Musical Adaptation Of The Film MONSOON WEDDING Will Premiere in Summer 2020

Nearly 20 years after the multi award-winning Monsoon Wedding broke all moulds by becoming one of the most successful international films of all time and introducing a worldwide audience to Indian culture through the joy of the rom-com, the beautiful story of finding love against the odds returns as a brand-new musical.

Co-Directors Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala and forthcoming BBC adaptation A Suitable Boy) and Stephen Whitson (West Side Story Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Prom and UK associate for Hamilton) have worked with book writers Arpita Mukherjee (Artistic Director of Hypokrit Theatre, 2018-2020 WP Theater Directors Lab member, 2018 Eugene O'Neill National Directing Fellow) and Sabrina Dhawan (original Monsoon Wedding screenplay, written for 20th Century Fox, HBO, Disney Animations, Fox Star and Killer Films), award-winning composer Vishal Bhardwaj (over 40 Bollywood films, 6 National Film Awarads, winner of People's Choice Award at Rome Film Festival for Hamlet) and lyricists Masi Asare (Music and Lyrics for Sympathy Jones, music and lyrics for Family Resemblance Theatre Royal Stratford East) and Susan Birkenhead and orchestrator Jamshied Sharfiri (winner of the Tony© for Best Orchestration for The Band's Visit) to bring the film to life on the stage.

In Delhi, preparations are under way for a lavish, nonstop, 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 globalizing 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.

The brand-new musical will open at Leeds Playhouse on 17th June and play there until 11th July. Following that it will transfer to London's Roundhouse to play a strictly limited season from 17th July to 29th August.

The creative team will also include: Movement Director Scott Graham (Frantic Assembly, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time), and Casting Director Karishma Balani. Full casting will be announced in due course.

Tickets for Leeds Playhouse are on sale today at leedsplayhouse.org.uk and you can sign up at MonsoonWeddingmusical.co.uk to be given priority opportunity to book for the Roundhouse season on Wednesday 18th December ahead of general on sale on Thursday 19th December .

Leeds Playhouse

First performance: Monday 22nd June 2020
Local Leeds Press Night: Tuesday 30th June 2020
Final performance: Saturday 11th July 2020
Performance schedule: Monday - Saturday evenings with Thursday/Saturday matinees

Roundhouse

First performance: Friday 17th July 2020
Final performance: Saturday 29th August 2020
Press performance: Friday 24th July 2020

Performance schedule: Tuesday - Sunday evenings
Matinees on Saturday/ Sunday + Thursday 27th August (no Sunday that week)

www.roundhouse.org.uk/monsoonwedding

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