Dear Friends,

So many projects get submitted to us each year for consideration, most of them through traditional means: literary agents, directors, playwrights, producers and colleagues at other theatres. Sometimes, though, there’s a special kind of kismet that brings a project into our world.

When Mike Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza were artists-in-residence at the Playhouse in our 2018/19 season, they spent a lot of time here working on a trilogy of plays we’d commissioned them to write. One day, they happened to mention they were also in the process of working on a new musical with Sam Willmott and Deep Singh, and wondered whether we might be interested in helping support its development.

In August 2018, we hosted a weeklong workshop for Bhangin’ It. It culminated in a final presentation at which all of us at the Playhouse promptly fell in love with the show. The world of intercollegiate bhangra competitions is a fascinating setting for a musical, as it plays directly into our American cultural obsession with competitions. (I’m currently bingeing season two of Cheer as I write this.)

But what elevates Bhangin’ It is that the competition storyline – as delightful as it is – is also a vessel for a sweet, funny, thoughtful and deeply relevant story about intersectional identities, and how thorny and complicated the questions of who we are and where we belong truly are. And yet everything unfolds with an unfettered sense of joy in the rich possibilities inherent in the many strands of our selves.

So much of that is thanks to the fantastically kinetic choreography that dominates the show, courtesy of Ruj, Lisa and Anushka. The show’s layering of dance styles – including Bhangra, Kathak, Bollywood and more – is a perfect illustration of the collision of cultural identities that drives the story. 

Shepherding this amazing team with his customary grace, compassion and fierce dramaturgical eye is Stafford Arima. It’s a true pleasure to steal Stafford away from his home as artistic director of Theatre Calgary for a couple of months.

It’s fitting to close our shortened 2021/22 season – our first season back after everything our world has endured – with such an unbridled celebration of the ways musical theatre can move and inspire us. Thank you for joining us today.

CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY  
The Rich Family Artistic Director                              
of La Jolla Playhouse