Bombay dreams previews: anyone seen it?
 

We will be in NY next week and will be seeing previews of Bombay Dreams. Has anyone seen it yet or heard anything about it?

thanks.

I have bypassed it in London thinking it wouldn't particularly appeal to me. Several friends have seen the show there and thought it was good -- nobody I know has raved about it. They are billing it in New York as a London smash hit, which is pretty misleading as it's been on half price tickets and specials for a year now. I recently did order half price tickets for May but in London, not New York.

Meanwhile they are closing it in London and they are saying that the Broadway version includes a number of rewrites and improvements (I'd guess that to mean mainly making things bigger and splashier). They will also tour the "new" version in the UK and will reopen in London with the new "Broadway" version.

I'm not a fan of Indian music, and when I listened to the disc all the songs sound alike to me (with that high pitched irritating sound).

Patrick, you cited all the reasons why my wife and I don't plan to see it here in New York! Actually, we were also influence by the opinions of several friends who saw it in London and were underwhelmed.
We'll gladly settle for seeing Barbara Cook tomorrow!

Howard, why do you persist in rubbing in these shows that I won't be able to see when I arrive in two weeks? You are just being cruel!!
Bombay Dreams or Barbara Cook?? No contest!

I saw it in London and I loved it. I quite disagree about the music, I think it's terrific. I have the soundtrack. I do not think it is dominated by the high-pitched singing Westerners associate with Indian popular music. I would be surpsied if the person who said this had listened to the entire recording.

The music is by A R Rahman, India's greatest popular music composer.

I haven't seen it yet in New York but I plan to. The story is about Bollywood, the Indian popular music capital, and is also like a Bollywood movie in that it's full of music and color and several plots going on at once - a crime plot, a romance plot - actually a few romance plots.

Please post here to let us know how you liked it (though I'm going anyhow!!).

I saw it in London and liked it.(Not loved) It helps if you know a little about Bollywood. It has a typical Bollywood plot. The production is quite large and the musical numbers good. I bought the CD and enjoy listening to it. I would recommend to anyone who likes musicals.

I saw one of the soft opening shows in NYC (they are currently running for a month prior to opening). It's great! I didn't see the musical in london but i guess what i loved most about this musical was how exotic it is. The sets and costumes are mesmorizing. the music is also very good - but the seller is the "whole experience" - it takes you out of new york for two hours and into a whole other world.

I saw it April 2 in London and like it. The music is the best part. I got the sound track prior to the trip.

I thought the story was weak.

Keith

Saw it in New York last week. Story is still weak, but asykes1's comment was absolutely right--it is so exotic, so different, so engaging that it's a wonderful evening.

The performance by the actor who plays Sweetie is stunning.

Isn't it an Andrew Lloyd Webber affair?? That should say it all....There of us who are not Webber fans....and those that are... I'd kill to see Barbara Cook...but nothing of Webbers.

In London in one day we saw Miss Saigon at a matinee and Phantom in the evening... Underwhelmed by Phantom is a slight understatement..Give me a Sondheim, Rogers and Hammerstein or just about anybody else.. I think Webber is a fraud....a one song show..maybe. Oh yes.. I go back to seeing musical theatre to the earliest I can remember is Camelot...pre-Broadway..lol

It's my understanding that Andrew Lloyd Webber is the Producer and has not contributed much artisticly to the production. I haven't seen the show, but did receive a promotional CD and I have to agree with Patrick, that the music was grating.

Specially for Parrotmom and Patrick:
They've just added a month of performances for Barbara Cook's latest concert at Lincoln Center. She'll be performing in the smaller Mitzi Newhouse Theater six evenings a week (Monday thru Saturday)for most of June. My wife and I thought it was her best concert ever. Tickets go on sale on April 16.

I saw it in London, 2 years ago. I loved it for what it is, a fun over the type bollywood production. Is it really supposed to have a strong story line?
In London they had a slithering, wet dance number, is that still part of the play? It was really cool!
I loved the guys on the drums on the side of the stage. Well enjoy, I thought it was pure fun entertainment!

saw it in London - enjoyed it. would definitely recommend it.

Andrew Lloyd Weber didn't write any of the songs--he was a producer. Fountain scene is still in the play--it's fabulous! In fact, most of the chorus scenes are stunning.

I saw it in London in November and enjoyed it more than Mama Mia, (which I had been particularly excited about going to see).

Howard, yes, I saw that Barbara Cook is "returning" but not extending. Unfortunately her last regular performance is April 18, the afternoon before we arrive. And then she doesn't perform until June 1 -- and I'm leaving in May.

Too bad, Patrick. It's really a great concert. Well, you can buy the CD when it comes out.

I listened to the whole soundtrack again this morning. There is actually not one song in the high-pitched singing style of some Bollywood movie music (for example, the voices of Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle. Nothing at all like this in show).

The female voices are in the regular Western range, male and female solos are sung by people with standard (i.e. excellent, strong, fresh) musical-comedy kinds of voices.

As others have noted Andrew Lloyd Weber did not write the music, so insofar as one expects to dislike his work, that expectation is not relevant here.

It is instead first-class fantastic Indian popular music, by A.R. Rahman, who wrote the music for, for example, Dil Se and, I think, Bombay, the great Mani Ratnam Indian movies. To anyone who knows his work - Bombay Dreams reprises Chaiya Chaiya (song sung atop a moving train in Dil Se), with new words.