Who’s gonna complain about a dance show? Especially one that’s as colorful, loud, and engaging as La Jolla Playhouse’s latest show “Bhangin’ It: A Bhangin’ New Musical.”
Title long enough for you? Words strange enough? Well, know this: the show takes place at a college in Michigan, which seems to have more students from India than the average American college (at least back in the Dark Ages, when I was in school).
There’s a dance form called Bhangra, which to outsiders is hip-hoppy and happy to watch, and you don’t need words to appreciate the joy you’ll see onstage, thanks to the cast’s sprightly interpretation of the book by Mike Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza, music and lyrics by Sam Willmott and additional music by Deep Singh.
The plot revolves around senior Mary (Ari Afsar), a member of the school’s Bhangra troupe who wants to leave school having changed the group at least a little.
Mary is opposed by stick-in-the-mud perfectionist Preeti (Vinithra Raj). So she proposes to her bestie Sunita (Jaya Joshi) that they start their own troupe, with an eye toward competing for a spot in the upcoming national competition.
Various plot strands are hinted at but not followed through (like a few near-romances), but that’s not the point here. We’re talking about ethnic identity and how it is best preserved.
Banana bread muffins, Bollywood, pharmacology students, an artist who’s made a paper-mache uterus (you read it right) to “protest the exotification of Asian women” – this is a show full of surprises and with only one goal: to show that cooperation is better than competition and togetherness better than isolation, as the large cast representing different strains of Indian style dance finally learns to become a working whole.
The cast is enormous, and so is the list of designers and technicians who have worked on the show. A few of the latter are choreographer Rujuta Vaidja, Bhangra specialist Anushka Pushpala, set designer Robert Brill, costumer Linda Cho, lighting designer Amith Chandrashaker and sound designer Jonathan Deans. And I shouldn’t forget the six musicians in the orchestra.
“Bhangin’ It” won the Richard Rodgers Award (for new musicals). This show is likely on the way to New York. Better see it now.
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