Hooray For Bollywood!
By David Armstrong
Producing Artistic Director
One of the most enduring and popular genres of stage and film musicals is what has become known as "the backstage musical." As in the 1930s classic 42nd Street, these musicals usually relate a rags-to-riches tale of a young unknown performer who struggles against adversity, but in the end finds love and stardom in the "big time." This type of story allows for music, drama, comedy and romance as well as big lavish production numbers in the "show within the show."
Bombay Dreams, the hit London and Broadway musical, is without a doubt the newest incarnation of this classic genre. However, this time the timeless tale is set backstage in Bollywood.
Each year more than 900 films are created there - twice as many as are made in Hollywood."
What is Bollywood? Bollywood is the nickname given to India's staggeringly popular film industry - the largest in the world. Each year more than 900 films are created there - twice as many as are made in Hollywood. And every day in India, 14 million people go to the movies. Four billion tickets are sold there each year as compared to 3 billion in America. And the popularity of these films is not confined to the Indian subcontinent. Millions of Asians throughout the world, as well as people from the vastly different social and cultural worlds of China, the Middle East, Russia and many parts of Africa, love Bollywood.
And what kind of movie do they see? Bollywood films are almost always musicals that feature song and dance, love interest, comedy and daredevil thrills, all mixed up in a three-hour extravaganza. The plots of these movies are often melodramatic and frequently employ familiar storylines such as star-crossed lovers, corrupt politicians, twins separated at birth, conniving villains, dramatic reversals of fortune and wildly convenient coincidence. Such films are sometimes called "masala movies" after the spice mixture masala. Like masala, these films have everything.
Like the musicals of Hollywood's golden age these films are built around big stars and great songs.
Leading Bollywood stars enjoy a following to rival any of Hollywood's top names, and each year thousands of aspiring actors - models, beauty contestants, television and theater performers and common people - come from all parts of India to Bombay (officially called Mumbai) with hopes of breaking into the industry. As is the case in Hollywood, very few of them succeed.
By blending Indian and Western sounds, A.R. Rahman's extraordinary songs have made him a favorite of millions."
In addition to the stars, the composers of these films are essential to their success. Throughout the history of Indian cinema there have been many excellent music directors, but in recent years composer A.R. Rahman has made the greatest impact. By blending Indian and Western sounds, his extraordinary songs have made him a favorite of millions. He has composed the scores for more than 75 popular Bollywood films, including Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film in 2002.
Which brings us back to Bombay Dreams. The impetus behind the creation of this new "backstage" musical was when a great man of the musical theater, Andrew Lloyd Webber, discovered a great man of the Indian musical film, A.R. Rahman.
As Lloyd Webber tells it, he became captivated by a song in a Bollywood film that he stumbled across on the "telly" one day. In an effort to track down the song and its composer, a friend sent him a video compilation of some of Bollywood's greatest hits:
"I never found that song but I found something else. One in five of these songs evinced a melody of pure gorgeousness or a rhythm so complex that I realized I was listening to something I had always hoped would happen - the revitalization of popular melody from somewhere far removed from Western Europe or America. There had to be a common denominator among the most powerful of these songs. This was their composer A.R. Rahman. One look at the web revealed that he was a phenomenon in Asia where he is known as the Asian Mozart. With sales of over 100 million, his albums have sold more than Madonna and Britney Spears combined. Soon my house was full of them."
Through a mutual friend, Lloyd Webber arranged to meet Rahman and asked if he would consider writing a stage musical. He said yes and, as Lloyd Webber put it, "it became my obsession to bring this melodic genius to the musical stage." Together they conceived of a musical set in the world of Bollywood and, at the same time, told in the outrageous style of a Bollywood movie. They wanted to create a show that would delight fans of these films and newcomers alike. The result is the musical you will see at The 5th Avenue.
Bombay Dreams is a stunning example of the worldwide reach of one of America's greatest exports - the Broadway Musical. In this case we can trace the journey of our great indigenous art form from its birth in New York shortly after the turn of the last century to its triumphant takeover of the movies after sound was introduced. Meanwhile, the popularity of stage musicals spread to London and eventually inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber to follow the path of his idols Rodgers and Hammerstein. On the other side of the globe, the popularity of early Hollywood musicals inspired filmmakers in India's emerging film industry and lead to the Bollywood style of film, and the music of A.R. Rahman. With the Indian-British-Broadway stage musical Bombay Dreams it all comes full circle. Hooray for Broadway, Hollywood and Bollywood!
