The New Group goes back to 1950s Bollywood in BUNTY BERMAN PRESENTS… (photo by Monique Carboni)
Acorn Theatre, Theatre Row
410 West 42nd St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Monday – Saturday through June 1, $61.25
212-239-6200
www.thenewgroup.org
When its lead actor, Erick Avari, hurt himself right as previews were beginning, Bunty Berman Presents… turned to its creator to keep it going, much as the title character is willing to do just about anything to keep his Bombay movie studio in business in this middling musical comedy from the New Group. With Avari out of the production on doctor’s orders, Ayub Khan Din, who wrote the book and lyrics and cowrote the music with Paul Bogaev, stepped in to take over the role of Bunty Berman. Set in 1950s Bollywood, Bunty Berman Presents… follows the trials and tribulations of director and dreamer Berman as he struggles to complete his latest low-budget quickie with aging has-been hero but still diva Raj Dhawan (Sorab Wadia). The first act is a disappointing farce that feels unfinished, echoing the movie they’re desperately trying to make. While Raj primps and preens, Berman, his right-hand man, Nizwar (Sevan Greene), and loyal assistant, Dolly (Gayton Scott), struggle to come up with financing, eventually turning to a local gangster, Shankar Dass (Alok Tewari), who insists that his son, Chandra (Raja Burrows), star in the film. The backstage intrigue also zooms in on lead actress Shambervi (Lipica Shah), who has a secret only tea boy Saleem (Nick Choksi) knows about. Things improve significantly in the second act, which contains more slapstick and is much funnier, particularly in how writer Din and director Scott Elliott use Raj’s head in several scenes. Khan Din, one of the stars of Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and the writer of the autobiographical play and film East Is East, cuts an amiable-enough figure as Berman as the British-born Pakistani pays tribute to the old Indian films his father loved as well as Hollywood classics by the Marx Brothers, but the music, dancing, and drama never quite gel. The only song that really registers is the show’s signature tune, “Let’s Make a Movie,” which you might actually find yourself singing as you leave the theater. However, Bunty Berman Presents… relates all too well to it, as it could have been renamed “Let’s Make a Musical.” (The night we went, two people were handing out leaflets protesting the show’s “violent transphobia” and “cultural appropriation and misrepresentation”; not only do they seem to have not watched the same musical comedy we did while completely missing a major plot point, but they gave away the ending, so beware.)