Off-Broadway Enlightenment 101

Is it possible to achieve nirvana or enlightenment in neon-lit Times Square and that too in two hours flat? Well, yes, if you watch the new musical play Sidd at Dodges Stages. It is based on the novel *Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and deals with a young man’s wanderings through the temptations and corruptions of the city and his meeting with the Buddha and subsequent enlightenment.

If you thought achieving enlightenment is heavy going, you’re in for a surprise. The play is light and funny with a lively multicultural musical score. But wasn’t Siddhartha supposed to be serious and deep? Ask Fran Kirmser Sharma, executive producer and choreographer of Sidd, and she says: “Herman Hesse is a Western writer. so it’s a Western take on Eastern matter. It’s really up for interpretation. One of the goals was to be inclusive of everyone and you know when you do a piece of musical theater in New York, if there isn’t an entertainment factor, if there isn’t an opportunity to laugh, if there isn’t material which is accessible to the tourist who’s coming into town, then you’re in trouble! So we wanted to make sure the piece could be shared with many, many people.”

Different genres of theater, choreography and music mingle together and you can’t really identify the time and place the events take place in. Is it New York City today or is it an ancient city of Buddha’s days? “It’s whatever you want it to be. People fill in the blanks and that is exactly what we wanted,” says Sharma. “It’s supposed to be fun and we aren’t afraid to have fun. We’ve heard from people who were worried it was going to be this big serious journey of the Buddha and were surprised to find it light and accessible. It widens our net of people who are aware of all the doors and windows that the novel opens to thinking a little bit differently and learning about cross-cultures.”

Sharma says, “It’s amazing how they constantly pull from us and we pull from them. These little accents were layered in, so you have the tabla, sitar, cello and reggae — cross-cultural but done sparingly so they fit together.”

Another interesting thing about Sidd is the color blind casting. Though Manu Narayan plays Sidd, it was earlier played by Neil Maffin, a Caucasian-American, and the cast is of every color possible. Each one of the characters is based on a different country. Says Sharma: “One of the things the novel does so well is that East meets West and suggests that we’re all connected and all the same and everyone is part of everyone. There’s a universality in the novel and a suggestion for peace past culture. So we just wanted to cast the roles with the best person for the part and we wanted it to reflect the scene.”