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Arts

Bombay Dreams at the Hummingbird

Posted by Tim / August 17, 2006

4 Comments

blogto_aug1606_bombay.jpgA wet sari party, Kingfisher beer and tasty poppadums are three reasons why I've never had so much fun at the the Hummingbird Centre.

Last night I went to see the opening of Bombay Dreams, a musical that capably borrows cliches from Bollywood films and assembles them into a two hour plus production with great music, better dancing and a fun, if not predictable storyline.

The musical, which has a sordid history including a failed run on Broadway has been revamped and is apparently playing to packed audiences (like last night) on its current North American tour. It's in Toronto for six more shows and The Hummingbird Centre is donating a portion of ticket sales to The Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention.

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Anand / August 17, 2006 at 02:26 am
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I went to this show and thought it was okay, but was disappointed on the whole. The white/chinese/black actors impersonating indians with terribly fake accents thing was pretty rough. Also, the songs in the latter part of the 2nd half I didn't think were all that good.
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Tim / August 17, 2006 at 07:16 am
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I definitely thought it was weird to have so many white actors playing indians, but i got over it pretty quickly and i don't think it really affected my enjoyment of the show.

I should also clarify my post above. Out in the foyer, they were serving indian food and Kingfisher beer. It was really great to have this as an alternative to the usual boring fare. It's too bad they feel there needs to be an indian musical to offer up more interesting food/drinks. They should reconsider as people would totally go for this kind of stuff all the time.
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Sameer Vasta / August 17, 2006 at 11:31 am
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Great music, great dancing, and a predictable storyline? Sounds like a Bollywood movie to me. =)

I'm definitely going to have to catch this show some time soon, thanks for the heads up Tim.
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Christopher / August 17, 2006 at 10:50 pm
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I was less impressed than you -- the company actors were not convincing at all. The leads were ok. The production had a decidedly high-school production feel to me, despite fountains what the Star called "lush backdrops".

Sameer Vasta -- if you want to see it, you'd better get tickets. It's leaving in a few days.
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