Joyful, passionate, and just a fabulous night in the theatre
Presented by: Ashley Lobo and Navdhara India Dance Theatre
Reviewed: 2 November 2024
India’s Bollywood industry has grown in popularity with Western audiences over the last couple of decades. The all-singing, all-dancing, melodramatic genre is now seen on screens everywhere.
Navdhara India Dance Theatre, whose chief mission is to “communicate and build bridges within India and the international community”, has taken this intrinsically cinematic genre and placed it onto the live stage with their production Passage to Bollywood.
Artistic Director Ashley Lobo has put together a theatrical treat, starting with a classic Bollywood storyline. A young, naïve, boy from the country, moves to Mumbai to make his fortune. There he meets a local crime boss (who actually has a heart of gold), and falls in love with a beautiful dancer, only to find out the crime boss loves the same woman. Told through back-projections and narrative, the performers don’t need to deliver any dialogue. This is a dance company, and it is the dance which is the star turn. Music is prerecorded, with some live vocals, but mostly lip-syncing, which is what would occur on the screen anyway.
Lobo has put together a dance troupe of outstanding quality. Each number is energetic, passionate, tightly choreographed, and performed with technical finesse. Characterisations are big and bold, jumping off the stage as they would off the screen. There are loads of laughs, but without taking lazy pot-shots at the genre. Passage to Bollywood is an homage, and not a satire.
The opening night audience loved it, and were on their feet dancing and clapping at the end, in a joyful celebration. Marred only by some clunky scene segues and a few annoying black spots in the lighting, this is the type of show we love to see OzAsia deliver.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse
Season: ended
Duration: 1 hour, 25 minutes
Tickets: $59-$55
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