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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 14 June 2012
This a theatre review of WAH! WAH! GIRLS - A BRITISH BOLLYWOOD MUSICAL. |
“Tonight is in your name
Accept the welcome”
The modern Anglo-Indian subcontinent multi-generational experience is a field that gets ploughed across the arts – literature, the silver screen, television and the stage. I am not at all tired of receiving the fruits of these labours. It seems like a no-brainer that a “British Bollywood Musical” has been created for the theatre. I’m sure many creatives are slapping their palms against foreheads questioning themselves: Why has it not been done sooner?
Accept the welcome”
The modern Anglo-Indian subcontinent multi-generational experience is a field that gets ploughed across the arts – literature, the silver screen, television and the stage. I am not at all tired of receiving the fruits of these labours. It seems like a no-brainer that a “British Bollywood Musical” has been created for the theatre. I’m sure many creatives are slapping their palms against foreheads questioning themselves: Why has it not been done sooner?
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Instead of going for a standard ROMEO AND JULIET tale, or an inter-generational infighting story, or a fish-out-of-water comedy, writer Tankia Gupta has tried to subvert our expectations. There is a restless energy that propels proceedings, a joy to the singing and dancing, entwined effortlessly with ideas of tragedy. The occasional melancholy heightens the passion and joie de vivre, I guess, because it feels earned perhaps? Joy in a dramatic vacuum is robbed of its uplifting power.
The focus of WAH! WAH! GIRLS are two headstrong and courageous women: Sita is 17 and has run away from an abusive family, in Leeds, to East London, hoping to get employment and a roof over her head with Soraya, who runs a club putting on traditional female Indian dancing shows. These two ladies cause ripples in their spheres: infatuating admirers, garnering friendships and making enemies – all to vibrant dance numbers and eye-catching choreography. There is an urgency to their journeys, as if both are on the cusp of fulfilling, or decimating, their dreams with one slight misstep. The multicultural cast, reflecting the area, coupled with a romantic mysticism, enhance a female empowerment musical that avoids patronising anyone.
The particular highlight for me is the way WAH! WAH! GIRLS suggests what we are witnessing, from the opening, might be the (day-)dreams of the scene-stealing Bindi, or a film she is watching; which means at points we could be observing a recollection, within a film, within a play. Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of narrative teasing with their melodic fun?
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