Will Broadway be kind to Bombay Dreams?

Shakalaka baby is perhaps the most enticing song in Bombay Dreams.

But the songs that really caught the attention of the top critics in London two years ago were A R Rahman's original songs composed for the show.

'Initially, Andrew [Lloyd Webber] wanted me to rework over a dozen of my hit songs in Hindi and Tamil films,' Rahman had said in an interview. So you have Ooh la la inspired by the Shankar Mahadevan and Chitra duet in Sapnay and Love's never easy inspired by Ishq bina (Taal). Then, there is the recorded version of Chhaiyya chaiyya (Dil Se..) in the voices of Sukhwindara Singh and Sapna Awasthi.

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'But I insisted I should compose a few original songs,' Rahman had said. It would not be very challenging to work on his existing numbers, he had convincingly argued with Webber. 'It wasn't easy to convince him, but I had to try,' he had said with a chuckle. He began working on Bombay Dreams with a clear understanding that he would compose half a dozen original songs.

His original compositions plus some new ones will be heard on Broadway, particularly the duet How many stars? and The journey home, which comes a few minutes before Sona, Sona, the wedding qawwali sung by Sukhwindara Singh. The reworked Bollywood hits will also be there.

Broadway actors Anisha Nagarajan and Manu Narayan have presented How many stars? with distinction at several promotional events, including one at an Indian Republic Day show in New Jersey. Narayan has also performed Journey home with success.

Sriram Ganesan, who plays a heartbroken hijra, brings a lot of pathos and character to the Love's never easy number. "I have been a great fan of [the music in] Taal and I love singing the song," he says. "I think I am very, very lucky that I have to sing this song."

Mark Shenton, who reviewed and discussed the London production in a British Broadcasting Corporation feature two years ago, thought Rahman's music was special. Similar thoughts were expressed by major British critics, including the ones for The Guardian and The Times.

'Just when the modern musical seemed lost to pop compilations or adaptations of movies, a new one has arrived that combines both those strands but is in fact a completely original piece of writing,' Shenton wrote.

When Bombay Dreams opened in London, there were some acclaimed American shows, including the musical Kiss Me Kate. This got far superior reviews than Bombay Dreams, which many critics thought was too much of a hybrid show. Shenton himself thought the show was the 'all-panache stage version of the kind of corny romantic movie musicals that regularly emanate from Bollywood.'

But while Kiss Me Kate folded in just about six months, losing over $2 million, Bombay Dreams, which cost about $7 million in London, recouped its investment in about a year and is now considered one of the more profitable shows in London. And so is its music.

"In Rahman, I met someone who I believe could carry the torch of musical theatre into a new dimension," Andrew Lloyd Webber had said over two years ago. At the London premiere, he also said that he had never heard such a melodious music as in the show in his 'entire, entire' life.

"His music might give musical theatre in London the shot in the arm it needs at the moment," he had added. Now, the American critics will be assessing Rahman too.

Would they have the same kind of enthusiasm and understanding the London critics had?

'There hasn't been a richer or more appropriate musical ballad than The journey home in years,' Shenton continued in his assessment, 'and it's delivered with amazing power by Raza Jaffrey as Akash, the most exciting new leading man to
emerge in a London musical since Hugh Jackman became an overnight star in the National Theatre production of Oklahoma!'

On Broadway, Jaffrey is replaced by Narayan. Not far from where Bombay Dreams will be unfolding, Jackman is very much there in the hugely successful musical, The Boy From Oz.

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