Bombay Dreams in SEATTLE, WA. Last Chance to See the Show.- Page 23

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 12:59pm

Rentboy, yes, the Broadway production was of course, more expensive but i think the tour actually worked with the hands stage moving the stuff, because the entire show is supposed to be a movie.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/14/06 at 8:24pm

No one in Denver seeing it?

[hindigroupie]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 6:43am

I just found this message board!
I saw the show Monday night (Denver, obviously) and I and all my friends who came with me LOVED IT!!!

It is RIGHT up my alley because I am a HUGE Bollywood fan, and a lover of all things Indian (or any other interesting culture for that matter, but mostly Indian) During every number I wanted to get up on stage and dance and sing with the cast. (Why didnt I run away to New York as a teenager to chase my Broadway dreams?!? LOL)

I loved the Music, I bought the soundtrack they were selling and was a little dissapointed that they cut some of the music from the soundtrack in the show and V/V. Also, there is a character in the soundtrack that was NOT in the show I saw. Whats up with that?!?!

I WISH I had found this site before I went. I wanted to talk to some of the cast but didnt feel I could do that. Someone on here said to just go to the stage door, but I dont think I'll have a chance to go back. BUMMER!! The guy who played the lawyer (Even though he is the bad guy) is H-O-T in my opinion. The little Indian woman in front of me overheard me say that to my friends and got a chuckle out of it...

Ahhh ... I will DEFINITELY be seeing this show again!!
Might be moving to the UK in the next several months, so I am looking forward to seeing it there too!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 2:29pm

That's great!!! Thanks for sharing, it's funny that most people enjoy the show and everytime i saw the tour it got an ovation and the venues were usually packed, but it seems that people on this site won't go try anything new. All my friends LOVED the show when they saw it in FL or NYC.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 3:39pm

I will see it when it stops in Toronto. It will be great b/c the East Indian community is huge there and I hope they have a strong showing of their community.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/21/06 at 10:57pm

I recommend this show for anyone, I am not Indian and I loved it!!!

Updated On: 7/25/06 at 10:57 PM

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 7:15pm

Anyone seeing the show in Charlotte?

[Phantom2]

Posted: 7/25/06 at 11:52pm

How did this thread get so big?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 7/28/06 at 3:36pm

Well, I started it before the tour started?

Anyone in North Carolina?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/31/06 at 10:35am

My sister just called me.She lives in Charlotte and saw Bombay Dreams.She said it was a full house. She loved everything about the production and she is not a theatre person. She said the dancing, costumes and music were incredible. She bought the CD at the show. I told her she got screwed because they are much cheaper in stores, but she just had to have the music. Anyway, it was a glowing review.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 11:23am

That's great!

[ncvalmont]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 11:25am

Hey there. Saw the show in Charlotte and thought that it was great. I had seen the original production in London and knew that it had changed some, so seeing this version was nice. I felt that some of the sets looked a little cheap, but it is supposed to be that they are doing a movie...so perhaps that was the look they were going for. The singing and dancing was great. Shakalaka Baby was a great number...but...even though there was a fountain, missed the giant fountain shooting from the stage!! Ah well... It's closed know, but i would definatly rec. for others to see it.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 8/1/06 at 3:10pm

Phantom2, see the gentleman who created it. You gotta have heart!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 12:11pm

Absolutely, NYC, PA, DC area take advantange and see the show!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/2/06 at 2:41pm

No responses? =(

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 7:42pm

Anyone closeby?

[broadwaybaby221]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 8:08pm

I live in Pittsburgh but I'm not sure if I want to see it. I'm actually 20 minutes from the theatre but I don't know.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/3/06 at 8:09pm

Oh, please! get at least a 20 dollar ticket and check it out!
What can you lose?

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 2:07pm

BWW user W888 wrote:

WONDERFUL SHOW!!! - by W888 on August 1, 2006
I have been to several shows on Broadway from Chicago to New York, and I loved Bombay Dreams! I thought it was an amazing performance. It was different than other shows, which is why I loved it so much. It was culturally different and very original. I was completely engaged the entire time, and on the edge of my seat to see what the end would bring. The cast had amazing voices and the dancing was great! I highly recommend this show to anyone who wants to see a great performance and something new!

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 3:38pm

By Christopher Rawson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For a youthful biographical sketch of Baayork Lee, the director of "Bombay Dreams," the national tour of which opens tonight at Pittsburgh CLO, just consult your memories of "A Chorus Line."






'Bombay Dreams'
Where: Pittsburgh CLO at Benedum Center, Downtown.

When: Tues-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 and 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $16.50-$52.50; 412-456-6666.








Connie Wong, the diminutive, 4-foot-10 Asian dancer who grew up in New York's Chinatown and wanted to be a ballerina -- that's Lee. Literally. Not just because she played Connie in the original 1975 "Chorus Line," but because she was there at the first workshop, as Michael Bennett's assistant, and then the second, when he decided to include her story (and her) on stage.

Lee points out that "Bombay Dreams" and "Chorus Line" have more in common than her. "Chorus Line" was something new, like "Oklahoma!" and "West Side Story," and "Bombay Dreams" also defeats pigeonholing: "It's the first Southeast Asian musical. It's breaking traditions," introducing many Americans to "Bollywood," the exotic world of melodramatic musical movies made in Bombay.

When Lee did the original "Chorus Line," she was already a Broadway gypsy, a veteran of 10 Broadway shows, having started in 1951 when she was 5 in "The King and I," then appearing a few years later in "Flower Drum Song." Even as she worked steadily as a grown-up dancer, "most of my Broadway credits were playing kids: " 'Here's Love,' 'Mr. President,' 'Golden Boy.' "

Right now, Lee is in San Francisco, directing a revival of "Chorus Line," which is arriving back on Broadway to start previews Sept. 18. Lead roles are being played by Michael Berresse and Charlotte d'Amboise, and the Pittsburghers in the cast are Paul McGill and Tony Yazbeck.

Talking from her San Francisco hotel, Lee sounds younger than any Broadway legend should be. "That's because I'm so small," she laughs.

She may be tiny in size, but she has been big in influence. Bennett asked her to handle some of the international tours, and she's directed and choreographed more than three dozen "Chorus Lines" around the world.

Since then, her choreography and directing career has taken many paths. "I was resident choreographer at the Washington Opera for many, many years. Then I directed 'Porgy & Bess' in Europe. And I've had an incredible career in Asia. I started a musical theater school in Seoul, bringing over my teachers from America and producing musicals there. In Japan I also had a school, and they built me a 400-seat theater for musicals."

Doing "Chorus Line" in Italy led to another mini-career there, staging musicals where there had been none before. And she returned to Broadway as Tommy Tune's associate choreographer on "My One and Only."

"I've had a wonderful career. ... The latest wrinkle came when I was hired to direct Sandy Duncan in the latest tour of 'The King and I.' I went to Chinatown, where I'm from, and I auditioned at P.S. 124 and got my 10 children, and they toured for over a year and had the opportunity I had."

Lee's a veteran of the battles that Asian performers long fought for recognition. "I can't help anyone unless I've got my foot in the door. Now that I've had the opportunity to direct and choreograph, I've been able to help. When I directed 'Cinderella' at N.Y. City Opera, I had eight Asians involved.

"But Michael Bennett was the first one, giving me the role in 'Chorus Line.' For 30 years it's given an opportunity for an Asian woman to have a role on Broadway -- and not hopping around with an accent, but playing an American, born and raised in Chinatown."

Lee was elated when she was invited to direct "Bombay Dreams" for the tour. It ran just 284 performances on Broadway in 2004, when the cast was led by two young Pittsburghers, Manu Narayan and Anisha Nagarajan. Lee says she loved the dancing and singing but knew it needed work to tour. So they hired original co-librettist Tom Meehan ("Annie," "The Producers," "Hairspray") to help shorten the book, focusing better on the central story of Akash, the boy from the slums who becomes a big Bollywood star.

The result is 20 minutes shorter than on Broadway, although they restored two songs from the London production. "Touring, we really had to gear this not only to the Asian community but also subscription audiences," Lee says. "We have a pre-show with videotapes of Bollywood movies, so you get a sense of what it's about." And there's a narrator for further orientation.

"We have some new young performers that I'm very proud of," Lee says. She did not choreograph "Bombay Dreams" -- they hired Lisa Stevens, the original assistant choreographer in London and New York, because "this is a style you have to study for years and years, you can't just pick up. It's a whole vocabulary I'm not familiar with.

"We worked on it for almost a year. So there have been the London, Broadway and now my touring company, and I'm very proud of it."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Post-Gazette theater editor Christopher Rawson can be reached at [e-mail] or 412-263-1666. )



http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06213/710053-325.stm

Updated On: 8/4/06 at 03:38 PM

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/5/06 at 1:39pm

<<<< New picture with the leads of the tour.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/8/06 at 3:33am

Clips, the montage is the best one.


http://www.theaterofthestars.com/bombayDreams.htm

Updated On: 8/8/06 at 03:33 AM

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 8/8/06 at 3:49am

Hahaha. You're really obsessed with the show, arne't you? Well, it's a good thing it's not one of those Wicked obesessions.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/8/06 at 2:18pm

Well, at least Im not so cliche. I just want people to see the show, and know what they thought about it. Any comments about the clips?

Posted: 8/9/06 at 3:28am

Pics are so fun!