Royal & Derngate Theatre – Northampton – until 18th April 2026
Review by Amanda Allen
5*****
This dazzling musical comedy / drama takes us on a spectacularly glitzy, big, bold beautiful journey from Huddersfield to Mumbai exploring the dark side of the Bollywood film culture. Following the story of Frankie, a young British Asian woman, with little interest in fame, who finds herself becoming a star in the complicated, corrupt, male dominated world of film making in India. We first meet Frankie (young Frankie is played by Elinor Hallett) as a child, telling her mother of her dreams of being a Bollywood Hero. Frankie quickly grows up (grown up Frankie is played by Sarah Pearson), and we learn she has lost her much loved Mum and is now serving popcorn with her cousin at the cinema in Huddersfield. It is now the cousins Goldy, played by Katie Stasi, who dream of being in the movies, but fate intervenes and Frankie is the one who gets the opportunity to go to Bollywood and become a movie star. But will Frankie find her dream and remain true to herself, will she be the Warrior she always thought she was or will she get chewed up by the relentless pressure that is the production of movies in Bollywood.
I have never been to a show with so much sparkle, glitz and glamour! The costumes were pure Bollywood, more sequins, meters of fabric and colours than you could imagine, both male and female characters shone and dazzled across the stage in a constant succession of fantastic outfits. Costume designer Andy Kumar did an amazing job of transporting us to the heat, drama and chaos of an Indian film set. I was also impressed by the speed of the numerous costume changes for all the characters, especially Frankie. One little disappointed was at the start when the sound quality of the first songs was not particularly good, but it quickly became apparent that some of the songs were mimed to demonstrate the “Bollywood” nature of them.
Throughout the show the dancing was simply mesmerising, such energy, constant motion and real Indian style dancing created a very authentic atmosphere and experience. Choreographers Nicola Mac and Anna Maria Barber managed to put so much movement into the production at times if felt as if it would burst out of the confines of the stage. One of my favourite numbers was a deceptively simple depiction of the aircraft cabin staff and pilots dancing across from England to India as Frankie is transported to Bollywood at the start of her adventure, the costumes were simple but so effective and the dancing set the scene for the changes about to happen in her life as she moved to the other side of the world.
The outstanding performance for me was Luke Suri as Shona. He was so flamboyant, so camp, so perfect in the role he carried you along with him through the highs and lows, through the emotional upheaval that was played out as Frankie’s star rose and then fell when she did not play the game in quite the way they expected her to. He also had some of the best costumes, the men’s outfits were as amazing as the women’s. There was much comedy around Raju King, the aging Bollywood star played brilliantly by Ankur Sabharwal. The fact that he was the shampoo king, earning much of his money by advertising and promoting hair products and pretending to be in his 20’s when he was much older and was unmasked as a bald man wearing a wig and needing to run to his mummy all the time was a very hilarious!
In the classic way of Bollywood, the hero or in this case the heroine wins in the end, and we all went home incredibly happy. It’s a long time since I have been to a show that went by so quickly and left me feeling so joyous and pleased that it all ended as it should have. If you get chance go and see it while you can!