A.R. Rahman wants to unite the globe through Bollywood-like stage show With scores of dancers moving in unison atop trains, singing amid ancient ruins and running across cricket fields, the average Bollywood production is a grand spectacle. Taking such a show on the road would seem to require significant downsizing. Not for A.R. Rahman, who garnered worldwide exposure with his Academy Award-winning score to "Slumdog Millionaire." The Indian film composer is trying to orchestrate his own rise to international stardom by making his production even bigger to dazzle audiences in massive concert venues across the Western Hemisphere with elaborate stage shows teeming with dancers, acrobats and high-tech lighting.
"I'm an introvert, actually," he said, then corrected himself, "I was an introvert, rather." He's also rowing against a tide that has capsized other non-Western stars who attempted to find a place in a global pop pantheon dominated by European and American performers. Fusing the two musical cultures, The musicians are elements of a stage show that also includes four troupes of dancers, each of which will strut the stage deploying an entirely different style of choreography. All the while, a high-tech projection rig that's only been used before in standalone light shows will throw three-dimensional renderings of the Himalayas, the Ganges River and the slums of Mumbai onto the stage. A.R. Rahman attends a news conference to announce his upcoming "AR Rahman Jai Ho Concert: The Journey Home World Tour" held in New York last month. The tour begins June 11 at New York's Nassau Coliseum and wends through North America and Europe before ending at London's Wembley Stadium in late July, with ticket prices for the roughly three-hour-long shows ranging from $45 to $1,000. http://www.app.com/article/20100531/ENT/100527117/1031
