Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

Monsoon Wedding to hit the UK in summer

MIRA NAIR TO SHOWCASE MUSICAL’S NEW AND ‘DEFINITIVE’ VERSION

by AMIT ROY


DIRECTOR Mira Nair, who is currently filming a BBC TV adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy on location in India, revealed another of her projects is ready for release in the UK.

This is a musical version of Monsoon Wedding, her hugely successful 2001 movie which catapulted her to international fame.

This is the story of a chaotic, but ultimately happy Indian wedding, between a Delhi girl and a non-resident Indian (NRI) bridegroom from the US, with a few complications thrown in.

The director said of the musical in an exclusive interview: “We are opening at the Round House in London in July 2020 – it’s a world premiere, sort of. And I am so happy about that. Even though we opened in California two years ago, this is the new and revised and really the definitive version of the musical – and I love that space.”

She said she would be tied up with A Suitable Boy for the time being, but would be free to give the musical her full attention in summer next year.

“I will start on that in May because it is already done – cooked it very beautifully in Delhi for two months in a workshop last year – December, January. So we are ready to go. Until then it’s A Suitable Boy.”

When the Monsoon Wedding musical was staged in the US in May 2017 at the Bay Area’s Berkeley Rep, one or two of the reviewers had reservations, but the audience reaction appeared to be enthusiastic.

One disagreed with a carping critic and said: “I didn’t have the same experience. The show was simple and straightforward – unabashedly pursuing its goal of being purely entertaining and smile-inducing. I thought the vocals beautiful, the songs catchy, the sets joyful and vibrant. The theatre was packed and all in attendance seemed to be having great fun. Polishing may be needed, but in some ways, I enjoyed the lack of slick production values. I had such a good time that, given the opportunity, I’d go again.”

Another also enjoyed the musical: “I felt a sense of delight. Seriously, my being filled with joy, and I left the theatre with a new beat inside my heart. The universal themes of love, honour and dignity held my attention.

“I loved the colours, dancing, direct talk to the audience and the fresh language! Truly a fun evening – thank you, Berkeley Rep, for taking me off my couch and into a new world.”

For Nair, there is a link between A Suitable Boy and Monsoon Wedding. She admits she wanted to make a film version as soon as Seth’s 1,349-page novel with 591,552 words was published in 1993.

“I have loved the book like a piece of my heart, really from the very moment it was written and I read it. “I didn’t get the rights. So, we wrote a microcosmic response to A Suitable Boy in making Monsoon Wedding.”

In the UK, details of the musical have been announced. It will open at Leeds Playhouse on June 17 next year and play there until July 11. It will then transfer to London’s Roundhouse to play from July 17 to August 29.

Nair is a co-director along with Stephen Whitson (West Side Story Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Prom and UK associate for Hamilton). They have worked with book writers Arpita Mukherjee and Sabrina Dhawan.

The latter wrote the screenplay for Monsoon Wedding. Bollywood filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj is involved with the music, along with lyricists Masi Asare and Susan Birkenhead and orchestrator Jamshied Sharifi.

For those who have not seen the film, the plot is summarised as follows:

“In Delhi, preparations are under way for a lavish, non-stop, four-day celebration to mark the arranged marriage of Aditi and Hemant. Aditi is the only daughter of an upper middle-class family in India. She is about to meet her groom, an Indian American from New Jersey. It should be the perfect wedding, but the bride is having an affair, her father is in financial trouble, and as members of the family descend from around the world, dark family secrets surface.

“At its heart, Monsoon Wedding is an anthem to modern India. In the way that the film introduced the world of a globalising India, the musical is a celebration of the exuberant chaos of contemporary India and its vibrant diaspora.

The musical explores the ever-increasing difference and discrepancy in India between the rich and the poor, the old and the new, the traditional and the modern, the east and the west.”

More For You

Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder Bilan’s journey of heart and heritage: From Himalayan tales to global acclaim

When Jasbinder Bilan first paused her teaching career to pursue a creative writing degree, she had no idea it would lead to a life-changing breakthrough. What began as a leap of faith became a journey filled with hope, rejection and ultimately triumph. Inspired by her beloved grandmother and her Indian roots, Bilan poured her soul into her debut manuscript Song of the Mountain. Though the publishing world was not immediately ready for her story, perseverance paid off when she won the 2016 Times Chicken House Prize, launching her celebrated writing career. Now, following the success of her Costa Award-winning Asha and the Spirit Bird, Bilan returns with a powerful new historical adventure, Naeli and the Secret Song. In this exclusive interview, she speaks about the emotional inspiration behind the book, her love for young readers and the importance of believing in your voice — no matter how long it takes to be heard.

What first connected you to writing?
It was stories more than writing that were my first love. My grandmother, Majee, was the storyteller in our house and it was those bonding moments that sparked my love for creating my own stories. She told me lots of Indian folk tales at bedtime, but she also shared stories of our life in India on the farm near the foothills of the Himalaya. So, I grew up feeling connected to a place that I then filled with my imagination. As a little girl I loved drawing and writing, and always wanted to be a writer, but it took me a long time to make that dream come true.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rachel Zegler’s ‘Evita’ Performance Sparks Broadway Buzz

Rachel Zegler stuns in Jamie Lloyd’s Evita as Palladium crowds grow nightly

Instagram/officialevita

Rachel Zegler shines in Jamie Lloyd’s ‘Evita’ as West End hit eyes Broadway transfer

Quick highlights:

 
     
  • Rachel Zegler plays Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd’s radical Evita revival at the London Palladium.
  •  
  • A viral moment features Zegler singing live from the theatre’s balcony to crowds on the street.
  •  
  • Lloyd’s stripped-down staging amps up visuals and sound but sacrifices storytelling depth.
  •  
  • Talks are on for a Broadway transfer as early as 2026 with Zegler confirmed to reprise her role.
  •  
 

Rachel Zegler commands the London stage as Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd’s daring reimagining of Evita, a production that trades subtlety for spectacle and could soon be heading to Broadway.

Following the success of Sunset Boulevard, Lloyd’s signature stripped-down style meets rock concert intensity in this revived version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical. Zegler, in only her second major stage role, dazzles with commanding vocals and presence, even as critics debate the show’s dramatic clarity.

Keep ReadingShow less
K Anis Ahmed

K Anis Ahmed’s new novel Carnivore is as imaginative as it is provocative

AMG

K Anis Ahmed’s 'Carnivore' serves up satire, class war and moral rot

From the blood-soaked backstreets of Dhaka to the polished kitchens of Manhattan’s elite, K Anis Ahmed’s new novel Carnivore is as imaginative as it is provocative. A satirical thriller steeped in class tension, culinary obsession and primal survival, Carnivore follows Kash, a Bangladeshi immigrant-turned-chef who launches a high-end restaurant serving exotic meats – only to become embroiled in a sinister world of appetite and ambition.

But this is no simple tale of knives and recipes. Ahmed – a seasoned journalist, publisher, and president of PEN Bangladesh – brings a sharp eye to the grotesqueries of power and privilege. In this exclusive interview with Eastern Eye, he speaks about his passion for food, the moral murkiness of his characters, and why even the most ordinary people can spiral into extraordinary darkness.

Keep ReadingShow less
Artists respond to a world shaped
by division at Summer Exhibition

Visitors view works in the main gallery

Artists respond to a world shaped by division at Summer Exhibition

THE theme of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2025 is “dialogues”, prompting the question: can art help bring together the people of India and Pakistan? Or, indeed, Israel and Iran – or Israel and Palestine?

It so happens that the coordinator of this year’s Summer Exhibition is the internationally celebrated artist and Royal Academician Farshid Moussavi, who is of Iranian origin.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kanpur 1857 play

This summer, Niall Moorjani returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with 'Kanpur: 1857'

Pleasance

Niall Moorjani brings colonial history to life with powerful new play 'Kanpur: 1857'

This summer, Niall Moorjani returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Kanpur: 1857, an explosive new play that fuses biting satire, history and heartfelt storytelling. Written, co-directed and performed by Moorjani, alongside fellow actor and collaborator Jonathan Oldfield, the show dives into the bloody uprising against British colonial rule in 1857 India, focusing on the brutal events in Kanpur.

At its centre is an Indian rebel, played by Moorjani, strapped to a cannon and forced to recount a version of events under the watchful eye of a British officer.

Keep ReadingShow less