 |
|
When we think of Andrew Lloyd Webber, our minds (and hearts) often jump immediately to songs like “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar, “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” from Evita, “Memory” from Cats, or “The Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera. We recognize them as hits, even outside the context of their particular show. Show titles have even more “recognition factor:” Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, The Woman in White—just to name a few. Lloyd Webber is the West End (London) and Broadway towering genius composer and musician. It was his fascination and admiration of someone else’s music, however, that propelled him to produce BOMBAY DREAMS. One Saturday morning nearly 20 years ago, a British TV station was playing a marathon of Hindi movies from Bollywood. He was cooking lunch when a particular song pulled his attention to the kitchen TV. An actress, singing in an abnormally high chest voice—though singing very well—performed a number Lloyd Webber found very good. After that he became more interested in contemporary popular Indian music. Several years later Lloyd Webber met Indian movie director Shekhar Kapur and was able to learn volumes about Bollywood and the dozens of movie musicals made in India in any one year. Fascinated, he learned that on any one night in Britain more Asians would see a musical on the screen than a London audience would see on the stage. As he studied the music and the songs of a wide range of Indian movie musicals, he came to the conclusion that at least one of every five songs displayed a melody of pure gorgeousness or a rhythm that was so complex or a level of musical invention that was far removed from the popular melodies of Western Europe or America. He set out to find the creator of such a wide range of Indian pop, and discovered that it was A.R. Rahman, a phenomenon in Asia often referred to as the “Asian Mozart.” His scores had been composed for some of India’s most successful films, including one nominated for Best Foreign Film in the 2002 Academy Awards. With sales of over 100 million, his albums have sold more than any two or three American pop stars currently riding the airwaves. Lloyd Webber needed to meet Rahman, and he counted on his friend Shekhar Kapur to arrange it. A meeting in India was arranged, and Lloyd Webber asked Rahman if he would consider writing a stage musical based on the “Bollywood” milieu. Rahman was intrigued and agreed to go to London to start the work.
That was in 2000. In the two following years it became Webber’s obsession to bring the melodic genius of A.R. Rahman to the West End (and, eventually, Broadway) stage. Their efforts bore fruit: BOMBAY DREAMS opened in London in June of 2002, running two years until June of 2004. It ran on Broadway from April, 2004 to January, 2005. Lloyd Webber felt that Rahman always displayed the
essence of this quote Rahman has posted on his web site: “If a
music artiste wants to blossom into a fully-fledged person, it’s
not enough if he only knows classical music or if he’s well-versed
only in ragas and techniques. He should be interested in life and philosophy.
In his personal life there should be, at least in some corner of his
heart, a tinge of lingering sorrow.”
|
 |
