A Wild Musical About India Heads to the U.S.

By Michele Orecklin

It's hard to imagine a more garishly perfect show-business union than Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bollywood. Lloyd Webber, of course, is the British showman who created such over-the-top, pack-'em-in productions as Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express. Bollywood is the name for India's film industry, which each year churns out close to 1,000 films, virtually all weepy melodramas staged as singing, dancing, multiple-costume-changing revues. Three years ago, fate brought Lloyd Webber and celebrated Indian composer A.R. Rahman together, and so was born Bombay Dreams, a campy bildungsroman that follows young hero Akaash along a morally perilous path from the slums to Bollywood stardom. Having played on London's West End since June 2002, Bombay Dreams is set to open on Broadway next April.

For the first time, Lloyd Webber did not compose the songs for one of his productions, ceding that honor to Rahman, 37, who has scored more than 50 Bollywood films and sold more CDs than Britney and Madonna combined. The music, a raga pastiche, is poppy and hummable and digestible for Western tastes. London critics were mixed on the show but almost unanimously besotted with Rahman's score. Though he bowed out as composer, Lloyd Webber remained an actively involved producer, and his penchant for spectacle is heavily in evidence. Among other special effects, rivers of water splash onto the stage, creating a monsoon effect--and a reason to avoid a front-row seat. --By Michele Orecklin