Although I had wanted to see the production in London, it ended up working out that the first time I saw the show was the New York production, which has been altered quite a bit from the original. Susan, Jennifer and Peggy were all with me for this performance, and we all agreed that this show would probably work better in Toronto (several of the actors are even from Toronto!) than it does in New York - but we all enjoyed ourselves here as well!

Bombay Dreams at the Broadway Theatre

The biggest difference between the two productions is the exclusion of the character of JK. Vikram is in business for himself now, and the song "Don't Release Me" is cut. Other music that's been altered: "Salaa'm Bombay" is combined with "Bombay Dreams" for the opening, "Like an Eagle" is replaced by "Bollywood" (a step down, in my opinion), the songs "Happy Endings" and "Ooh La La" are cut (Rani sings "Lovely, Lovely Ladies" at the pageant, and Akaash sings "Bhangra"), "Are You Sure You Want to be Famous?" is gone, though parts of it remain in a modified scene with various hangers-on in Akaash's apartment, "Only Love" is altered to "Is this Love?", Sweetie and Priya sing a duet called "Hero", and "Closer than Ever" is cut. Whew! I may have even missed some! As you can tell, the show's been almost completely re-imagined.

Since I never saw the London production, I can't make any really intelligent commentary on which I preferred, but it seems to me that they've tried to simplify it for the Broadway show, and it doesn't seem to have made it any better. I don't know if it's any worse either, but I wouldn't really say it's an improvement.

Anyway, for the performance we saw: Manu Narayan is immediately likeable as Akaash, which is essential given his actions later in the story. The slum set reminded me a lot of the barricade in Les Mis, both in construction and the way it came on stage. Sriram Ganesan as Sweetie and Madhur Jaffrey as Shanti were both excellent, as was Anish Nagarajan as Priya. There was a good sense of spunk and independence in her, and she's got a lovely voice. Deep Katdare is also very good as Vikram, believable in both sides of the character. We had an understudy for Rani, Jolly Abraham, and while I was disappointed not to see Ayesha Dharker, Jolly was very good as well.

The highlights of the show are definitely the big production numbers. "Shakalaka Baby", with the fountains and everything, was really impressive, and the colours in the costumes, and grace of movement in the choreography of songs like "Salaa'm Bombay" and "Chaiyya Chaiyaa" were great fun to watch. The moments where the show relies solely on the songs don't work quite as well, since, although there are some really lovely melodies, the lyrics do not do them justice. And again, several of them have been changed since London, but not to anything better.

All in all, you have to accept going in that it's fluff, it's cheesy and schmaltzy, and it's not really trying to be anything else. The few moments where it might stretch the borders of that categorization are where it is least successful, but for sheer entertainment value, I have no trouble recommending it for a fun way to spend an evening.