February 29, 2008
Timberlake in a banana hammock? I'm there!
Behold, the trailer for “The Love Guru” (tagline: His karma is huge). I have mixed feelings, because I really lurve Mike Myers; I quote something from Goldmember almost daily. But, as familiar and fun as the shrimp/gnome scene in this trailer is (“Moleee Moleee Moooole”, anyone?) seeing Myers travel around on a pillow, flying carpet-ishtyle made me want to smack someone.
Plot nugget below:
Pitka (Mike Myers) is an American raised by gurus who returns to the USA in order to break into the self-help business. His first challenge: To settle the romantic troubles and subsequent professional skid of star Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) whose wife Prudence (Meagan Good) left him for rival skater Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake). [wiki]
We should totally do a meetup on June 20th, so we can shriek about what offended us, afterwards. ;)
p.s. Thank you to lion and astrosmurf, for the tip!
anna at 11:55 AM in Film, Humor, Theater · 44 comment(s) · 1 reader(s) linked · Direct link
January 21, 2008
DC: Subcontinental Drift 2008- January 28
Straight Outta Compton my inbox, an invitation to the first Subcontinental Drift of 2008. This event/collective is one of my favorite things about living in DC. Come find out why for yourself:
2007 sure brought some of the district’s talents out of the basement and into the spotlight. It was nothing less than inspiring to witness the expressive potential of our collective South Asian community.
Subcontinental Drift is excited to be back with the first open mic night of 2008 on Monday, January 28th at 7pm. Come bless us in this new year with your art, your thoughts, your ideas, your presence. The mic will be open from 7-9 pm (to sign up for a spot, shoot an email with your name and performance genre to subdriftdc@gmail.com). And stay for the after party with some chill beats and groovin’.
Where?
Bohemian Caverns, at the corner of 11th and U. We’ll be upstairs. www.bohemiancaverns.com
When?
Doors open at 6:30pm.
More info?
myspace.com/subcontinentaldrift or email subdriftdc@gmail.com
I never go out on Mondays or Tuesdays because those are my most challenging (read: no lunch) days at work, but I’m about to do some serious juggling in order to attend this— THAT’S how amazing Subcontinental Drift is. It is worth the stress and exhaustion. ;) If you are in DC, please come out so that you, too, can babble beatifically about all the awesomeness. And if you are not in DC, remember that it is a new year; resolve to start something similar where you are. Abhi did it fabulously in Houston, so can you. Everyone deserves to drift.
anna at 03:53 PM in Art, Arts and Entertainment, Events, Identity, Music, Theater · 11 comment(s) · Direct link
December 31, 2007
A Mutinous Look Back at 2007
Unlike many of you lucky bastards mutineers, I am at work today, so this might be one of the most compendious posts I will ever write (stop applauding, haterz).
For the last week or so, I kept hearing variations on “I can’t believe the year is almost over!”. I was feeling that way myself until I started to pore through our archives. Now I feel like this has been a very long year, one which lasted at least 365 days.
Can you even conceive of a time before Sanjaya? Believe it or not, there was, way back in the beginning of 2007.
Let that sink in.
NOW doesn’t it feel like January 17th—the last day that the mutiny was papaya-free— was a long time ago? Speaking of Sanjaya, he’s on the list. What list? The list I made of interesting, notable or significant posts from this year.
Without further contradiction of my use of the word “compendious”, here they are, for your procrastination and pleasure:
• Sanjaya
• Gigi
• Aish
• Gogol
• Neyyappam
• Grace
• Hetal
• Kapila
• Lemurians
• Varsha
• DBD
• Scythians
• Anand Jon
• Padma
• Zed
• Whoa
• Vinay
• Sameer
• Kal
• Bobby
• Mushy
• Benazir
• Maya
See how I tried to be all slick and minimalist? Just first names? Yeah, that didn’t work for everything. Por ejemplo, the only post which has ever roared past the 1,000 comment mark: Whoa— is dating White not right? Simplifying that to just “Whoa” probably would not remind you of that infamous comment orgy.
A note about the first two bullets- I couldn’t settle on just ONE Sanjaya or Obama post, so I gave you all of them. You decide which one is your favorite…or don’t, I mean, it’s almost 5pm and some of you are already pre-pre-partying. For those who are interested in getting so contemplative, because this list is incomplete, feel free to comment about what stories stood out to you in 2007. Much happened at the Mutiny, including the spontaneous, natural and collective decision to rename and reframe an epithet and the experience it crudely conjured; FOB was replaced by the more respectful and apposite “DBD”, an acronym which means “Desh-born Desi”.
As this site grows, sometimes it’s difficult to remember that we are still a community; the birth of that acronym is one of my favorite moments of 2007 because despite SM evolving in to something quite different from what it once was, it indicated that change is not the same as an ending. That seems like a wonderful way to regard a day like today, a time like this, and a possibility-laden new year. Mutineers, I wish you beginnings, endings, changes, surprises, bliss and everything else you deserve, in 2008. :)
anna at 04:53 PM in Blog, Humor, Musings, Reviews, Theater · 90 comment(s) · Direct link
November 26, 2007
Review: "Queens Boulevard -- the Musical"
(Debargo Sanyal and Amir Arison)
Over the weekend we caught a matinee of Queens Boulevard (the musical) at a small, off-broadway theater in New York. The play has already been covered at both SAJAForum and Ultrabrown; this is my version.
The cast of Queens Boulevard has three people of South Asian descent in it, and Charles Mee, the playwright, mentions in the script that “Queens Boulevard (the musical) was inspired by the Katha-Kali play The Flower of Good Fortune by Kottayan Tampuran.” The central plot of the story is partly a reworking of the Shakuntala myth, and partly a version of Homer’s The Odyssey — and sometimes both at once.
I had a number of problems with the play, but I want to start with the positives.
First, the musical numbers are terrific. At times they create a really interesting sense of cross-cultural collage, and the choreography and dancing is well-done. The show makes good use of a Punjabi wedding song (twice), an Asian Karaoke rendition of Abba’s “Dancing Queen,” M.I.A.’s “10 Dollar,” French hip hop, a Gaelic ballad, and a half-dozen other songs. (Far and away, the high point of the show for me was the glam/nightclub dance sequence set to the M.I.A. song.)
Second, the set design by Mimi Lien is pretty brilliant — it’s a lively snapshot of a street in Jackson Heights, with Indo-Pak-Bangla shops, travel agencies, Chinese and Korean signs, and Bollywood film ads plastering every surface. It captures the energy and bustle of Queens without seeming busy.
Third, I liked the play’s appropriation of Kalidasa’s Shakuntala story (or see Wikipedia for a summary). Though it was introduced near the end of a play as a long monologue, it was done quite well.
Finally, the overall effect the play is going for is a multi-culti pastiche, with East Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, and Eastern European, cultures all moving together and interacting in the same space. Getting this to work on stage reflects a sincere and admirable kind of ambition on the part of the playwright and cast, and I wish people would try doing it more.
Unfortunately, in my opinion the actual plot and the dialogue in the play as written is often quite bad. There are numerous long, ponderous monologues about love and fidelity that drag the energy of the play down, again and again.
You don’t have to just take my word for it — Charles Mee has posted the entire text of his play online at his website. Here is one of the monologues I personally found to be cliché-ridden deadweight:
I mean, you know,
it’s wonderful that you’ve just been married
that you have found the love
we all hope for
even if we’re born
with parents we love
still we look for the one who is meant only for us
and then, it seems,
when the time comes that we lose our parents
we see that any love we find in life
lives amidst these other loves we’ve lost and found and lost,
the love of parents
family
if we’re lucky
if we grow as we’re meant to grow
nourished and protected by the love of our families and our friends
so that your love for your wife
belongs to this sea of love
of social love
and is nourished and sustained by that
because, as we all come to know,
it’s not enough just to experience carnal love
or erotic love
or personal love
because, none of us is safe in our own lives and loves
without the social love that makes a safe place
for our personal love to flourish
the regard, the respect,
and, then, too, as we have come to see,
the recognition of all kinds of love deepens each one
so that your love for your wife is deepened
and honored and sustained
when you act on your love for your friends and their families. (link)
If you go for that sort of thing, you might enjoy Queens Boulevard more than I did. My feeling is that Charles Mee’s mistake here is to try and impose long segments of “serious” and conventional “drama” between the surrealist, cross-cultural musical numbers. A better approach might have been to keep the “straight” plot and dialogue light — aim more for the tone of an intelligent romantic comedy perhaps — or lose it entirely, and go entirely surrealist (in the Richard Foreman vein).
I had some other problems with the play, but I don’t want to nitpick.
I should also point out that other people seem to have enjoyed Queens Boulevard more than I did. A commenter at Ultrabrown, for instance, wrote the following:
I just saw QUEENS BOULEVARD this past Friday night, and loved it! It was such a unique theatrical experience–there was music, singing, dancing, a fun script, smart direction, and strong actors. Most of the actors played multiple roles, including Debargo Sanyal, who was downright hilarious as the Paan Beedi Guy (that you mention above), as well as in his several other roles. Geeta Citygirl and Satya Bhabha were great also. And there’s a hysterical little dance set in a Russian bathhouse featuring three of the men (wearing nothing but towels and smiles!) that must be seen to be believed. I highly recommend this production for folks looking to spend a fun evening at the theater this holiday season.(link)
I agree with Ameera on Debargo Sanyal at least, who was indeed one of the standout members of the cast (I hope we’ll be seeing more of him down the road, either in the theater, or in TV/movies).
Queens Boulevard (the musical) is playing at the Signature Theatre until December 30. All seats are $20; it’s a small theater, so there’s no bad seats.
amardeep at 11:31 AM in Theater · 22 comment(s) · Direct link
September 07, 2007
The Subcontinental and the Furious: D.C. Drift
Is it already that time again? As if my weekend couldn’t get any better, Subcontinental Drift, DC’s singular South Asian music/dance/open mic night, is back this Sunday.
If Subcontinental Drift sounds familiar, it’s because I wrote about this rapture on SM before, here. If you live in DC, you are fortunate that your comrades in browndom have come together to create such a fantastic event; support their considerable efforts, come out and play, you’ll be thrilled you did.
This Sunday night a recently-hatched event is descending again on the district. If you’ve been before, you know it is not to be missed; if you haven’t, don’t miss it. It was born early in 2007 when a handful of the District’s desis (Mona, Munish, Nabeel, Nina, Sophie, Surabhi & Vishal) graciously took it upon themselves to fill an artistic void in our community. Thus was born Subcontinental Drift: a creative experiment in open space(s) where artists, poets, songwriters, lyricists & others can share and showcase their talents with the local South Asian/South Asian American diaspora.
Join us this weekend. Observe, absorb, listen, learn, encounter, experience, perform (really, you can - email subdriftdc@gmail.com)! Indulge. [quoted from an awesome email]
Every edition of SD is precious, but this one is more so— Seema Patel, a.k.a. SM commenter “SP”, a.k.a. one of the forces behind Team Vinay (and the heart of their DC operations) is leaving the right coast to go home. Join me, Sunday, as I gnash my teeth at our misfortune. Baltimore/D.C.’s loss is California’s gain. Sigh.
Subcontinental Drift
Sunday, September 9, 2007
6 PM - 11 PM - (Cost: Free)
Bohemian Caverns
2001 11th St. NW
Washington, D.C.
Metro: Green + Yellow- U Street station
It wasn’t just standing room only, last time— we took over the street. This event, let’s do the same. Finish your Art…there are kids starving in cities with less Desis.
anna at 07:27 PM in Arts and Entertainment, Events, Identity, Music, Theater · 33 comment(s) · Direct link
July 17, 2007
Songs of struggle (updated)
If I were an intelligence analyst for a top secret government agency, I would be levelling forests writing memos that said one thing — Musharraf is in trouble now. Why is he in trouble, you ask? Because the opposition has an anthem, and it’s a catchy one.
Any good revolution needs a good song. It’s probably not enough to win; I’m sure there have been revolutions with great anthems that were flattened by the state. And it may not be necessary either, but I’ve gotta tell you, it really helps. A good song serves to rally people around. It provides a constant reminder of the cause, of the struggle. It sneakily undermines the authority of the state every time somebody hums a few bars and is overheard, and it gives courage to those who are wavering. In short, it’s a mistake to underestimate the importance of song when making a revolution. I mean this in a painfully earnest way, there are no smileys here.
The title of the song is “Why doesn’t uncle (i.e. Musharraf) take off his uniform and go home.”
Sung a cappella in Punjabi, it was recorded by religious students in the style of a Punjabi folk song, but its tongue-in-cheek refrains are popular from Karachi to Islamabad, whether its listeners are religious or speak Punjabi or not. [Link]
It’s a funny song, at least if you understand Punjabi, and it was stuck in my head all day. [Updated] The lyrics are quite interesting, and troubling in bits. Some of it calls for Musharraf to leave the Army and retire, but it’s hardly a liberal song. Not only is it pro-Islamicist and anti-American, it’s also anti-women in shorts and pro-Kashmiri separatist. That’s the problem with non-democratic countries, opposition movements often encompass a wide variety of different elements who might not otherwise have found common cause in an open society. The song picks up the sentiment on the street and brings together a variety of different anti-Musharraf feelings, all set to a catchy and easy to sing tune.
I’ve put the video below and the translated lyrics below the fold.
UPDATE: I was looking at the comments and reflecting on other examples of similar songs. The defining song for the North in the US Civil War was “John Brown’s Body” which later evolved into the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The US Civil Rights Struggle had We Shall Overcome. The anti-Apartheid struggle had Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, and there is a great movie about the use of song and dance in the struggle, called Amandla. The 2002 Kenyan elections had Unbwogable (listen here).
Can you guys suggest other great strongs of struggle? And if possible, can you give links to either the music or youtube clips? I’m sure there are lots of great songs I missed.
Here are the translated lyrics:
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
Be a man for once, why don’t you?
Stick to your word, why don’t you?
Your time is at an end,
There’s no choice but to say goodbye
Haven’t you gobbled up enough already?
Broken the constitution with your own two hands
Go home with some dignity, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
Such high aims you have
To bring European culture right here
Our daughters and sisters run down the street
Running down the street in shorts
Drown yourself to a shameful death, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
You’re always running off to Washington,
Running off to butter up Bush,
Falling to his feet and groveling
And turning around and threatening the weak
Fight the real oppressor, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
Evil laid the chess board out
Found their pawn and made a move
You earned the brotherhood defeat
Stood fast by your friend, the Enemy
Be ashamed at your crime, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
Struck down and wounded your own people
Cut them up just like a butcher
Evil seems to egg you on
While all of Kashmir curses you
Show your power there, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
You kept murderers close to your heart
What did you get for all this oppression?
For spilling the blood of the Afghans?
For embarrassing Muslims everywhere?
Repent at what you’ve done, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
Open your eyes and see
America’s heartless terrorism
Killing people like insects
But honor does not fear power
So show some honor, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?
Thieves and robbers of this nation
They’re all your friends, their bellies full
They run around with impunity
Going around raiding Mosques
Go right off to hell, why don’t you?
Uncle, lose the uniform, why don’t you?
Take your pension and leave, why don’t you?… [Link]
ennis at 09:24 AM in Politics, Theater · 51 comment(s) · Direct link
June 28, 2007
Set Adrift on "SubcontineNtal Drift" in DC Tomorrow
I recently emailed five questions to Sophie, who is part of the force behind D.C.’s Subcontinental Drift.
Several Mutineers discussed SD’s last event at the most recent D.C. meetup— in fact, a few of you even performed at it! I get the feeling the rest of you would be VERY interested in what Sophie and her dynamic crew are trying to do— so I thought I’d post a wee reminder that your next chance to marinate in creative splendor is tomorrow night, June 29. But first, some essential information:
Subcontinental Drift is __?
…an effort to bring out the “basement talents of the District’s desis.” Basically, we’re trying to provide a creative space for people who are artistically-inclined (that’s a broad term and encompasses pretty much anyone from professional artists to people who like to watch other people read poetry) to connect with each other and share each other’s work.
What inspired it?
A few of us “D.C. desis” felt like there was a void in the South Asian community —in a place like D.C. where there are soooo many talented people, there wasn’t a cohesive group or space that was encouraging or nurturing that talent. The need was something that was floating around in the air, and we just grabbed it. Specifically though, the catalyst for me was when I was with Munish and Vikash at Bossa lounge in Adams Morgan and we watched Vishal Kanwar play tablas there. We’re like, wow, this is cool..let’s do more cool stuff. Something like that.
What’s the best thing about it?
The best thing is watching new artists get up in front of nearly 100 desis, and coming more and more into themselves. When you see people willing to get up there, be vulnerable, share a sacred part of themselves, and the audience is so warm and appreciative—it is the most beautiful thing.
What if someone wanted to get involved with it?
They should email us at subdriftdc@gmail.com .
What if a mutineer who isn’t lucky enough to live in D.C. wanted to emulate such awesomeness— any advice for them?
Get a few like-minded people together who are committed to the same thing you are, pick a venue, and go to the ends of the earth to SPREAD THE WORD about it. If your community doesn’t have a creative space for people, chances are people are hungry for it. As long as word spreads, people will come. And especially in the beginning, keep the vibe pretty informal and verryyy welcoming—human connection is the key!
I went to the last Subcontinental Drift and I’ll be at tomorrow’s, as well. The atmosphere that Sophie, Munish, Nina, Mona, Nabeel, Vishal and Surabhi create is extraordinary; upon being dragged to last month’s event, a friend of mine from out of town was actually envious of us DCists, because he thought the open mic/dance performances/live music/stand-up comedy/ridiculously good sangria made for one fantastic night. I agreed and immediately grew mindful of how lucky I was to live here, where creativity manifests like this. I’m telling you, the very air in that room pictured above felt charged, different, exhilarating. You should go, and see for yourself. :)
Subcontinental Drift
An open mic for and by South Asian Americans.
-experiments in words, sound or art
-music
-comedy
-spoken word
Friday, June 29, 2007
7:30pm-10pm
Cost: FREE and we have drinks and snacks!
La Casa Community Center
3166 Mt. Pleasant Street NW
3 blocks from the Columbia Heights metro stop.
(Green or Yellow Line)
anna at 05:30 PM in Art, Dance, Events, Identity, Music, Profiles, Theater · 14 comment(s) · Direct link
April 11, 2007
7.11 Convenience Theater: The Slurpee Review
Seen any good plays recently? Yeah, didn’t think so. If you’re like me, you tend to fall asleep during big Broadway production numbers, but small “experimental” theaters leave you cringing with embarrassment or irritation. You know, all that minimalist white (or black) space, with some dudes dressed all in black (or white) rattling off non-sequiters.
Theater - playacting before a live audience - is a quaint and arguably archaic form. But I have to say, when done right, it can leave you feeling deliciously voyeuristic, like you’ve peered into another life with an immediacy that no book or movie could ever provide.
So imagine the excitement then, of theater written by a melange of browns and yellows, about them browns and yellows, for the Bs & Ys (and the people who care for them). I’m terribly late (only 3 days left!) in posting this review, so you should stop reading now and scoot off to buy tix to the Fifth Annual Seven.11 Convenience Theater. The talented folks at Desipina created seven short plays, each eleven minutes long, each set it that haven of desi-ness, the 7-11 convenience store.
Date: March 29 - April 14 [Wednesday - Saturday 8pm, Sat/Sun matinees 3pm ] Cost: Tickets are $18
Location: The Abrons Arts Center. 466 Grand St at Pitt Street, NYC. www.henrystreet.org
If you care to know more, join me as I wear my Ben Brantley hat after the jump.
What? You didn’t buy the ticket already? Want to make sure you get your money’s worth, eh?
Cool, I can respect that. Seriously. I’m not calling you cheap or anything.
Eleven minutes actually turns out to be as short as you are entertained, or as long as you are bored. The plays are decidedly second-generation Asian-American, and feature very pop-culture savvy jokes (Law & Order, post-modern, fourth-wall-breaking asides to the audience, MTV desi), gay themes, skimpy attire, simulated sex…er, yeah. So maybe you don’t want to see this with your parents.
The most juvenile (Bollywood Blueberry Brainfreeze Bonanza) still featured a really hysterical jab at hippity-hoppity-slangity MTV Desi VJs, and the most eloquent dared to tackle Sinhala-Tamil enmity in Sri Lanka (Cafe Ceilao), and fading friendships (Bachelor Moon). The actors are uniformely outstanding - funny, uninhibited, charismatic. Meetu Chilana brightened up a rather flat muscial number with an amazing, just amazing, depiction of a Pinocchio doll. Girl can really sing too. The cleverly staged sets deserve a mention, as do the excellent attention to detail: prop people even gave the actor playing a Sri Lankan a copy of Monkfish Moon!
Given the 7-11 theme, I guess I expected to see more social commentary, something about the class divide, something more…you know…heavy. I wish they’d dug in a bit deeper. But still, some serious subjects were handled with a light touch, and all in all, I have to say, I had a really good time.
My favorite line: “It’s like the threadcount of his shirt is smothering me with butterfly kisses.”
Previous post: here.
cicatrix at 07:47 PM in Theater · 23 comment(s) · Direct link
May 30, 2006
ARTWALLAH is back- Los Angeles, June 24th
ArtWallah ‘06 is now less than a month away in Los Angeles. SM readers have heard me sing the praises of this organization and its annual festival before. I appreciate what they do and what they are about so much that I have been wallahnteering to help run the festival for the past three years. This year I decided to retire and actually cool out to all the artists and just enjoy myself…or so I thought. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. I’m the new “CashWallah.” I will leave it to your imaginations what that job entails.
Last year I decided to entice SM readers to come out to the festival with a little multimedia tour which made it pretty obvious why anyone within a hundred miles of L.A. (at least) should show up. I hyperlinked to some new musicians, artists, dancers etc. This year the ArtWallah Press Team has saved me the trouble and made a detailed program FULL of interesting hyperlinks to artists many of you have never heard of. It took me an hour to click through them all and appreciate what I saw. It was an hour well spent.
…this year’s ArtWallah festival [at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center] will present the works of over 40 artists through dance, film, literature, music, spoken word, theater, and visual arts - showcasing the personal, political, and cultural celebrations and struggles of the South Asian diaspora (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).
Click on “Continued” below for a quick lick.
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Click on any picture above to discover a new artist. Come to ArtWallah to experience them in person.
abhi at 01:10 AM in Art, Dance, Events, Film, Literature, Music, Theater · 30 comment(s) · Direct link
March 23, 2006
We’ve got a live one!
We’ve got a new inductee for the Exotica Hall of Shame. This Chicago Sun-Times review of a new Chicago pop opera called Sita Ram is out to set some kind of density record for exotica-spew on Desilandia (thanks, WGIIA):
Adding to the spicy flavor are Scott C. Neale’s brilliantly colored street signs of India, Mara Blumenfeld’s curry-tinted costumes (many imported from India), Chris Binder’s deft lighting, plus shadow puppets and exotic instruments. There are moments when it feels like you are watching a traveling troupe that has set up shop in the center of an Indian village, and you half expect a cow or water buffalo to wander through. [Link]
I see that Jai Uttal is involved in this project. Say no more.
“Sita Ram” is the creation of director-writer David Kersnar and Grammy-nominated composer and co-lyricist Jai Uttal… [Link]
Hedy Weiss, you are dead to me 
manish at 02:49 PM in Literature, Music, Religion, Theater · 79 comment(s) · Direct link
March 01, 2006
Desipina’s not Cablinasian
For me, watching Seven.11 was one of the theater highlights of 2005. 
It had the sharpest writing and the funniest set of desi and As-Am in-jokes I’ve seen in ages: custom-fit culture in a railroad apartment. The proprietors have done well for themselves behind the counter, unveiling a bigger show in a bigger theater this year:
This year’s line-up includes a kung-fu hustler, run-away teenagers, convenience store surprise reunions, a futuristic free-for-all for Manhattan, and not one but TWO original pop musicals, one of which leaves you questioning, “Who really did kill Mr. Naidu?”
If you’re anywhere new New York between March 30 and April 16, you have to see the musical farce, last year’s was side-splitting. The show’s creative constraint is a gimmick, but it works:
… Seven.11 Convenience Theatre marks its fourth year with a whole new set of seven plays [of 11 minutes each] all set in a convenience store…
The intense, bald and talented Andrew Guilarte returns from last year’s cast. Looking at the list is like watching a star team shed your favorite players (where have you gone, Joe Debarggio, and Lethia Nall, Kavi Ladnier, Anuvab Pal?). You hope the new faces will once again become sentimental favorites.
Featuring the ever-talented cast of Sturgis Adams, Meetu Chilana, Andrew Guilarte, Sean Krishnan, Stephen Tyrone Williams, John Wu, Alicia Ying
They were completely sold out last year, so buy ahead.
manish at 06:16 PM in Theater · 2 comment(s) · Direct link
February 10, 2006
Wax dummy
A new off-Broadway play about a desi student’s loss of innocence is running off-Broadway through Feb. 25. Huck & Holden refers, of course, to two iconic characters in American lit (thanks, SD).
Here’s a positive review:
Navin’s story begins deceptively, as a collegiate, slapstick coming-to-America tale about a young man just arrived from Calcutta, who’s as clueless about American literature as he is about sex. But as Navin (Nick Choksi) begins exploring his newfound independence, and his burgeoning feelings for the pretty young librarian Michelle (Cherise Boothe), the story transforms into one of unexpected soul and depth…And, of course, there’s Kali, fancifully realized here as the embodiment of chaos working to establish order, and dazzlingly portrayed by Nilaja Sun. Her careful steps, strenuously stylized hand gestures, and ugly-meets-beautiful dance to cover Navin and Torry’s fisticuffs make her a hilarious and horrifying joy to watch. [Link]
And one more faint:After discovering Navin with a porn mag called Brown Honey, Torry teaches him how to wax a girl’s @ss
Navin’s introduction to the American way of life is explored almost solely through sex, particularly as embodied in the person of Michelle (Boothe), an African-American library worker who befriends Navin while undergoing a breakup with her tough-guy boyfriend Torry (McClain). There is obvious comic potential in this particular culture clash, but the action coasts entirely on the undignified level of racial burlesque, replete with a contrived scenario in which Torry, after discovering Navin with a porn mag called Brown Honey, proceeds to give the naïve Indian a tutorial in how to wax a girl’s ass…Michelle receives visitations from the Hindu goddess Kali (Nilaja Sun), incarnated here as a trash-talkin’ mama whose caricature, if borderline offensive, at least breathes some life onto the stage. Still, if you’re not fond of stereotypes, do yourself a favor and read some Twain and Salinger instead. [Link]
manish at 07:57 PM in Theater · 8 comment(s) · Direct link
‘Costa Mesa Dreams’ just doesn’t have the same ring
Bombay Dreams the musical is going on a seven-month North American tour, including Toronto, and dholbanger Dave Sharma is going with it. First stop: Costa Mesa, California, on Feb. 21.
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Sachin Bhatt plays Akaash |
Sachin Bhatt will star as Akaash with Sandra Allen as Rani and Reshma Shetty as Priya in the upcoming tour.. The cast will also feature Deep Katdare as Vikram, Aneesh Sheth as Sweetie, Suresh John as Madan and Christine Toy Johnson as Kitty DeSousa.
The Bombay Dreams ensemble comprises Enrique Acevedo, Tia Altinay, Nita Baxani, Shane Bland, Wendy Calio, Sujana Chand, Tiffany Michelle Cooper, Aaron Coulson, Diane Angela Fong, Monica Kapoor, Namita Kapoor, Stephanie Crain Klemons, Jeremy Leiner, Garrick Macatangay, Kenneth Maharaj, Anil Margsahayam, Skie Ocasio, Desmond Osborne, Christopher Quiban, Kristian Richards, Rommy Sandhu and Marie Kelly. [Link]
Sachin Bhatt… of St. Louis, MO received his B.S. in Vocal Performance with an outside field in Theatre from Indiana University… Sachin will be playing the role of Chino in the upcoming Asian/European Tour of West Side Story… [Link]
Fortunately, the star attraction will be there with them:
The fountain will be featured in the tour… the costumes are from the Broadway production. [Link]
Roadshows are like movies’ DVD and overseas rights. Investors are giving their flagstaffs a final shake to squeeze out the remaining drops of their investments. The tour takes on only new leads but also a new director:
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Director Baayork Lee |
Baayork Lee, whose many Broadway performance credits include the original cast of A Chorus Line, will direct the international tour of Bombay Dreams… [Link][Lee] began taking dancing lessons at the age of three, when she was growing up in Chinatown, and in 1951… she was chosen, along with several other Chinese children, to appear in the original production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I… Seven years later, she appeared in R. & H.’s Flower Drum Song…
When she was in her twenties, Lee, whose first name, she said, means “precious jewel,” originated the role of Connie in A Chorus Line. “I was Connie Wong,” Lee said. “She’s a short Asian—she’s four foot ten. It’s the story of my life—I wanted to be a ballerina. I wanted to be Maria Tallchief, and I studied at the School of American Ballet for so many years.” Lee played Connie for three years, and then went on to direct all the foreign Chorus Line companies. [Link]
Here’s the full tour schedule:
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Sandra Allen in ‘Flower Drum Song’ |
Feb. 21-March 5 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, CA
March 10-12 at the Broadway Theatre League in Huntsville, AL
March 14-19 at the Palace Theatre in Columbus, OH
March 21-April 2 at the Playhouse Square Center in Cleveland, OH
April 4-16 at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, MO
April 18-23 at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL
May 9-21 at the Sacramento Community Center Theater in Sacramento, CA
May 23-June 4 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, TX
June 6-18 at Dallas Summer Musicals in Dallas, TX
July 11-23 at the Buell Theatre in Denver, CO
July 25-30 at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, NC
Aug. 1-6 at the Pittsburgh CLO in Pittsburgh, PA
Aug. 8-13 at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA
Aug. 15-20 at the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Canada
Sept. 12-Oct. 1 at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA [Link]
It’ll be interesting to see how it does in the South and Midwest. I’ve argued before that although the show has a gloss of exotica, the story is really a straightforward, ’50s-style musical. It should do well outside the Snarktic Circle of theater critics in Manhattan.
manish at 11:57 AM in Theater · 19 comment(s) · Direct link
February 09, 2006
Hi, I'm Buddha. You can call me Bud.
So it was only when I moved to the US (from France) at age 18 that everyone started calling me Sidd, following that American mania of shortening all names to one syllable. I accepted it without thinking, and eventually began using it to introduce myself. At least it spared me the Hermann Hesse questions. But I never felt like a Sidd.
It took me years to accept that the nickname was really bothering me; years more to realize I could do something about it. One day five years ago I sent an email to all my friends asking them to call me any nickname they liked, just not Sidd. It was a profoundly liberating moment. So much so that when I’m called Sidd now, which happens from time to time, it barely bothers me anymore.
But now comes this, and I’m starting to have ugly flashbacks:
SIDD, a new musical based on the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, will begin performances at Dodger Stages 5 (340 West 50th Street) on Thursday, February 23 @ 8:00 PM. With music & lyrics by Doug Silver and direction, book & additional lyrics by Andrew Frank, SIDD will have its official opening on Wednesday, March 22 @ 8:00 PM.
Oh boy. Here we go:
SIDD chronicles the extraordinary journey of a mans life from his youthful wanderings in his home village, through his many years living amidst the glamour jazz and corruption of the city, his encounter with Buddha and ultimately, his enlightenment that follows. SIDD features a diverse cast of seven accompanied onstage by piano, cello and percussion trio. The musicals eclectic score draws on various influences from Richard Rodgers to reggae.
There’s a couple of places I could go with this. One has to do with names. The artistic gesture of adapting Siddhartha the seeker into Broadway Sidd, reminds me of the casual dismissal of non-native names that I, like many others, underwent — and of my years of meek acquiescence, of which I am vaguely ashamed. I wonder if other mutineers relate.
Then there’s the musical itself. I found two desi-ish connections on the show’s roster:
Directed by Andrew Frank, SIDD will feature Neil Maffin (Bway: Salomé; Off Bway: Entertaining Mr. Sloan, The Sum of Us, The Illusion) in the title role, alongside Marie-France Arcilla (Off Bway: The Ark), Dann Fink (Bway: Les Miserable), Pamela Jordan (Bway: Dracula, The Boy From Oz) Nicole Lewis (Bway: Lennon), Arthur Marks, and Gerry McIntyre (Bway: Once On This Island; Off-Bway: The Audience). This production features set design by Maruti Evans, lighting design by Chris Dallos, costume design by Michael Bevins & sound design by Andrew Bellware. SIDD is presented by Always On The Way / Fran Kirmser Sharma.
Maruti Evans turns out to be a guy. Fran Kirmser Sharma went to Skidmore and I guess must have married a brother named Sharma. By the way, here’s the cat who’s playing Sidd.
Now there’s got to be some mutineers who can give us the inside scoop on this fine production. Meanwhile, I am sure that somewhere out there in the Sepiasphere, there’s a Bengali-American brother called Buddhadeb or Buddhaditya who goes by the name of Bud.
siddhartha at 07:46 PM in Theater · 22 comment(s) · Direct link
November 13, 2005
A South Asian Bess
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| Mahajan: The South Asian Soprano |
“Welcome to Catfish Row. In this poignant tale of love found and lost, the disabled beggar Porgy wins the beautiful but troubled Bess from her macho thug boyfriend Crown only to lose her to “happy dust” and the bright lights of New York.”
This isn’t even close to Mahajan’s first big-time performance, and I am a little surprised we hadn’t heard too much of her until now, although I guess opera circles are a bit different than ones many of us belong to. Here is some more on Mahajan from her bio…
Acclaimed for her portrayal of Musetta, she appeared in the Opera Omaha production of La bohème conducted Hal France and returned to Dallas Opera in the Garnett Bruce production which was conducted by Claus Peter Flor. Recognizing her command of the role, the soprano was invited to perform “Quando me’n vo” in the prestigious Richard Tucker Gala at Lincoln Center. Having performed Mimi for the first time in the Dayton Opera production, Miss Mahajan was invited to repeat the role at Royal Albert Hall marking her opera debut in the United Kingdom. The production was directed by three-time Olivier award-winning director Francesca Zambello and conducted by David Parry. Following her debut, Miss Mahajan was recognized for her “substantial voice” in The London Sunday Times. She will reprise the role at Royal Albert Hall in spring 2006.To hear an mp3 of what the South Asian Soprano sounds like, click here. Sadly, for those of you wanting to see one of the remaining shows of Porgy and Bess, it seems three nights have already sold out (11/15, 11/18, 11/19), so if you are interested, grab your tickets quickly.
sajit at 07:26 PM in Arts and Entertainment, Theater · 5 comment(s) · Direct link
November 08, 2005
“Soul Sikher”
Previously profiled Sikh comic Sody Singh Kahlon is at it again. Kahlon first made waves in the UK with a well received one-man act titled “Sikh in the City” (get it?) and stage/screen performances with his comedy group, the Funjabi’s -
Sody Kahlon first came to prominence as co-founder of The Funjabis, making their name in west London by selling out performances at Watermans theatre.The group was behind hit comedy plays such as ‘The Funjabi Show’, ‘This Is Your Life, Mr Funjab’ and ‘Don’t Worry Be Funjabi’ at venues around the UK.
…his one-man play ‘Sikhs in the City’ toured internationally to almost 6,000 fans, featured on BBC2, Radio4, BBC World Service and is being released on DVD; he co-wrote the short film ‘We Are One’ with Sarbjit Bakshi, which formed part of a Channel 4 film scheme; and has done various acting stints on BBC and ITV.
Kahlon’s back with a new show titled “Soul Sikher”. Reports from across the pond indicate that Kahlon is using the tried and true country-bumpkin —> big city —> country-bumpkin / clash of cultures plot -
FOLLOWING the international success of his sell-out solo show “Sikhs in the City”, Britain’s only Sikh comedian, Sody Singh Kahlon is back with a new multi-media comedy show about a man who has lost touch with his roots.…Paul’s only pleasures come in the form of his plasma TV, Playstation and surround sound gadget lifestyle, which the high flying IT Londoner loves more than anything else, much to the despair of his wife and parents.
However, after some divine intervention Paul receives a one-way ticket to the Punjab!
There, he begins his reluctant re-acquaintance with his roots and meets some extraordinary, eccentric characters including; the driving destructor, the unbearable sister, a bugger of a beggar and the sub-continent’s craziest sucker; Chippore the mosquito.
Some may bemoan the choice but for me, there’s more than enough material here to keep the Russell Peters, the Ali’s, and the like well fed. One part of the act is particularly hard for your author to envision - a 6 foot tall bearded Sikh in drag -
Kahlon is a lively character actor and he’s at his best as Tiffany, Paul’s gobby sister, who is unable to decide if she’s a devout Sikh or Brummie slapper.
Oh my. Soul Sikher opened in October and tours the UK through February 2006.
vinod at 08:27 AM in Humor, TV, Theater · 10 comment(s) · Direct link
October 12, 2005
Trolls and orcs and balrogs, oh my
The province of Ontario is 
subsidizing the Toronto Lord of the Rings musical with a $2.5M (U.S.) loan. As posted earlier, A.R. Rahman is composing the music, his theater sequel to Bombay Dreams. It promises to be the most expensive theater production ever:
Ontario’s officials - on behalf of their 12 million citizens - have signed on as investors for the show, which is expected to be one of the most expensive ever… the provincial government will contribute some $2.5 million of the show’s $23 million budget… The stage version’s $23 million price tag would make it more expensive than any show on Broadway. “The Lion King,” by comparison, cost Disney some $20 million…Air Canada has donated more than $1 million worth of airline tickets to help the creative team - which includes… an Indian composer, A. R. Rahman; and a Finnish folk music group, Värttinä - commute back and forth to Toronto…
Press materials circulated for the show call it “the biggest and most ambitious theatrical production ever staged,” promising a three-and-a-half-hour event that starts even before the curtain rises. (Hobbits are to prowl the aisles as the audience enters.) [Link]
The one 
fiscal conservative left in Canada was outraged:
… eight of every 10 Broadway shows fails to earn back their money… “This government is certainly creative when it comes to spending taxpayers money, but not when it comes to saving it…” Kheiriddin noted that the province dropped $1-million to get popular American talk-show host Conan O’Brien to host a week of TV shows in Toronto last year.
But Bradley said… $4.6-million in grants offered by the province following the SARS outbreak generated some $50-million for Ontario’s tourism industry. [Link]
You’d think the overlap between show tunes and Dungeons & Dragons players would be minuscule. But with the success of the Monty Python adaptation Spamalot, perhaps they don’t need to worry:
Like Las Vegas - which has imported several major Broadway shows in recent years, including “Avenue Q” and “Mamma Mia” - Toronto seems to be angling for tourists with a taste for theater, a demographic that it hopes will also sample other of the city’s cultural outposts, like the Royal Ontario Museum. “We’d like to be second behind New York…” In May, Ms. McInnis’s office paid for a print advertising campaign to woo potential ticket-buyers in Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland and Rochester, all within striking distance of Toronto.Mr. Wallace said that the production’s second company is expected to head to London, meaning that no Broadway opening is likely before 2008. [Link]
I’ll second that for any Lordheads in New York: Toronto is just $120 on a regional jet and about an hour’s flying time.
manish at 09:10 PM in Music, Theater · 6 comment(s) · Direct link
October 10, 2005
All the World’s A Stage
There I was, shivering in the winds of the great plains, trying to figure out how, exactly, the Mutineers were going to haze me. Downing a glass of sweet and salty lime water to calm my fluttery stomach, I tried to imagine the worst. Would Abhi race me in rappelling down the face of the North Dakota headquarters? Perhaps Vinod and Manish might make me read aloud from the works of Ayn Rand while standing on one leg? Might Anna challenge me to a literary write-off? Could Sajit make me play some hyped up diasporic version of the Filmigame? Perhaps in the mountain headquarters’ darkened corridors, Ennis would torment me with a tantalizing, mirrored glimpse of a single eye, stirring up Sepia speculation about the rest of his mysterious visage.
Somehow, all these were not so scary. The Ig Nobel prize post, however, reminded me of last year’s peace prize—and the dreaded combination of Karaoke and Antakshari. What could possibly be worse than being made to perform in public like that?
Except, I suppose, that’s what blogging is. Hey, look at me, I’ve got something to say. Well, might as well make it an entertaining group activity. If I had to describe the culture of the South-Asian American community in a single sentence, I might very well hit on this: We’re very supportive—perhaps too supportive—of our children’s performance-related self-esteem. It only takes two or three Diwali shows with a hundred klutzy butterballs bouncing around the stage, adorably off-beat, to realize that we start drinking in theater with our mothers’ milk. This season brings a fresh batch.
When characters speak to you from a murky stage, words and turns of phrase stick in your brain—say, “a raisin of startling white clarity.” That comes from an alternate translation of the Koranic verse thought to promise martyrs an award of virgins. Bangladeshi-American playgwright Sharbari Ahmed uses the ambiguity in titling her character-study currently playing in New York City’s Workshop Theater (312 W. 36th St., on the 4th floor, between 8th and 9th Avenues):
“Raisins Not Virgins is a tale of spiritual and political turmoil set against a backdrop of New York dating angst. It traces the hilarious journey and jihad of a young American-Muslim woman as she traverses the minefields of identity and love. Sahar Salam is a 29 year old, apolitical, well-heeled, and lonely New York advertising professional who loses her boyfriend to causes and ideologies greater than she is willing to admit. This loss forces her to confront a lifelong resentment against the religion of her birth, Islam. It also marks the beginning of her personal jihad, which, for Sahar, involves a great deal of drinking and a dubious flirtation with the world of art,” according to press notes. (Link)
Ahmed has an impressive life-itinerary so far: “She was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, grew up in Chester CT, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Japan and studied Mandarin in China.”
Since my own tastes similarly run the spectrum of worldly flavors, I thought we’d move a little further west, closer to the North Dakota headquarters, and marvel at the diverse season that artistic director Dipankar Mukherjee and literary director Natarajan showcase at the Minneapolis Pangea World Theater. Sadly, we’ve just missed their run of Truth Serum Blues, which was directed by Mukherjee and was oh so timely. When our president promises to veto an anti-torture bill that passed the Senate 90-9, it’s a good day to pay attention to art like this:
“We’re not afraid of differing opinions,” said Dipankar Mukherjee, Pangea’s artistic director. “We know this is a sensitive issue and it will provoke disagreement. But if we don’t talk about it or if we talk only to ourselves, the gulf will remain.” (Link.)It’s overdue that Americans face the torture committed daily in our names. Ismail Khalidi and the Pangea Theater put us in that cell—confronting us with crucial questions we must ask. (Link)
From life in the city, to life in America, to life in the desh—let us now travel further west to my hometown of Berkeley, where 90 years ago Shakuntala marked the debut of Indian theater in America, accompanied by elephants and zebras. This November, Sudipto Chatterjee will direct the West Coast Premiere of Manjula Padmanabhan’s Harvest:
Om, a young man, is driven by unemployment to sell his body parts for cash. Guards arrive from the company to make his home into a germ-free zone. His mother makes use of the company credit card to purchase luxury goods, oblivious to her son’s predicament. When Jeetu, Om’s brother, returns unexpectedly, he is taken away as the donor, by mistake. Om can’t accept this and goes to the company to complain. Jaya, his wife is left alone. Will she too be seduced into selling her body for use by the rich westerners? (Link)
Shades of Ishiguro. Also turned into a film. We live together in a dark and intriguing world; let us share our shadowy thoughts. I think the Mutiny will drink to that, atop the moonless mountain.
saheli at 02:51 AM in Art, Arts and Entertainment, Events, Theater · 13 comment(s) · Direct link
September 22, 2005
Big Desi TV Week
This American television season-premiere week for some reason has been filled with an unprecedented number of desis. Not including the various desis already appearing as regulars on television series, the week began with Indira Varma on Rome, Toral on the apprentice, and relative newcomer Maulik Pancholy on the new Showtime series Weeds, which airs Monday’s at 10 pm. Pancholy, who was previously seen in Hitch, and appeared as various generic brown characters in a handful of sitcoms (including Jack and Jill and the hilarious Tracey Takes On), scored a recurring guest role on Weeds, which stars Mary-Louise Parker and Kevin Nealon. A bit early to say, but could Pancholy be the next Kal Penn?
Incidentally, Pancholy is starring in the off-Broadway play, India-Awaiting, which opens for previews on October 15, 2005 at the Samuel Beckett Theater.
See Manish’s previous post on Pancholy here.
sajit at 09:26 PM in Arts and Entertainment, TV, Theater · 12 comment(s) · Direct link
September 02, 2005
T-Bills & Louise
My ridiculously talented corporate whore / playwright friend Anuvab Pal has 
managed to get a reading of Life, Love and EBITDA into the Public Theater’s festival of emerging artists. God knows what this’ll do to the size of his head. We can only hope the play lands with a thud so Anuvab continues to fit through Manhattan’s notoriously narrow doorways. But judging from past audience reaction, he’s taking the double-wide lift from now on.
Ruled from London by millionaire twins with workers toiling in India, the sun never sets on Gofuz Inc.-the world’s largest manhole-cover maker. But two women bankers have devious plans to reshape Gofuz and the future of global waste. [Link]… investment bankers… I found fascinating because they were supposedly the cleverest people in the world, working harder than anybody else but producing absolutely nothing… I step on a manhole cover every day here in New York and it says Made in India… Every “corporate play” is always about men in suits… So why not a Wall Street play about women?… “A man’s his job,” I think Mamet told us in Glengarry Glen Ross. [Link]
Yeah, along with some other choice words now recanted 
… it is easier to write a play about architects or poets because… everyone knows exactly what the end product is, a house or a poem for example… I have spoken to many senior bankers, been in the industry for many years, and they have no idea either, except it is something that pays for their kids’ colleges. [Link]
I’ve seen a reading of this play. It’s a very funny, wordplay-packed satire about the i-banking grind, the buying and selling of companies and, of course, sweet sweet lowe. Go see LL&E if you find wicked-smart women slinging finance and deconstructing romance hot.
Did I mention it’s free?
Previous posts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
manish at 03:36 AM in Theater · 12 comment(s) · Direct link
July 10, 2005
Next Weekend in SF: The Domestic Crusaders
I know it seems like we only post cool things to do in NYC, L.A. or D.C. but yay urrea readers, take dil: this one’s for you. Next week, you should totally drag your friends and frenemies to Mutineer Manish’s old stomping grounds, for an evening at the theater.
You’ll be watching The Domestic Crusaders, a two-act play which takes place on a single day in the life of a multi-generational Pakistani-American family—a day, by the way, that happens to be the “baby’s” 21st birthday:
With a background of 9-11 and the scapegoating of Muslim Americans, the tensions and sparks fly among the three generations, culminating in an intense family battle as each “crusader” struggles to assert and impose their respective voices and opinions, while still attempting to maintain and understand that unifying thread that makes them part of the same family.
How’s that for salient? If you’re worried about whether or not it will be good, here’s what the Contra-Costa Times had to say about it:
Wajahat Ali didn’t set out to write an earthshaking play. The Berkeley student was taking a short story course from Pulitzer Prize nominee Ishmael Reed. When his professor pulled him aside and told him he was a natural playwright, Ali couldn’t believe it. “I thought it was pure nonsense,” Ali says. Reed encouraged Ali to write a Muslim-American response to 9-11. “All I wanted to do was pass a class,” says Ali, who succeeded in doing much more than that.
Hey. All you readers who have totally reasonable gripes with the media, for not covering a broader, more accurate world— this blockquote’s for you:
“Domestic Crusaders” represents Muslim-American voices that have not been heard because we are living in a country whose media is censored…
“In the largely Pakistani-American audience at the premiere of the play, people were roaring and falling off their chairs,” says Blank. “It’s the kind of audience most original playwrights would kill to be able to contact,” Blank says, laughing.
I don’t think it’s hype; I think the guy is genuinely funny. In the same article, he expresses himself like this:
“As a Muslim-American, you’re pretty much hated by everyone, just no one wants to say it,” says Ali.
Come ON…how can you resist that candor? If that’s how he talks to the press, I’m fairly sure his play, The Domestic Crusaders, will be unforgettable and totally worth the trek to Berkeley. I say “trek” because I don’t know a soul who still lives in Berkeley…and I know how some of you really don’t like to leave your ‘hoods. ;)
More proof that he’s funny: apparently, in addition to doing stand-up at Cal, Ali has created plays and films since he was a wee lad in uber-brown-town Fremont. You can find out more about him here. I totally suggest you do—I lurve how the his bio commences:
Wajahat Ali (playwright) is a Muslim American of Pakistani descent who is neither a terrorist nor a saint. The Domestic Crusaders is his first play.
May it be the first of many.
Here, have a helping of some showtimes and other info:
* Venue: Thrust Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre
* Address: 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley
*
* Friday, July 15: 8:00 PM
* Saturday, July 16: 2:00 PM
* Saturday, July 16: 8:00 PM
anna at 05:54 AM in Arts and Entertainment, Religion, Theater · 1 comment(s) · 1 reader(s) linked · Direct link
June 07, 2005
Singing at the gates or Mordor
Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza were the big winners at Sunday’s 59th annual Tony Awards. Any early favorites for next year? From April’s Detroit Free Press:
The next big thing in theater, the musical version of “The Lord of the Rings,” is scheduled for its world premiere in 2006 in Toronto. Previews won’t begin until Feb. 2 and the show has yet to be cast but producer Kevin Wallace offered a preview Thursday night to tour operators and other invited guests at the Renaissance Center.
Emphasizing “LOTR’s” human aspects before he mentioned its special effects, Wallace called the show “as powerful and emotional a story as you’ve ever experienced in the theater.”
Some particulars: The show will run 3 1/2 hours, including two intermissions; the music is by Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Bombay Dreams”) and Finnish folk group Varttina, and there will be Hobbits mingling with playgoers before the show.
Playbill.com recently noted that advance tickets are already being snatched up:
In the first week of sales toward the February 2006 Toronto world premiere of the musical The Lord of the Rings, theatregoers snapped up $7 million (Canadian) in tickets, a spokesperson for the Toronto producers confirmed.
One might cringe imagining a quirky show tune of sweet admonition from Frodo called “Oh, Sam!,” about hobbit pal Sam’s dogged faithfulness. Don’t expect it: Traditional musical theatre is not what India’s most popular composer, A.R. Rahman, and the Finnish group Värttinä, collaborating with Christopher Nightingale, write.
What would the elves sing? What is the sound a hobbit dances to? Can an orc carry a tune?
Expect varied Asian- and European-influenced sounds to suggest the many tribes of the story.
No word yet as to whether or not the Orcs will dance Bollywood style in the background.
abhi at 12:01 AM in Theater · 20 comment(s) · Direct link
April 13, 2005
Reclaiming Apu
Seven.11 turned out to be insanely good, and if you’re in NYC you have only five days left to see it. This series of seven short plays, each 11 minutes long is absolutely hilarious, and the performers were obviously having a blast.
I love this deeply about NYC, you can see desi American scripts you can’t see performed anywhere else: it’s custom culture. Anuvab Pal’s piece was good, as usual, but the consistency was surprising — maybe five or six of the seven microplays were really, really good, or at the very least funny, and the rest is forgivable. The off-off-Broadway aspect of the whole endeavor lowers expectations, but I could see some of these, fleshed out, doing well on a large stage. Soonderella is destined to be a cult hit. It’s definitely the only desi parody musical I’ve ever seen. Debargo Sanyal’s stammering, braying swain F-F-Fofatlal brought down the house. Pal’s Paris is a sharper, more malignant Before Sunrise; as in Chaos Theory, he has quite the ear for the advance and reverse of flirtation, it’s love as war zone. My only real complaint is the purely classicist flavor of the references, Sartre is no longer a young Turk. Color Me Desi is a takeoff on Goodness Gracious Me’s rude boyz, and S.A.M.O.S.A. (South Asian Men Organizing Sci-Fi somethings) is a gut-busting Asian version of Napoleon Dynamite. And the in-jokes were fabulous. One actor had a line in the first piece, ‘C’est la vie — it’s your line.’ In the final play, the same actors: ‘C’est la vie.’ ‘Deja vu?’ Winky tone, blink and you missed it.As in Indian Ink, Lethia Nall was intense, had sharp timing and nailed her accent, she’s a rock star. Andrew Guilarte mugged wondrously beneath a floppy wig in Soonderella and as a taped-glasses nerd in S.A.M.O.S.A. He didn’t have all his lines down for Paris, but was a pugilist just the same; those who can pull off both intensity and craven silliness are rare. Kavi Ladnier played the funniest, five-foot-tall, female Jamaican thug I’ve ever seen. John Wu resembled Lou Diamond Phillips and gave off a murderous ‘tude.
As befits the format, the Tenement Theatre is a miniature, and I’ve seen some small theaters in my time. This one is like a railroad apartment, tiny, warm and housed in a single room of a former Lower East Side tenement. True to the convenience store spirit, think fast and cheap; unlike a 7-11, think delicious.
Previous post here.manish at 04:29 PM in Theater · 6 comment(s) · Direct link
Musical is first to perform Lennon’s ‘India, India’
Yoko Ono, the almighty creator of cacophony and destroyer of institutions, allows a Broadway-bound musical to perform a pair of unpublished songs written by her late husband, Beatle John Lennon. One of those songs, “India, India,” received yesterday its first-ever public performance:
Lennon wrote ‘India, India’ in the late 1970s for a musical of his own writing named after his song The Ballad of John and Yoko. However, the show was never performed and the track remained unheard. It seems likely that in ‘India, India’ Lennon was writing about his 1968 visit to India, when the Beatles indulged their spiritual side at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh. [Apun Ka Choice]
Apun Ka Choice: Lennon’s ‘India, India’ on
Broadway
Times of India: India, India lyrics
apul at 01:25 PM in Music, Theater · 2 comment(s) · 2 reader(s) linked · Direct link
April 05, 2005
Indian music in ‘The Far Pavilions’
There’s some buzz surrounding plans to bring together western and Indian
music for the U.K.-theatre production of MM Kaye’s classic romantic novel “The
Far Pavilions”:
The original book, published in 1978, told the story of forbidden love between an Indian princess and a British army officer during the time of the Raj. To replicate the contrast between the two cultures that forms the essence of the book, the new musical, directed by Gale Edwards, has two composers - Philip Henderson, who is British, and Kuljit Bhamra, who is Indian. [BBC News]
Gurinder Chadha has got to be pissed. Her monopoly on brown-woman-white-man productions appears to have crumbled. Every KFC in her immediate vicinity is advised to prepare for an onslaught of takeout orders.
BBC News: Indian music tradition revived in musical
apul at 11:21 PM in Theater · 3 comment(s) · Direct link
April 03, 2005
Mamet’s stain on Broadway (updated)
Re: Apul’s post, David Mamet’s racist salesman drama Glengarry Glen Ross is being revived on Broadway next Wednesday. Even though the lines are uttered in character, it’s a deeply offensive play:
MOSS: I’ll tell you what else: don’t ever try to sell an Indian.
AARONOW: I’d never try to sell an Indian.
MOSS: You get those names come up, you ever get ‘em, “Patel?”… You had one you’d know it. Patel. They keep coming up. I don’t know. They like to talk to salesmen. They’re lonely, something. They like to feel superior, I don’t know. Never bought a fucking thing… They got a grapevine. Fuckin’ Indians, George. Not my cup of tea. Speaking of which I want to tell you something: I never got a cup of tea with them. You see them in the restaurants. A supercilious race. What is this look on their face all the time? I don’t know. I don’t know. Their broads all look like they just got fucked with a dead cat, I don’t know…
ROMA: Patel? Ravidam Patel? How am I going to make a living on these deadbeat wogs? Where did you get this, from the morgue?… Patel? Fuck you. Fuckin’ Shiva handed him a million dollars, told him “sign the deal,” he wouldn’t sign. And Vishnu, too.
The play, written in 1984, won a Pulitzer and was turned into a major 1992 film with Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey and Ed Harris. Mamet had second thoughts, but only decades later:
He thinks maybe he should take another look at his anti-Indian remarks that still smolder in Glengarry Glen Ross, a play he wrote 20 years ago. “Patel” was a racial epithet uttered by guys in his line of work years ago, when he was selling real estate. Maybe it doesn’t belong in the play anymore, given what the times are now.
Ya think? Some context by a Brit who shilled storm windows over the phone:
If you sent a salesman to the home of an Indian family… not only did you lose your commission for that lead, but you were docked a percent of your next one. The company president swore this wasn’t racism but a cold business calculation. Indians, he told us, never buy, they just haggle ad nauseum. This stereotype, obviously an international one, surfaces in Glengarry Glen Ross, which David Mamet confected out of his year-long stint in a Chicago sales office. In the play, Shelly Levene knows he’s despised by his supervisor when the only lead he gets is named “Patel,” a name as Indian as Shapiro is Jewish. “Patel?” says a sympathetic colleague. “They gave you Patel?”
The Broadway revival has Alan Alda and Liev Schreiber and is being directed by Joe Mantello, the director of the smash hit Wicked. Between the Pulitzer Prize and Wicked, this puerile work is 100% blessed by the mainstream. From Bombay Dreams to ‘fucked with a dead cat’: we’ve come a long way, baby.
Update: Put Down the Bong, People (Don’t Put Down the Patels remix)
Ok, I’m going to say this slowly and clearly: y’all are on crack. Respected authors, playwrights and random hecklers included.
- It’s prima facia offensive. Take the line about desi wives looking like the victims of necrophiliac bestial rape. I shouldn’t have to explain to anyone who’s not named Michael Dukakis why that’s insulting.
Or take the line about deadbeat wogs. Non-Brit readers may not recognize this for the intense ethnic slur it is. This play is set in America, not the UK; it’s almost like Mamet purposely used ‘wog’ instead of ‘Paki,’ ‘dot-buster’ or ‘sand n—’ to shield himself from criticism.
When I saw the film, I was groovin’ on the dialogue density a la Shakespeare, Stoppard, Woody Allen, until it suddenly went racist. It was as if someone had reached out and slapped me.
- It crosses the verisimilitude line. This isn’t about a few lines or even a few tirades for texture and to establish that a character is both verite and racist. Mamet is using the cover of fiction for grossly excessive, gleeful bashing on a visible minority. Even granting that he’s aiming for an over-the-top, Tarantino sensibility, the dead cat comment is so far over the line, it’s in another galaxy.
There is a practical limit to the ‘in character’ defense. If I performed a play at your house and said, ‘Women are evil,’ your wife would laugh it off as fleshing out motivation. If I said, ‘Indian women named Sandhya look like they’ve been anally violated with a cattle prod,’ Sandhya might justifiably inflict testicular violence.
- It’s spoken by protagonists. As much as I adore knee-jerk replies by those who’ve never seen the work (or read the script), I must demur. The Dave Moss (Ed Harris in the film) and Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) characters are central characters in this ensemble piece. They’re not discardable villains, they’re respected and looked up to by the other characters. Even if Mamet’s misanthropy makes Neil LaBute sound like the Sundays, these guys lay claim on some share of the author’s voice.
- It targets a specific minority. It’s just as graphic as the testicle-tearing and cadaver-nibbling in Sin City, but it’s targeted at a very specific, real-life ethnic group, not characters in a comic book.
- He picked a minority that wouldn’t object. When Mamet wrote this play, there were ~350,000 desis in the U.S. Today there are ~2,000,000. While the U.S. population increased by 28%, the desi population increased by 470%. At the time, Mamet’s character was attacking curios under musty glass. They were just a new immigrant group who were careful spenders of necessity; 1980 is the first time Asian Indians were even counted separately on the Census. Mamet might as well have picked on Xosas or Bantus in America.
Today, in contrast, both South Asian Studies departments and David Mamet find desi Americans at the gates. Now that desis are in the audience, the lines Mamet penned don’t stand the test of saying them to your face. They’re just too disrespectful. That’s why he’s having second thoughts.
Here’s a thought experiment: replace ‘wog’ with ‘n—,’ ‘kike,’ ‘gook’ or ‘wetback’ and see whether the play would be commercially viable.
- He has a history of penning racist tirades. Mamet’s plays are chock full of anti-minority tirades ‘in character,’ he’s obsessed with these. I credit him for fighting Holocaust revisionism in real life, but look to his Russian Jewish ancestry for bearing. His respectability and his respect for minorities are quite orthogonal.
- It’s about commercial freedom. I love that Mamet is guaranteed freedom of expression in America. Similarly, we have the right to purchase works that don’t pointedly disrespect us, and to persuade mainstream markets of the same.
On an unrelated and purely humorous note, it appears Mamet would not take a shine to Bollywood. In a recent essay, he listed film turn-offs, and as he ticked them off I thought ‘yep, yep, yep’ — they’re in everything from Amar Akbar Anthony to Veer-Zaara ;)
Any film containing any of the disqualificatory elements listed below loses… any further claim on me: Any use of Handel’s Messiah, or The Four Seasons, or Pachelbel’s Canon; any slow-motion sequence of lovers out of doors; any rack-focus from grass, wheat, or other vegetables to a distant object; … any shot of the protagonist twirling slowly with arms spread; a title card reading, “based on a true story”; and that, to me, unfailing diagnostic tool, a present participle in the title.
manish at 03:06 PM in Film, Issues, Theater · 52 comment(s) · Direct link
“Mamlet” in The New York Times
The New York Times runs excerpts of three winning selections from the American Conservatory Theatre’s “Write Like Mamet” contest, including my brother’s “Mamlet.” I have no doubt that if Shakespeare were alive today, he too would pepper his prose with an occasional f-bomb:
“MAMLET”
By Nihar Patel (Los Angeles)An empty stage. All performers are dressed in modern business suits.
CLAUDIUS (Ricky Jay) You are a gentlemenly fool. And you haven’t closed a castle in months. You’re old hat, and that comes from downtown.
MAMLET (William H. Macy) Old hat? Old hat. Let’s wait Claudius. Claudius, wait, back up here ... I can close, all I need are those Elsinore leads. I want them and I want them posthaste.
CLAUDIUS Go to Norway Mamlet. Will you.
MAMLET Give me two good leads. Anon.
CLAUDIUS Just go to Norway.
MAMLET I don’t want to go to Norway.
CLAUDIUS Go to Norway, Mamlet.
MAMLET Where does he get off to talk that way to a Prince? It’s not ...
CLAUDIUS Will you get out of here. Will you get out of here. Will you. I’m trying to run a kingdom here. Will you go to Norway? Go to Norway. Will you go to Norway?
MAMLET You stupid [expletive] [expletive].
Mamlet stabs Claudius.
The New York Times: Channeling Mamet (free