Aalok Mehta, part of the ensemble cast, is now engaged to Anisha Nagarajan who played Priya, the idealistic movie director, in the musical for about six months. American Idol finalist Gray replaced her in November.
Anisha and Aalok met for the first time during the rehearsals and hardly had any scenes together. Evidently, they shared great chemistry backstage.
"Everyone connected with the show has seen his or her life enriched, I am sure," Geetha Nagarajan said, adding that her daughter Anisha had gone from "one big thing to another" with her engagement. Both Aalok and Anisha are trained musicians, and he also played the lead in independent film American Chai released over three years ago. It was produced and directed by his brother.
Seeing the prolonged cheers, standing ovation and packed audiences in the 1,761-seat Broadway Theatre, anyone would have found it difficult to guess the musical Bombay Dreams
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The final week produced the highest gross for the show since it opened in April. Attendance-wise as well, it was a record!
In its final week, Bombay Dreams grossed about $912,091 benefiting also from the additional holiday performance. It drew about 14,500 fans, a far bigger number than the ones at hit shows such as Hairspray (13,000) and Wonderful Town (7,500) starring Brooke Shields. The high-profile Fiddler On The Roof was also overtaken by Bombay Dreams, by 200 viewers.
Many veterans in the theatre business have pointed out that even as the show was playing to an half empty theatre, it was drawing about 9,000 people a week, and statistically was more popular than many certified hits such as Avenue Q.
The big question for Bombay Dreams now is: will middle America and the Bible belt embrace a show with two Hindi songs, an eunuch, a Ganapati procession and a wet sari teaser?