Americans are just self-centered enough in their pop-culture awareness that Anglophiles are actually considered unusual in their championing of British entertainment.
And so it makes sense that most citizens of the United States are clueless to the pop culture scene in India, especially the Bollywood film and music industries.
And that is the problematic, gnarled root of “Bombay Dreams,” the Bollywood-inspired musical playing at the Buell Theatre through July 23. America isn’t ready for Indian film’s gaudy, ostentatious kitsch. But water it down, lower the goof factor, soften the over-the-topness of it all, and riff off the familiar – as producers of the recent crossover film “Bride and Prejudice” did successfully – and you’ll find an audience.
But authentic Bollywood aesthetics? Not yet, at least.
The creative team behind “Bombay Dreams,” idea man Andrew Lloyd Webber included, knows this. And that’s why they played it safe with this production, which tells of forbidden love and insatiable greed in India’s caste system.
Our story is simple and delightfully trite, true to Bollywood style. Akaash grew up in the slums with dreams of starring in Bollywood films. Those become a reality when he forces fame’s hand – but his double-romance with the serious film director Priya and the superficial movie star Rani comes at the cost of him ditching his roots in favor of a new lifestyle as Indian celluloid royalty.
This should be musical-theater gold, but Meera Syal and Thomas Meehan’s book is more inane than it is zany. The concept, which revolves around the film within the play, is inconsistent. And while A.R. Rahman’s music is mostly inventive, colorful and fresh, he later indulges in musical theater suicide: “The Journey Home,” the earnest, lifeless love ballad that induces more yawns than sniffles.
What’s especially criminal about “Bombay Dreams” is the musical’s lack of intense flavors. How do you craft a musical out of Indian culture, which is among the world’s brightest and most stimulating, and concoct such a pallid product?
The musical has its moments. “Bombay Dreams” is often a showstopper in the style of “Contact” and “A Chorus Line.”
When Akaash crashes the televised Miss India Pageant with the hip-hop-influenced “Bhangra,” the stage is alive with vivacity, life and virility. And after Akaash becomes a star, he is joined by his egomaniacal leading lady, Rani, in the showstopping numbers “Shakalaka Baby” and “Chaiyya, Chaiyya,” both neon examples of Bollywood’s simple attraction: bizarre choreography, ludicrous sexuality and an inexplicable foreign allure, all of which is executed with intoxicating grace by the diverse cast, especially Reshma Shetty’s soft-spoken Priya and Sachin Bhatt’s bravado-filled Akaash.
Those two songs (and their staging) were hot enough to star Shakira, only the play’s tail-between-its-legs return to the meek book killed any of the mysterious sexiness the actors had built up.
Had the producers been braver and challenged the audience with a more faithful and daring stage adaptation, the end product would have been more admirable – even if the audience didn’t fully get it. What we’re left with now doesn’t baffle as much as it frustrates, and they would be better off with a less condescending balance.
Staff writer Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
“Bombay Dreams”
MUSICAL|National touring production|Music by A.R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black|Buell Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets|THROUGH JULY 23|8 p.m. Monday-Friday, 2 p.m. Thursday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday|2 hours, 20 minutes |$25-65|303-893-4100, 866-464-2626 or denvercenter.org (800-641-1222 outside Denver)
