Bombay Dreams

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A feast for the sense, Bombay Dreams combines the glamour of the movies, heart-aching romance and epic spectacle. It tells the story of Akaash, a young slum dweller, who dreams of becoming a huge movie star, and of his fateful encounter with beautiful Priya, the daughter of one of Bollywood's greatest film directors. Can he achieve his dream of stardom or will this come at a price? Will Akaash and Priya's love survive? And will they find, like in all the best Bollywood movies, their happy ending? Music by A.R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black, book by Meera Syal.

"...Lisa Stevens' choreography is sinuous, sensuous refreshingly different!" — Chris Jones, The Columbus Dispatch

"...with a combination of jazz, hip hop, and the dances of India, Lisa Stevens choreography is superb!" — Hedy Weiss, The Column

"....Exotic and electric, 'Dreams' is a Technicolor marvel." — The Pittsburgh Tribune

"The music and dancing are a perfect Bombay mix." — London Tonight, ITV

[Choreographer Lisa] Stevens comes to her current position with BOMBAY DREAMS with six years of experience with the show, both in performing and in choreography. She has been able to mix her two great loves ever since the planning, rehearsing and premiere of BOMBAY DREAMS. "I was lucky enough to be in the original London cast, and to work as associate choreographer there; when the show came to Broadway, I was asked to repeat in both positions," explains Stevens.

"This is exotic, primal music," she shares, "that sets out to create a visceral charge in the audience member." The dancing, then, must be an extension of that goal, and still appeal to people whose knowledge of musical theater may be limited to standards of many-years duration. "This is totally different choreography," explains Stevens, "and I've strived for a fusion of Indian dancing with jazz, hip-hop, and lyrical (a ballet/jazz combination) dance. Even within the Indian dance we incorporate traditional, folk, and filmi (the Bollywood film style) dances."

"The numbers are big, they have to be," Stevens adds, "but I am huge on the exposition and story-telling aspects of the numbers as well. I've taken the music, re-edited some of it, cut and pasted other parts of it, in order to give a different flavor and to highlight the characters or the story even more. "And don't forget that I've designed many of the numbers from different sets! We're working with many different pieces and/or approaches from what we had in either London or New York. "But, yes, there's still plenty of spectacle," laughs Stevens. Without giving away too much, she explains that one number will create a huge reaction in ways that no one will expect — or forget!

She stresses that she loves working with whole casts in order to re-educate and re-motivate, and it often takes little more than saying "You're all in this number — let's learn it!"