I have a confession to make: I’m not much of a risk-taker when it comes to theater. Especially with a budget like mine, I tend to buy tickets to shows I know I’m going to like. I tend to stick to musicals that have been on Broadway or theaters which I know produce awesome stuff. However, given the right invitation and the right price, I have been known to venture out of my comfort zone. Usually, it’s a good decision. The time I ventured outside of my comfort zone to see a death-metal rock production of Titus Andronicus was the only time I think leaving my zone of familiarity was a terrible decision.
So, a friend of mine from school asked me if I would be interested in a Bollywood-themed musical stage show thing. Exactly where it fits in the genre is a little vague, but whatevs. The clincher was that the theater wasn’t selling many tickets ahead of time, and the student rush policy was that an hour before the show, whatever seats were left were $20. Score, I’m in. Our seats were in row D. $20 for row D? That kind of opportunity doesn’t come along every day!
So, the basic gist of Merchants of Bollywood is that a girl leaves home to pursue a career in Bollywood, and there’s lots of dancing. I mean lots of dancing. The dancing was by far the best part of the show. I’m not going to skirt around this – the plot sucked and the acting sucked. There’s just no more eloquent way to put it. The dancing did not suck. Whatever the opposite of sucking is, that’s how good the dancing was. The costumes were fabulous. The set was basic, but whatever. It did have some things which made a musical theater junkie like myself feel right at home: big dance numbers, a man in drag, a ridiculously over-the-top gay character, and enough glitter to put even the most lavish production of La Cage Aux Folles to shame. However, as a stickler for musical theater authenticity, I was disappointed by the fact that the music wasn’t live and that the actors didn’t actually sing. I do realize that a lot of that last bit was because most of the show was a spoof on Bollywood films, in which lip-synching is the norm.
There was also a cultural gap between me and a deep understanding of what was going on. There were countless occasions when the audience would burst into applause or laughter and I had absolutely no clue what they were reacting to.
All in all, I’m definitely glad I went. I was able to experience a culture other than my own, and I was reminded of the power of live performance. There was a middle-aged man in front of me who was cheering and clapping and so unbelievably enthusiastic about the show. There’s something about sitting in a darkened theater with live people doing what they do best right there, in the moment, which is almost always exhilarating (death metal Titus Andronicus obviously not included).
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