2/7/2004 » Bombay Dreams

Tickets for Andrew Lloyd Webber and A. R. Rahman's 'Bombay Dreams' on Broadway go on sale February 23, 2004 on the Telecharge web site. Previews begin March 29, opening night is April 29, and the first show for normal mortals will probably be April 30.

The cast includes Manu Narayan (RASA Theatre), Ayesha Dharker ('Bombay Dreams' in London, 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace'), Deep Katdare ('American Desi', 'Indian Ink'), Aalok Mehta ('American Chai'), Sheetal Gandhi (Cirque du Soleil), Madhur Jaffrey (author), and Anjali Bhimani ('Metamorphoses').

There are a couple of young'uns as well, Anisha Nagarajan (female lead and NYU soph) and Krystal Garib (just out of high school). The ubiquitous Ajay Naidu ('Office Space', 'Pi,' 'The Guru,' 'Hannibal,' 'Requiem for a Dream,' 'Bad Santa,' 'American Chai') is missing here, wonder whether he can carry a tune.

Jaffrey will play the purring, Eartha Kitt-like gossip columnist, renamed from Kitty to Shanti in the cross-puddle rewrite. The book is by Meera Syal ('Goodness Gracious Me,' 'Life Is Not All Ha Ha Hee Hee').

Update: Ticket sales have been moved up by a day to 2/22.

A.R. Rahman is writing two to three new Broadway-ized, less Bollywood songs for this production.