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The Next Big ThingDateline: 23rd June, 2002 Musical Theatre is in a parlous state. There's nothing new: it's all recycled material or revivals. Not my opinion: Andrew Lloyd Webber's. And there's more than a germ of truth in what he says. Look at the musicals currently running in the West End: they're either long established (like Phantom or Les Mis), revivals (like The King and I), or else they recycle pop music (like Taboo). Something new and different, he beieves, is long overdue. In fact, some years ago he confidently predicted that the end of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union would stimulate exciting and different new work from Eastern Europe. It didn't happen, of course, and Lloyd Webber accepts that he was wrong. Actually, he may have been right, but just a few decades out. Music Theatre is too big, complex, expensive and sophisticated for a society in turmoil, as Russia is, whilst the former satellite states are so keen to westernise and join the European Community that they're grabbing every aspect of the West's lifestyle. So there may well be a great Russian artistic renaissance in store a bit further down the line: after all, a country which has produced such diverse artistic greats as Chekhov, Pushkin, Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Diaghalev and so many others must have a huge amount to offer. But at the moment Eastern Europe is not the next big thing in Music Theatre and so Lloyd Webber has turned his eyes (and ears) eastwards, to Asia, where great, sophisicated civilisations have existed for far longer than we, in our West-centric blinkers, ever remember. He has turned to India, to Bollywood and its most stellar composer, A.R. Rahman, and the result is Bombay Dreams, which opened at the Apollo Victoria on Wednesday. Based on an idea by Lloyd Webber and film director Shekhar Kapur, with music by Rahman, lyrics by Don Black and book by Meera Syal, Bombay Dreams has been two and a half years in the making and is a fusion of Western Music Theatre and Bollywood, using Western and Indian music and dance to tell a universal story of ambition and romance - with a bit of social comment thrown in. The cast are all British Asians and the show is directed by Stephen Pimlott whose credits are exceptionally wide-ranging, from the RSC to opera. Bombay Dreams is riding the crest of an Asian wave at the moment: two phenomenally successful Indian TV shows (Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42), the growing popularity of Baghra music (I hope I got the spelling right!), and, of course, the huge interest in Japan and Korea because of the World Cup. Oh yes, and Tikka Chicken Massala bids fair to replace fish and chips as the national dish! Shekhar Kapur certainly feels that this is the beginning of a new Asian hegemony in the arts: he said as much in the BBC documentary on the making of the musical, shown last Tuesday. But is all this talk by Kapur and Lloyd Webber just hype for Bombay Dreams, or have they put a finger on a new trend in the arts? Let's look at the central question: when was the last ground-breaking musical? When did we last see a new direction in music theatre? ALW thought that The Beautiful Game might be it, but it wasn't. Many critics thought it the best thing he'd done in years - since Superstar, in fact - but it died. The reason for its premature demise, given originally by a number of critics and repeated by Lloyd Webber himself in the documentary mentioned above, was that it was too serious: the public didn't like the association of serious political thought and the musical. So what about The Lion King? Surely that's different? Not really: it's Disney. It's a hugely successful show but its African background is just that - a background. Perhaps it's more African than The Mikado is Japanese (not difficult!), but it's more Hollywood Disney than anything else! No. There's nothing new - and recycling Abba, Queen, Boy George or Kylie Minogue isn't new either. And as for reviving My Fair Lady or The King and I, puh-lease! The musical definitely needs a shot in the arm, but is Bombay Dreams the right show to provide it? What do the critics think? Articles Indices: |
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