I remember how myself and my younger brother and sister were decidely unimpressed with our parents for forcing us to go and watch such a thing. A trip to London was supposed to be a fun thing, we could have done something really exciting and gone to the science museum! But no, we went to see people on roller skates and boy did we let our displeasure be known!

Since that time (last year ), I’m pleased to say I’ve grown up a little and do love a good musical. Having lived in London for close to six years, I got to see quite a few, but not as many as I probably would have liked.

I’m scratching around my head to try and recall all the shows I’ve been too, which is no easy feat when your head is so fuzzy from a hangover and complete lack of sleep.

So here goes…Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Blues Brothers, We Will Rock You, Chicago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (I still knew all the words), Mama Mia, oh, and let us not forget the magic of Star Light Express

Chicago is the story of illicit affairs, murder, booze, corruption and violence. It’s sexy, raunchy and suggestive.

Chennai is a city of strong morals, family values and could be considered one of the most conservative cities in and already conservative country. With the obvious exception of corruption, it’s worlds away from the Chicago musical, so you can imagine my surprise when I heard that they were going to stage the play here – there was no way I could miss it!

In the West End, the characters are clad in revealing lingerie throughout the entire show, I was really keen to find out how they were going to handle it in front of a more conservative audience.

First off, this was an Am-Dram production, people, mostly college students, giving up their free time to practice for three months, so I really can’t compare it to the West End version.

Naturally they cut a lot of the more raunchy stuff from the story line, although I was a little bit surprised when a bed appeared on the stage!

The cast started off pretty nervously, hardly surprising considering there were probably around 1,000 people in the auditorium (which was really nice and even had reclining seats!). A friend who was with me felt that they didn’t quite have the stage presence, but I think that was also combined with poor acoustics towards the back of the theatre – it was sometimes quite hard to hear what the actors were saying.

The director swapped suggestive lingerie for more appropriate dresses and skirts. The actors swapped Indian accents for a mixture of Indian and American – some actors did fairly well, some should have stuck with their Indian accents

After the interval, I think the cast really settled in to the show, because the performances were markedly improved, there seemed to be a lot more confidence, although they still looked a little bit uncomfortable dancing along to the jazz songs.

One area which I felt let the show down a bit was the stage. They had built up a multi-level wooden stage and it creaked and groaned as actors walked across it and it was fairly distracting hearing all the foot scuffing noises as the cast danced and sung their way through the numbers.

All in all, it was a fairly good amateur production, if they had some commanding leads it could have been improved, and I’m sure if the budget allowed they would have improved the stage area. But the singing was good, the dancing was enjoyable to watch and the acting was reasonable. It was £4 very well spent

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That’s until I found out the play was about women empowerment.

I then looked forward to it with a certain amount of dread, convinced I would come out at the end of it hating myself for being a guy.

I’ve never seen any amateur productions before, so didn’t really know what to expect. The play itself was being done on an all girls campus, and I want to put these vicious rumours to rest right now that the only reason I went was to go and pick up girls from the all girls college. It wasn’t. Honest.

The play was called Black, Blue and Other Hues (an ominous title for a womens empowerment play!). It was split in to 6 mini plays which tell different stories about different women.

When it started, an old lady gave an introduction. There were all kinds of technical problems, and we even had the old classic:

“hello? hello? HELLO? Is this thing on? Can you hear me? Hello”

So once the microphones were sorted out, the lights turned off (and on, and off again) she proceeded to speak a lot, without (I felt) saying very much.

I have to say at this point, I enjoyed the play more than I thought I would. It wasn’t as feminist and ‘girl power’ as I thought it was going to be. They’d put a lot of effort in to the script and learning the lines.

Apparently they had been rehearsing for the last 3 months, and I think it paid off.

Of the 6 plays, the one I enjoyed the most was about an old Indian Mum going to visit her son in London. It was played out by a single actor and lasted about 30 minutes – I have no idea how she remembered all those lines! It was fairly funny in places and really well acted.

Some of the other plays went right over my head. I think it was mostly because some of the actors had very strong Indian accents (year is pronounced yer, wallet is prounced walelet) and spoke pretty quickly so I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

There was one play where I had no idea what was going on and seemed to go on for a lifetime. A lady saw invisible snakes (or something), a guy blows himself up with a bomb, a suicide and a person reflecting on her life. Apparently that was the play that got the best reviews. oops!

By the end of the play I was clock watching a little bit. My concentration levels couldn’t cut through the accent and I was a little bit relieved when it finally ended.

In all, I didn’t quite get how it was about women empowerment, but rather women in different situations.

The best part was, I didn’t come out hating myself for being a guy!

What ever will I do next on my cultured journey?

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