Bombay Dreams

If you have an appetite for Indian Bollywood movies, with their goofy splendor, forbidden love stories, dazzling dance numbers and requisite wedding scenes, you’ll eat up Bombay Dreams. This Broadway Series show pays homage to those addictive Indian musicals that are filled with sugary romances and cheesy all-cast dances.

Bombay Dreams is a slight story with an abundance of exotic choreographed numbers, extravagant sets and an energetic, enthusiastic cast. Some of the songs are a bit lackluster, but many are rousing, ethnic-influenced numbers. Two live drummers, positioned above the stage, provide a hypnotic backbeat.

The story is one familiar to Bollywood fans—slum boy manages to escape poverty, becomes a Bollywood star, falls in love with an unattainable woman above his class, and (spoiler ahead) ultimately woos and weds her. Composer A.R. Rahman puts a creative spin on the show by presenting the story as an actual Bollywood movie, with sets and scene changes. Main character Akaash is played by Sachin Bhatt, who started out hesitantly, but eventually found his pace and won the audience over with his charm and energy. And he’s backed up by his two talented support leads, Reshma Shetty and Sandra Allen.