THE LEADING MEN: Bolly High | Playbill

Related Articles
News THE LEADING MEN: Bolly High If this is the month for May flowers, here are three "Leading Men" who are having a bloomin’ good time: Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams), Jack Donahue ("Strange Weather") and Chad Kimball (Baby).

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/5f2220f8ff62ff2f290e9f9dff88f4cb-men1_1083341245.jpg
Manu Narayan Photo by Ben Strothmann

WELL, HELLO BOLLY!
Manu Narayan stars in A.R. Rahman’s Bombay Dreams, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new $14 million Indian musical that hopes to curry favor with fans of both rajahs and Hammerstein. In his Broadway bow, Narayan plays Akaash, a handsome "slum boy" who’s got "the look" and becomes a Bollywood movie star in this ragas-to-riches tale. He also dances and romances the pretty Priya (Anisha Nagarajan) and the ravishing Rani (Ayesha Dharker). Set to a bhangra beat, the show’s as big and as splashy as the 32-nozzle fountain that showers the cast during "Shakalaka Baby."

Narayan’s from Pittsburgh and so is Nagarajan ("She’s great and a fine actress"). Both speak Tamil and knew each other through their Hindu temple. After winning "the role of a decade," he and his leading lady flew to London last November to get Lloyd Webber’s blessing. There, they sang their love duet, "So Many Stars," at a state dinner before Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush.

The 5-foot-11 Carnegie Mellon grad, who’s 30, has performed in Fucking A at the Public, toured in Miss Saigon and appeared regionally in Metamorphoses and Romeo and Juliet (as Romeo). And when asked to recommend a South Asian restaurant in New York, he suggested Bombay Palace for its North Indian cuisine — namely the malai kofta curry — and Pongal for its South Indian dishes — namely the dosas, which are like crepes with filling inside.

Question: Congrats on starring in Broadway’s first Indian musical with an all-South-Asian cast, many of whom are making their Broadway debuts.
Manu Narayan: We’re all very excited and happy to be in such a great project and an epic show. The cast is really topnotch. And it’s been great for the South Asian community and theatre itself. It’s the first time a lot of South Asians are going to the theatre, and it’s good to have A.R. Rahman’s music to bring them in.

Q: How would you describe your role of Akaash?
Narayan: He’s one of those great characters who doesn’t let life get him down. He lives in a slum. And he’s an untouchable, the lowest of all castes. But he gets by, by being very crafty and streetwise. The city wants to take over his slum, get rid of the squatters and build a Cineplex there, so he dreams of becoming a Bollywood movie star so he could make enough money to buy the land. Akaash is a dream role. It incorporates every little talent I’ve got, except my saxophone playing. Q: There were rumors that the leads in the Broadway production might go to white actors. But your director said he always intended to use Indians here. Could Bombay Dreams have worked with white actors as Indians?
Narayan: It probably could work, but for whom? (Laughs.) I wouldn’t like that. Hell, no. Hire Indians. The producers and Steven Pimlott, who’s been terrific, have made a concerted effort to find South Asian talent. My hat’s off to them.

Q: Bombay Dreams is playing at the Broadway, where Miss Saigon opened amid the casting controversy surrounding Jonathan Pryce playing the Engineer. Yet every subsequent Engineer has been played by an Asian.
Narayan: And look at how well they’ve done. Pryce is a wonderful actor, but all these Asian guys who came after him had the chops to do it and kept up the show for years, so it’s good that [our producers] have taken the chance on us now. A lot of the flavor that we bring [to it] as Indians in America is very authentic.

Q: Didn’t you tour in Miss Saigon as Thuy?
Narayan: Yes, but I played Thuy as an Indian. There were many Indians in Saigon. I also played Ito, the houseboy, in Mame [at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera] as an Indian, too. Why does he have to be Japanese?

Q: Back to Bombay: What wouldn’t people know about Rahman?
Narayan: That he’s such a good singer. And incredibly giving. He’s a world superstar, but he’s so unassuming. He’s a genius, and I’m so excited to be doing his music. It’s world pop. It’s beautiful, lush, cutting-edge and catchy.

Q: You can’t get much catchier than "Shakalaka Baby." How’s it feel to dance in the fountain with all that water pouring down on you?
Narayan: It’s every guy’s dream, isn’t it? It’s me and eight girls dancing around me, all wet. It’s wonderful, scary and fun.

Q: You’re also the president and co-artistic director of Rasa Theater, which you co-founded with Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj and Uzma Rizvi. In February, you produced a double bill of Eugene O’Neill’s Abortion and Sarovar Banka’s The End of the Apurnas. Why is it important to have a new South Asian theatre?
Narayan: For South Asian playwrights, directors, designers and actors to get better, we need to work. If we are to become the next generation’s leading artists, we have to encourage that. We need a place to fail and survive. In fact, my girlfriend, Nandita Shenoy, is now in a piece by a South Asian: Sonia Pabley’s Sex in Other People’s Houses. It’s at the Lark through May 3, and it’s really wonderful.

Q: And how did you meet your girlfriend?
Narayan: We met doing The King and I at Downtown Cabaret in Bridgeport, Conn. I was playing Lun Tha, and she was the associate choreographer/Eliza. Josie de Guzman was our Anna, and Robert Woo was the King. Nandita and I have been together for about a year. She’s beautiful and the most intelligent woman I know. She’s so talented and caring. I’m so lucky to have her.

Q: Have you encountered any racism in the theatre?
Narayan: I haven’t been held back as an actor because of my race. Have I been looked down on as an Indian? Yes. I’ve been called "swami" or "fortune teller," things like that, usually by ignorant people. But I’ve had champions, too. In the end, this is the way I look, and this is my name. I’m an American. I was born and brought up here. You want me to play something else? I can do that. I’m an actor!

For more information, visit www.bombaydreamsonbroadway.com.

A JACK OF ALL SHADES
Jack Donahue has been hailed as "the great pop crooner voice for the new millennium" by David Hurst in Show Business Weekly, and it’s easy to see why critics forecast such a bright future. He’s blessed with a beautiful baritone, good looks and a marvelously mischievous sense of humor, and he appears especially sunny when his Irish eyes are smiling. PS Classics is releasing his new pop-jazz CD on May 4, and it’s called "Strange Weather," which is also the name of the samba-styled title tune he co-wrote with Peter Eldridge, the record’s Grammy-winning producer.

The album is especially music to a meteorologist’s ears: It’s also got "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," "Warm December" and "Blackberry Winter" ("I love how sad it is," he says). Donahue is a man for all seasons and all songs. He gives cabaret classics like "Skylark" and "Let’s Do It" his own spin and tackles newer tunes by Kenny Rankin and Suzanne Vega, accompanied by jazz giants Andy Ezrin, David Finck, Johnny Frigo, Loston Harris and Ben Whitman. To celebrate the CD’s release, this MAC Award winner will play May 6, 18 and 27 at The Triad in New York.

Donahue, who’s been profiled in Out magazine and sketched by Al Hirschfeld, says he’s moving more toward jazz, thanks to the encouragement of Eldridge, who belongs to the acclaimed vocal group New York Voices ("He’s a terrific coach and superior musician"). He adds, "I love Diana Krall, Chet Baker, Jane Monheit, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn. But my favorite jazz singer is Kurt Elling. He respects melody, and he’s a terrific lyricist and poet. He inspires me. His record ‘Man in the Air’ and Peter Eldridge’s record ‘Stranger in Town’ really influenced what I did on my new CD."

Born in Cherry Valley, Mass., the 6-foot-tall charmer quips that he grew up "the well-adjusted middle child" of five kids. He recalls listening to Boston, Donna Fargo, Wings and Glen Campbell ("I bought the 45 to ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’). Besides doing the school musicals, he ran cross country and went to Red Sox games with his dad. "He was a deputy sheriff and a tough Irishman, but he was such a big fan of mine. When he died of massive chest pains, I sang ‘Danny Boy’ at his funeral."

As an actor, Donahue, 38, has appeared in The Ballad of Little Jo at the Steppenwolf in Chicago and toured in Floyd Collins. Plus, he was featured in What the World Needs Now, the 1998 Burt Bacharach-Hal David revue that tried out at San Diego’s Old Globe and was directed by Gillian Lynne ("Gillian’s a doll. She’s hilarious, beautiful and crazy"). Though the show was "fun," Donahue remembers once missing the cue for his entrance. He ran into his then co-star Sutton Foster backstage, and she told him, "Oh, honey. You’re late. You’re really late!"

For more information, visit www.jackdonahue.com.

HE’S GOT THE CUTEST LITTLE ‘BABY’ FACE
In the Tony-winning revival of Into the Woods, they all took a bow, including the cow, and inside Milky-White’s cuddly costume was the udderly charming Chad Kimball. Nowadays, the boyish 5-foot-10 actor from Seattle is playing the human and more humane role of Danny in the Paper Mill Playhouse’s 20th anniversary production of Baby through May 9 in Millburn, N.J. Written by Sybille Pearson with a bouncing Baby score by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire, it features Kimball as a musician and first-time proud papa, opposite Moeisha McGill ("She’s got a wonderful spirit and a fantastic voice," he says). At its April 4 opening, he, Norm Lewis and Michael Rupert stopped the show with "Fatherhood Blues." And when he crooned the beautiful ballad "I Chose Right," it was clear that Mark S. Hoebee, Baby’s director and himself a gay dad of two, chose right in casting him.

Kimball, who’s 27 and single, says, "Danny’s 21 and facing all the uncertainties that go into moving in with someone, falling in love for the first time, having a baby and finding out where your career is heading. . . . I would love to have kids. I think I’m probably gonna get married in my thirties, God willing I find the right girl."

Kimball comes to Baby, just having received rave reviews in Memphis at TheatreWorks in Mountain View, Calif., and the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass. He turned in a tour de force as Huey Calhoun, who’s loosely based on Dewey Phillips, a white deejay who broke color barriers on radio in the 1950s by playing "race" records. It’s got a crowd-pleasing rock ’n’ roll score by David Bryan of Bon Jovi and a book by Joe DiPietro, and Kimball hopes to reprise the role and bring it to Broadway. "It’s a once-in-a-lifetime part and a dream job. I’m singing a lot and doing monologues on the radio. Compared to that, doing Baby is like a vacation."

His other credits include My Life With Albertine at Playwrights Horizons and a Bistro Award-winning cabaret act at the Ars Nova and Joe’s Pub. Plus, he stars in a Verizon Wireless commercial that’s a takeoff of "The Apprentice." In it, Donald Trump accuses him of being "a minute-hoarding clockwatcher." "He’s a nice guy. I was surprised by how entertainment-savvy he was. He knew all the lingo, and we had a great time. Everyone likes the commercial. ‘You’re fired!’ I get that a lot now."

Kimball also once did a commercial for Burger King: "We had to eat the burgers. There were about 100 of them, all meticulously made up to look good. The worst part is they had these spit buckets. In the morning, it started out great when the burgers were hot and fresh. But as the day wore on, well . . . I didn’t have a Whopper for months."

No doubt Milky-White would’ve approved — or else she’d have had a cow. For more information, visit www.chadkimball.com.

WHERE THE GUYS ARE
There’s so much to see in New York. . . . Everyone’s heard of singing waiters, but singing chefs? That’s what Chef’s Theater recently served up at The Supper Club, 240 W. 47th St. (212-239-6200). Not only did the celebrity chef-of-the-week create a gourmet meal for the audience, he crooned a tune. Todd English belted "You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You," and Tyler Florence blew everyone away with "The Summer Wind." And the foodie fans ate it up, along with their roast poussin and panna cotta. Florence says, "Chef’s Theater was like doing ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I’m so out of my element. But I loved working with [Shannon Lewis, Paige Price and Jim Walton] and had a great time." Upcoming guest singers include Andrew Lippa (May 4-9) and Adam Pascal (May 18-23).

"Broadway Spotlight," the best new cabaret series in town, recently shone on Avenue Q’s John Tartaglia, and he opened his show with hilarious video of himself as a bespectacled teenager tackling "All I Ask of You" from Phantom. Plus, he offered a heartwrenching reading of "When She Loved Me" from "Toy Story 2," and his puppet pal, Rod, unleashed the Gypsy in his soul with a riotous rendition of "Rose’s Turn." The next "Spotlight" features top understudies on May 3 at 8 PM at Ars Nova, 511 W. 54th St. (212-868-4444), including Bombay Dreams' Aaron J. Albano, Rent's Sebastian Arcelus, Avenue Q's Barrett Foa and Assassins' Brandon Wardell.

Billy Porter will send his amazing voice sailing and wailing on May 9, 10 and 17 at 7:30 PM at Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (212-239-6200). The concert, which goes from gospel to Guettel, will be recorded for a live CD called "At the Corner of Broadway and Soul." Also, Euan Morton, who made a brilliant Broadway debut as Boy George, plays the Pub on May 30 at 7 and 9:30 PM. He’ll sing pop, rock, jazz and almost certainly something Taboo. . . . Finally, Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops will toast the "New Faces of ’04" on May 10 at 7 PM at Carnegie Hall, 57th St. at Seventh Ave. (212-247-7800), and the "Leading" guys include Never Gonna Dance's Noah Racey, The Boy From Oz's Mitchel David Federan and John Tartaglia. Besides celebrating their Carnegie debuts, let’s hope these terrific talents get their first Tony nominations that day, too!

Got comments or questions? E-mail me at [email protected].

Until next month, let’s hear it for the "boys"!

Wayman Wong edits entertainment for the New York Daily News. He has been a movie and theatre critic for the San Francisco Examiner, a writer for The Sondheim Review and a Drama-Logue Award-winning playwright.

//assets.playbill.com/editorial/fbc52571773abddf5714c3ec40f7ed0a-men2_1083341245.jpg
Jack Donahue (left), Chad Kimball, and Tyler Florence Photo by Ben Strothmann and Wayman Wong
 
RELATED:
Today’s Most Popular News:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!