Check out the new off-Broadway musical Queens Boulevard, a romance between a desi man and a Japanese-American woman, based on a Kathakali drama (via SAJA). It looks ostentatiously multi-culti, with a poster inspired by Maps for Lost Lovers and many references to the Queens Museum’s Edge of Desire desi art exhibition:

On his wedding day, a new husband is determined to find the perfect gift for his bride. While she waits at home, he searches for the mythical Flower of Heaven and is thrown into a series of… adventures on the streets of… Queens… [Link]

The musical stars Israeli-American actor Amir Arison and Michi Barall as the leads, along with actors Debargo Sanyal, Geeta Citygirl and Satya Bhabha. Playwright Charles Mee posts his full plays online, including this one:

[Vijay enters from the opposite side just as the Paan Beedi guy enters… painted in large bright colors “MTV Paan Beedi,” [his cart] has betel leaves and cigarettes, of course, but also a half dozen large glass jars of bite-sized wrapped candies, Hershey chocolate bars, several vases of flowers, fireworks, condoms, and a framed picture of [Krishna] among other items, as well as a television set on which the Indian television serial of the Mahabharata is playing continuously.]

VIJAY: Excuse me. Do you sell flowers?

PAAN BEEDI GUY: Yes, of course. What would you like?

VIJAY: Do you have a flower of heaven? [Link]

The adaptation leaves some of the old, bloody legends unchanged:

There was the wife of Vajrasara… he was told when he got back home that she had had an affair with another man… he tied her up to a tree and began to beat her with creepers. He stripped off her clothes, but then when he saw her naked he was filled with such desire that he asked her to make love with him. And she said I will, if you let me tie you up and beat you wish creepers as you did to me.

And so, he let her tie him up, and she tied him tightly to a big tree and then she took a sword and cut off his nose and his ears and dressed herself up as a man and left him there… [Link]

Michi Barall

Amir Arison

At the corner of the village palace
the samurai are standing.
How many are standing there, how many?
Three or four are standing
What do they hold in their hands?
Sickles and short swords
The crying baby will have its ears cut off. [Link]

It name-checks the Shakuntala myth and ‘a story box of the sort made by the artist Gulammohammed Sheikh.’ Stage directions call for qawwali. The M.I.A. track ‘10 Dollar‘ plays in a scene set in the underworld, the same song in the strip club from War.

But the burning question in your mind is, is there a 7-Eleven joke?

PAAN BEEDI GUY: When at a 7-11, don’t take Sierra Mist Free without paying for it. It is against the law and you could get in trouble. It is free from sugar, not free to take. [Link]

Everyone’s a little bit stereotypical sometimes