Bombay Dreams NYC South Asians make Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical a success
On January 1, 2005, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway production of Bombay Dreams closed down after an eight-month run — not enough time for the show’s producers to recoup their $14 million investment. Most of Webber’s shows tend to run for years. The current longest running musical on Broadway, Phantom of Opera, is a Webber creation. And so was Cats, the previous record-breaking show on Broadway. But Bombay Dreams was no ordinary Webber creation. First, its music was composed by A R Rahman. And most theatre-goers in New York and tourists who are the life-blood of the city’s musicals, did not know Rahman. It was set in the world of Bollywood films and had no familiar names in the cast. And New York theatre critics were ruthless in critiquing the play. Some claimed that this was the end of Indian-themed theatre in the US. But, last month, all the naysayers were proven wrong when the Atlanta-based company, Theatre of the Stars, premiered a 15-cities national tour of Bombay Dreams in Costa Mesa in Southern California. From here the show will travel to several other US cities including Sacramento, St Louis, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and even Toronto, Canada. The jury is still not out on how these cities will take it. But, it’s clear that American critics in general have a tough time digesting a musical set in a world totally alien to their culture. At least, Paul Hodgins of The Orange County Register (Costa Mesa is located in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles) only had problems with the staging of the current production. He wrote in his review: “(It) is only fitfully pleasant, and at times it turns into a technical nightmare — a mish-mash of bad lighting cues, inept blocking and awkward scene changes.” But look at what the New York critics said nearly two years ago when Bombay Dreams opened on Broadway. Clive Barnes of the New York Post called the show a “sari affair.” Referring to Rahman’s compositions as monotonous, he said “this overheated curry, although adapted for American tastes, may not appeal to every palate.” USA Today, The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer all recommended that theatre-goers should avoid the show. The final nail on the coffin came from the man who has the power to make or break a Broadway show — Ben Brantley of The New York Times. He called Bombay Dreams “flat and ….unengaging,” and suggested that Americans, not well-versed in the traditions of Bollywood films, will not get the show. How does one get across to a veteran critic like Barnes that Rahman is a genius in his own way. With no sense of history about Indian cinema and being totally ignorant of the way more than a billion people love to have their stories told, how could we to expect these critics to be fair to Bombay Dreams? With such scathing reviews, Bombay Dreams should have died a sudden death within a month of its opening. That is often the case with badly-reviewed shows on Broadway. But Bombay Dreams had one thing going for it. The South Asian community in the greater New York City area adopted it as if it was their own. And they came in large numbers — bringing with them grandparents, parents and even little children. They supported the show as a duty to their homeland. Many came to a Broadway show for the first time. New York City and its neighbouring areas may have the largest concentration of South Asians. But the producers of the current tour of Bombay Dreams are hoping that South Asians in other cities will also support the show, now that it will be playing in their area. Perhaps that is the reason why Hodgins also said that the new version of Bombay Dreams has a certain charm. “Don’t count it out just yet,” he added. • Aseem Chhabra is a freelance writer based in New York who has previously written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Time Out, New York http://www.mumbaimirror.com/nmirror/mmpaper.asp?sectid=14&articleid=312200602319906312200602135843 Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. Only at arrahmanfans.com - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. Homepage: http://www.arrahmanfans.com Admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arrahmanfans/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
