Dance theater - British musical theater productions on Broadway

Dance Magazine, August, 2003 by Sylviane Gold

MAMMA MIA, HERE WE GO AGAIN--SORT OF.

The British, who took over our musical theater in the 1980s and handed it back in the late '90s, are on the march again. But this time, they appear to be carrying a different kind of ammunition. Instead of the gaudy, overgrown spectacles that we usually associate with London imports--think Phantom of the Opera, with its emblematic chandelier drop, and Miss Saigon, with its hovering helicopter--it seems we're about to get an odd assortment of offbeat, maybe even perverse, musicals that are more interesting for their content than for their stunts.

It's unfair to generalize, of course. The all-American Thoroughly Modern Millie, last year's Tony winner, is as blaringly overproduced as anything ever concocted in the West End. And the British import Song and Dance, the 1985 Andrew Lloyd Webber show that starred Bernadette Peters and Charlotte d'Amboise, was neither flashy nor huge.

But on the whole, flashy and huge would seem to be the British preference in musicals. Certainly Mamma Mia!, the hit that can be said to have launched this newest wave of British imports, is never going to win any prizes for bravery or depth. And neither, I suspect, will British hits like We Will Rock You, which marries the music of the '70s rock group Queen to a newly hatched, futuristic plot, or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which revels in special effects (as any proper musical about a magic car should).

On the other hand, at least three of the shows that are contemplating moves from London to Broadway hold out the possibility that British musicals can be as adventurous as British plays. Unless you've always thought the Bombay film industry, the life of Boy George, and the career of Jerry Springer were natural material for stage musicals, you can't call them obvious.

Bombay Dreams, which is due in New York next spring, tells a fairly familiar story of a kid in the slums who supposes he can find riches and glory as a movie star. But the slums are those in India, and the movies are the giddy, over-the-top extravaganzas produced in the busy film capital known as "Bollywood." So both the music and the dancing in Bombay Dreams are modeled on the exotic (to us) Bollywood production numbers, which combine the sound of traditional Indian music and the steps of traditional Indian dance with the glitzy influence of Western pop forms. A.R. Rahman, who composed the music (the lyricist is Don Black), and Farah Khan, who choreographed (with Anthony Van Laast, of Mamma Mia! fame), are both Bollywood regulars, and this show, which was conceived by Lloyd Webber, promises to be something completely different.

Another musical likely to strike a fairly exotic note will be Taboo, opening in November. Rosie O'Donnell is one of the producers, the writer is Charles Busch, the songs are by Boy George, and he's the main character in the story, which is about London's 1980s club scene. For those too young to remember the Boy George phenomenon, just transfer everything you know about Britney Spears onto a gay male from Britain. Christopher Renshaw, who devised the original concept with Boy George, directs, and Mark Dendy, from the downtown dance world, provides the choreography.

And then there's Jerry Springer--The Opera. Described as "A Chorus Line meets South Park" in an article in The New York Times, it began at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, went on to a limited, noncommercial run at the Royal National Theatre, and became the kind of smash that inevitably lands first in the West End and then on Broadway. It's a comic musical that sends up the crude antics of Jerry Springer's television free-for-all without quite sending up the pathetic losers who show up on it. Conceived and composed by Richard Thomas, it was directed by its co-writer, Stewart Lee, and choreographed by Jenny Arnold; and for good or ill, it sounds like a far cry from Sunset Boulevard.

Of course, I may be way off base. We Will Rock You may be utterly fresh; Bombay Dreams utterly hackneyed. But the British keep trying. I like their perseverance.

Sylviane Gold has written about theater for the Boston Phoenix, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The New York Times, and other publications.