If it’s another Broadway
musical it must be Leila’s! Staging innumerable musical hits including The
Sound of Music; Grease; My Fair Lady over the last 17 years, the lady behind
the curtains, Leila Alvares, has been vowing audiences with a passion and a
CAUSE for her plays.
Music has been her pivot –
one that propelled her to learn and teach classical piano and organise some of
Bangalore’s best known church and wedding choirs. “I loved conducting choirs
for the sheer harmony and music. For me music is important. This perhaps
explains why I do musicals. In fact I am
the only in Bangalore who is doing
musicals and I know for a fact that I am the only one in India who has a live
band with live singing,” avers Leila, whose plays have been staged mainly in
South India, Goa and Mumbai.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
At 18, the staging of her first show ‘Music
through the ages’ in college whetted her appetite for more. A chance viewing of the Broadway musical
‘Joseph’ in the US, during her studies there redoubled her desire to stage
musicals. “I knew immediately this is
what I wanted to do,” confesses Leila. Staging 10 plays over the years, Leila
says her USP is ‘choosing plays which are comedies and have awesome music’.
Unfortunately, as Leila
points out, theatre has not been getting the financial support it
deserves. To offset this and similarly
provide a platform for local talent Leila started the CAUSE Foundation. Of the
proceeds that arise from this 40%, is donated to human causes, 30% to animal
causes and 30% retained as a corpus for future productions.
Enthusiastic about coming
back to Goa to stage her third play ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ (Spamalot 2011;
Curtains (2013) in which her own two children Kiera and Kieran are
participating, Leila is elated with the response here. “Goan people seem to
love theatre. They are so responsive and catch every joke. Very few places have
an interest in western musicals and Goa is one of them. Goa is also blessed
with some extremely good theatre halls,” avers Leila who lives and runs a
coffee plantation and home-stay in the verdant environs of Coorg.
