Rifco Theatre Company is in town as part of Southbank Centre’s You Belong Here summer celebration.
Riffing on the name of a popular 80s pop band, Frankie Goes To Bollywood is a brash dive into the dazzling but ruthless world of Bollywood movies.
Frankie works in Milton Keynes selling oat lattes and candy corn. A life where she feels “too brown to be British”.
Her mum, now ‘her guardian angel’ always wanted to be a Bollywood star and she is swept up by the happy endings and the spectacle of an industry which churns out a new three-hour epic every week.
A chance encounter with a director, and a trip to audition alongside her friend Goldy, and Frankie is suddenly catapulted into the world she has watched from afar.
But is this really what she wants from life, and will she find her true self by the curtain call?
It’s no spoiler to say – of course she does! The plot is thin, to say the least, and character development isn’t the focus here.
Rather like the Bollywood spectaculars, it celebrates and parodies, Frankie Goes To Bollywood is about big, bold, and brash productions.
With colourful arches inspired by Indian architecture and costumes popping with bright hues, gold trim, and glitter, this show looks amazing.
There’s dancing influenced by Bhangra and broad comedy performances gripped with both hands by Gigi Zahir and Geet Sagar.
Rather like the masala mix of traditional Bollywood fare, this show jumps all over the place without really deciding where it is going.
There’s romance, feminism, and ‘family’ (Frankie and Goldy’s ‘brown sugar’ alliance, the influence of the film families in India).
Laila Zaidi’s Frankie moves from ingenue to cynic far too quickly, sucked in by ambition, although she is a charismatic lead. Katie Stasi is great with what she’s given as Goldy.
And while Pravesh Kumar’s concept and book tries to cram in too much from all angles, there are moments which poke good-natured fun as the megabucks industry.
It just felt awkward to try to force in the obvious misogyny on display, where women are simply sex objects to be traded.
Niraj Chag’s music is engaging enough, and Tasha Taylor Johnson’s lyrics are often pointed but mostly aspirational. Frankie is in Bollywood to become a princess, after all.
Helen K Wint‘s waning Queen – with killer vocals – is both inspiration and warning for this, but her main message is ‘be a b-i-t-c-h’.
Heartthrob Navin Kundra is the nice guy under all the glitz, and even Zahir’s spiteful Shona has a touch of the fairy godmother.
Frankie Goes To Bollywood is perhaps not showcased at its best in the cavernous Queen Elizabeth Hall, where the further back you are, the more removed you are from seeing any subtlety in facial expressions.
However, if you are happy to enjoy a show that is often style over substance, do head along to immerse yourself in this extravaganza, even to answer that age-old joke of ‘how many … does it take to fix a lightbulb’!
Frankie Goes To Bollywood continues at the Southbank Centre until 18 Aug with tickets here.
I also recommend picking up one of the free character postcards from the merchandise stand as it contains a QR code for the 18-page programme.
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Image credit: Rich Lakos