'Bombay Dreams' rewritten for Broadway

NEW YORK, April 19 (UPI) -- "Bombay Dreams," a British hit musical, will open on Broadway April 29 drastically overhauled for an American audience.

The show, written by Meera Syal with music by A.R. Rahman, was a hit in London thanks in part to the city's large South Asian population.

A spokesman for the show, which deals with the "Bollywood" movie industry in India, confirmed over the weekend that confusing subplots have been eliminated, Indian cultural references unfamiliar to Americans have been removed, and several of the leading roles have been beefed up.

Book writer Thomas Meehan ("The Producers') was brought in to retool the story. Several songs have been omitted, the lyrics of others have been reworked by songwriter David Yazbek ("The Full Monty"), several new songs have been added, and the orchestra of 10 has been increased to 19 musicians.

The $14 million Broadway production, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, has a modest advance of $5 million, the spokesman said, with group sales adding another $2 million. The London production recouped its investment of $7.5 million, two-thirds of which was put up by Webber, despite mixed to poor reviews.