Bend it like Beckham

Bend It like Beckham the Musical is based on 2002 British comedy-drama film starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Shaznay Lewis and Archie Panjabi, first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha. Its title refers to the football player David Beckham and his skill at scoring from free kicks by “bending” the ball past a wall of defenders.

Synopsis

Jess needs extra time. She is facing the most important decision of her life: live up to family expectations of university, career and marriage, or follow in the footsteps of her hero David Beckham. When the talented teenager is spotted playing football in Southall, a world of unexpected opportunities opens up before her. But as her sister’s traditional Indian wedding approaches, can she keep her family happy and still follow her dreams?

Bend It Like Beckham is a joyous British musical about where we are now. Featuring an original score with a Punjabi kick, it brings a unique cultural fusion of musical theatre to the stage for the first time. This reimagining of the much-loved hit film sees generations, cultures and communities brought together in this joyous and uplifting story about bending the rules and scoring that deciding goal.

Bend It Like Beckham is written by Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham (film), Bride and Prejudice). The original score is an East-West fusion of Bhangra and soaring joyous melodies with music by Howard Goodall (Love Story, The Hired Man ) and lyrics by Charles Hart (Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Love Never Dies). Pioneer of British Bhangra sound, composer and performer Kuljit Bhamra has collaborated with Howard Goodall. Gurinder Chadha will direct, with choreography and musical staging by Aletta Collins (Anna Nicole, ROH).

Cast

Jess – Natalie Dew

Training: Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes: Teh Internet is Serious Business (Royal Court); Olivia in Twelfth Night (Liverpool Everyman); Fault Lines (Hampstead Theatre); Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre); Arab Nights (Soho Theatre); Rough Cuts (Royal Court); Ophelia in Hamlet (Northern Broadsides); Arabian Nights (RSC); As You Like It (Curve, Leicester); Hansel and Gretel (Barbican); Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air) and Swine (NT Studio). Television includes: Lewis, Monster and Gavin & Stacey. Film includes: Toilets and 3 Minute Warning.
Jules – Lauren Samuels

Training: Guildford School of Acting. Theatre includes: Love Story (Bolton Octagon – Manchester Evening News Nomination for Best Actress); Peter Pan The Musical (Curve, Leicester); Grease (Piccadilly); We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre and 10th Anniversary World Arena Tour); The Water Babies (Curve, Leicester); The Last 5 Years (Tabard); The Wizard of Oz (Cyprus); The Children of Eden (Prince of Wales) and the title role in Vampirette (Manchester Opera House). Television includes: Over the Rainbow (finalist).
Joe- Jamie Campbell-Bower

Film includes: Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; The Twlight Saga; Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones directed by Harald Zwart. Other film includes: Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla, Winter In Wartime and Anonymous directed by Roland Emmerich. Television includes: Camelot and The Prisoner.
Paula – Ronni Ancona

Ronni made her London stage debut in Adam Cooper’s Singin’ In The Rain at Sadler’s Wells and was most recently seen at the Almeida Theatre in Alecky Blythe’s Little Revolution. She is best known for her extensive television work alongside Alistair McGowan in the BAFTA winning series Big Impression, for which she won a British Comedy Award and the Variety Club Award and spawned many specials such as Sven and Nancy’s Big Impression and Posh and Becks’ Big Impression. She has worked extensively in drama as well as comedy and her many television credits include: The Trip, Last Tango In Halifax, Gideon’s Daughter, Skins, Hope Springs, Ronni Ancona & Co, QI, Have I Got News For You, Midsomer Murders, The Key, Rory Bremner – Who Else? And The Sketch Show which also won her a BAFTA. Her film work includes Penelope, Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, The Roundabout, Stella Street – The Movie, The Calcium Kid and The Debt Collector.
Tony – Jamal Andreas

Training: The Urdang Academy Theatre includes: Hair (European Tour); Ragtime and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air) and workshops of Laila and Around the World in Eighty Days. Television includes: Banana. Bend It Like Beckham marks Jamal’s West End debut.
Pinky – Preeya Kalidas

Training: Sylvia Young Theatre School. Theatre includes: Khandan (Royal Court & Birmingham Rep); Oxford Street (Royal Court), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Adelphi); Bombay Dreams (Apollo Victoria) and Fair Maid of the West (The Pleasance). Film includes: Four Lions; It’s a Wonderful Afterlife; Bend it Like Beckham; Bollywood Queen; East is East; Jump Boy; Sari and Trainers; The Fiancee; Tube Tales and Virtual Sexuality. Television includes: Bollywood Carmen; Casualty; Eastenders; Mistresses; Bodies; Hotel Babylon; Banglatown Banquet; Broken News; Casualty; Doctors; England Expects; My Family; Mr Eleven; Britz; Bedtime Christmas Special and Decreed.
Mr Bhamara – Tony Jayawardena

Televisions includes: Strikeback, Cuckoo, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Beautiful Day, Pete Vs. Life, Kabadasses; Silent Witness, Moses Jones, Trial and Retribution, Blair, Doctors, Hotel Babylon and Holby City.

Theatre includes: The Roaring Girl, The Arden of Faversham, The White Devil, Twelfth Night and The Empress (RSC); Dick Whittington, Love and Stuff and Cinderella (Stratford East); Wind in the Willows (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Wah! Wah! Girls (Sadler’s Wells/ Kneehigh); Great Expectations (English Touring Theatre); The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Royal and Derngate, Northampton); London Assurance, All’s Well That Ends Well and England People Very Nice (National Theatre).

Film includes: The Cook; Jadoo; Trance; The Wedding Video;The Massive; Tower Block; Screwed; Huge; A Bunch of Amateurs and Chasing Liberty.
Mrs Bhamara – Natasha Jayetileke

Natasha trained at Laine Theatre Arts.

Theatre includes: Wah! Wah! Girls (Peacock); The Lion King (Lyceum); Eurobeat (Novello & National Tour); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (New London); Mahabharata (Sadler’s Wells and National Tour); The Snow Queen (Nuffield); Takeaway (Stratford East); Britain’s Got Bhangra (National Tour); The Home Theatre Project (Stratford East); In Nothing Flat (Germany); Aladdin (Camberley Theatre and Beck Theatre, Hayes); Peter Pan (Various); That’s the Way I Like It (Epsom Playhouse);

Television and radio includes: Hollyoaks, Ultimate Movie Toons, Hustle, Aladdin, This Morning, The Vanessa Show, Nick News and Poetry Please.

Film includes: The Mistress of Spices

Recordings include: Pride composed by Aaron Zigman

Sohm Kapila
Buckso Dhillon- Wooll
Harveen Mann
Irvine Iqbal
Karl Seth
Sejal Keshwala
Serina Mathew
Sharan Phull
Rakesh Boury
Jorell Coiffic-Kamall
Tom Millen
Daniel Bolton
Raj Bajaj
Kirstie Skivington
Michaelle Bishop
Chloe Chambers
Danielle Young
Lisa Bridge
Genesis Lynea
Kayleigh McKnight
Leanne Pinder
Rekha Sawhney
Shahid Khan

Run

Date	Type & Version	Theatre
May 15, 2015 – March 2016	Musical, Original	Phoenix Theatre, London, UK

Creative

Music – Howard Goodall
Lyrics – Charles Hart
Book – Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha
Director – Gurinder Chadha
Choreography – Aletta Collins
Set Design – Miriam Buether
Costume Design – Katrina Linsdsay
Lighting Design – Neil Austin
Sound Design – Richard Brooker
Musical Direction – Nigel Lilley
Orchestrations – Howard Goodall & Kuljit Bhamra

A Note by Gurinder Chadha ( Writer&Director )

Initially I resisted the suggestion to give Bend It Like Beckham a musical treatment, but as time went on I realised how significant I thought the film had been in terms of race relations in this country, the presence of the Asian community and how very little came after it that celebrated who we are as a nation in the same way. I had been deeply moved by Billy Elliot the Musical and loved how it had crystallised a particular moment in history, so I began to reconsider.

Developing Bend it Like Beckham for the stage, has been the most enjoyable creative process of my career so far. What I have been very lucky to do, is to surround myself with people who I think are exceptional, at not only being at the top of their game, but who completely understand what we are trying to do. What you will see in Bend It Like Beckham is the result of 4 years’ worth of collaboration: multiple workshops with musicians, actors, dancers and of course footballers.

Our ambition, is to create a totally new British musical, with a different musical language. A musical that speaks to us of today, the last 30, 40 years of Britain and of where we are as a nation. The Asian influences that are there are basically Punjabi West London – those that I have grown up with – fused with West End musical influences.

What we are trying to do is make a stakehold for those of us who believe we live in a brilliant nation that is all the better for being as diverse and as interesting culturally as it is, and that it isn’t just one community that has created this.”