An annual affair that guarantees great laughs and music, Leila Alvares is coming to Goa with a huge cast of ‘Something Rotten’. Directed by Coorg-based Leila, the cast and crew from Bangalore will be performing in Goa on September 9, at 7.15 pm at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao.
‘Something Rotten’ was hailed as the funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years! Set in England in the 1590’s, two brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are attempting to write a hit play but are overshadowed by the Renaissance rock star known as ‘The Bard’. However, a local fortune teller comes to their rescue and foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing and acting – all at the same time! The brothers are now determined to create the world’s first musical but soon realize that to do so requires a lot more than they bargained for including the importance of Being True To Thyself.
“I always select musicals that are funny and have a great catchy score. The music was great for ‘Something Rotten’ and so I picked it for this year’s show. I buy the rights for it and with a few tweaks present it to the audience in India. The main storyline is the same but the interpretation is left to us,” says Leila, whose mother, Lavinia Fernandes is from Porvorim while her father, Captain Kieren Alvares, is a Mangalorean.
The cast includes some of Bangalore’s finest new and old singing, acting, dancing and musical talent including Rahael Thomas, Deepa Jacob, Alapana Baghirat, Aakarsh Paul, John Mark Sudevan, Madhuri Braganza, Shyju Varkey, Arvind Kasthuri, Tasneem Kera and Prem Koshy among others. One of the most important factors for musicals, the live band will be directed by Aashish Paul and the lively dances are choreographed/directed by Elexer Fernandes, Kieren Alvares Lynn and Keira Alvares Ganapathy. The vibrant costumes are designed by Asha Fernandez and the striking sets with hand painted scenes are by Alen Church and Tsia Molloth that make this musical a must see event.
A director of Broadway musicals, for the past 26 years, she is also the founder and director of the Cooperation of the Arts for the Underprivileged in Society and Environment (CAUSE) Foundation. She has been involved with all things musical from a very young age while simultaneously giving back to the community. After three well received shows in Bengaluru followed by a show in Mysuru, the musical is making its way to Goa before heading to Mangaluru on September 22. “Before every performance, we do a full rehearsal with sound checks. Kala Academy would have been the preferred venue as more people would have come. Based in Panjim, Kala Academy is more central. Unfortunately, it is still not open and we have to stage the show at Ravindra Bhavan,” says Leila.
She spends most of the year at her homestay on her coffee plantation in Coorg, where she lives with her two children, Kieren and Keira. She shuts the place down for three months every year to ensemble a cast for the annual musical show, preferably with a cast from Bangalore itself. This makes practices for the musicals a very intense three months period in Bangalore. Leila Alvares and her team have successfully enthralled audiences for the past 26 years in Bangalore, Mangalore, Chennai, Coorg, Goa, Cochin, Payyanur
and Mumbai.
“The CAUSE Foundation promotes local talent and the profit is given to charity. It is quite expensive to bring forth a musical as it requires live sounds and songs. We can only recover our expenses if we receive a full audience. Every year, we have shows with proceeds being donated to local charities including orphanages, destitute homes, physically & mentally challenged homes, animal welfare organizations as well as various sustainable environmental ventures. With the ongoing Manipur issue, we had 20 Manipuri students who attended the musical in Bangalore and we arranged the transport for them. For our Mangalore performance, we have received information that 150 students from Manipur who are based in Mangalore will be attending the show for free and we will be giving them proceeds in kind,” says Leila, whose repertoire of past musicals include classics like ‘Grease’, ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Sound of Music’, ‘Fiddler on the Roof ‘, ‘Ghost the Musical’, ‘Young Frankenstein’, ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ and ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’.
Tickets for ‘Something Rotten’ are available online at Book My Show and at Magsons, Fatorda, Margao.