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3/24/2004 » Bombay Dreams | 
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'Bombay Dreams' adapted
The Broadway version of 'Bombay Dreams' will be less of a comedy, more of a drama a la 'Flower Drum Song' and 'The King and I.' Yep, exoticization, but then Broadway ain't about nuance. The script is being written by the author of 'The Producers' and 'Hairspray.'
"The show in London was a kind of parody of a Bollywood movie... I told them people in New York, 99 percent, don’t know the Bollywood movies, so you can’t do a parody... make this into a Broadway musical that is set in Bombay and the background the world of Bollywood which we’ll try to explain a little bit as we go along."
'Ooh, that strange Hindoo world confuses and frighten us!' Monkey brains, perhaps? The 'Variety' story makes it seem like the director is really talking down to the NY audience here, unless the PR target is Broadway tourists.
Director Stephen Pimlott was eager to sooth perceived concerns among Broadway audiences, whose only other cultural reference to Hindus might be the character of Apu on "The Simpsons." "There’s nothing extraordinary or exotic or alien about a Bollywood musical. It’s a great all-singing, dancing show. It’s like the MGM musicals used to be. So there’s nothing utterly bizarre about it…"
In other scuttlebutt, Meera Syal, author of the London production's script, is guest-starring for one week as Kitty the gossip columnist, and the London production is closing in June '04 for an all-UK run using the new Broadway script.
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