which is set not long after 9/11, makes its points with quiet subtlety... everything good about the film is reproduced onstage.” – The Wall Street Journal

“The movie on which [this] musical is based, Tom McCarthy’s powerful 2007 film, The Visitor, was created in the shadow of 9/11. It sought to shake America’s conscience, to combat the anti-immigrant and anti-Arab ugliness that was taking deeper root in our culture, and to wake us to the moral obligations we had to the world... All of The Visitor’s themes and ideas remain relevant and important today, 14 years later. The lens with which we view these conflicts has changed, and [the] musical strives to respond not only to the issues of 2007, but also those of our moment.” – Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater


Videos

  • "Zainab's Song (Bound for America)” - Official Video  youtube thumbnail

    "Zainab's Song (Bound for America)” - Official Video

  • Scenes from The Visitor - The Public Theater youtube thumbnail

    Scenes from The Visitor - The Public Theater

  • "Heartbreak in Your Hands" from The Visitor - The Public Theater youtube thumbnail

    "Heartbreak in Your Hands" from The Visitor - The Public Theater

  • "Lady Liberty" from The Visitor - The Public Theater youtube thumbnail

    "Lady Liberty" from The Visitor - The Public Theater

  • Revisiting The Visitor with Kwame Kwei-Armah youtube thumbnail

    Revisiting The Visitor with Kwame Kwei-Armah

Show more +

Photos

  • The Visitor

    Image: 2021 Public Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

  • The Visitor

    Image: 2021 Public Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

Music

“Prologue” – Ensemble
“Wake Up” – Walter
“Tarek and Zainab” – Tarek, Zainab
“Zainab’s Apology” – Zainab, Walter
“Subway Transition” – Walter, Ensemble
“In the Middle of the Middle Row” – Walter, Ensemble
“Two and Three” – Tarek, Walter
“Drum Circle” – Tarek, Ensemble
“Tarek and Zainab (Reprise)” – Zainab
“Zainab’s Song (Bound for America)” – Zainab
“Here in the First World” – Walter, Ensemble
“World Between Two Worlds” – Tarek, Walter, Ensemble
“What Little I Can Do (Preprise)” – Walter, Mouna
“Where Is Home?/No Home” – Mouna, Tarek, Nasim, Ensemble
“Lady Liberty” – Mouna, Zainab
“Heart into Your Hands” – Tarek, Ensemble
“Blessings” – Zainab, Zinzi, Ensemble
“Such Beautiful Music” – Mouna, Walter
“My Love Is Free” – Tarek, Zainab, Ensemble
“Better Angels” – Walter
“What Little I Can Do/Such Beautiful Music (Reprise)” – Walter, Mouna
“Finale: Drum Circle (Reprise)” – Full Company

  • Musical Style Contemporary Broadway

Licensing & Materials

  • Licensing fees and rental materials quoted upon application.

Music Rentals

Concord offers a full suite of resources to help you put on the show of a lifetime!
17   Keyboard 1-Conductor
1   Reed/Keyboard 2 – Duduk
1   Guitar – Acoustic, Electric, Oud
1   Drums/Percussion
1   Violin – Tarhu, Viola
1   Bass – Electric, Acoustic

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Authors

Tom Kitt

Tom Kitt is a Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Emmy-winning composer whose credits include Next to Normal, If/Then, High Fidelity, Bring It On: The Musical, Disney's Freaky Friday and the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. As a music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator, his ...

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Author

Brian Yorkey

Kwame Kwei-Armah

Kwame Kwei-Armah became Artistic Director of the Young Vic Theatre in 2018. He was Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage (2011-18) and Artistic Director of the Festival of Black Arts and Culture, Senegal (2010), where he wrote and directed the opening ceremony at Sengho ...

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