Bengaluru has so much potential; we just need to nurture it, says Kevin Oliver

When I was 19, I produced Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with friends, on a budget of `1,000. Since then, life has taken me to various cities and into different professional pursuits. But about four months ago, I decided I wanted to do something substantial in Bengaluru. It feels like a full circle moment to now come back,” says Kevin Oliver, musician, theatre director, fashion choreographer and Bengaluru boy, who has brought Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat to the city. Kevin’s production offers a fresh interpretation of the classic, originally conceived by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in the 1970s, now reimagined as India’s first all-male pop opera. Excerpts:

‘EVEN YEARS LATER, I LOVE THAT I CAN STILL SEE BENGALURU; IT’S NOT LOST’
Back in the city after years, Kevin offers a refreshingly balanced perspective on Bengaluru. “I just love where Bengaluru’s gone, and I love that I can still see Bengaluru; it’s not lost. People certainly complain about the traffic and so many trees being cut down, and of course, that’s going to happen. The city has become insane; it’s grown so big. Being here for a month and a half has been such a fabulous trip down memory lane and into the future because Bengaluru is a city that endures. And with all its madness, I love where Bengaluru’s going,” he says.
‘THERE’S A LOT OF COPY-PASTE HAPPENING TODAY’
Kevin is also particularly critical of the lack of originality in the arts. “Today, in the arts, there’s a lot of copy-paste happening. I feel, especially in India, we tend to do a lot of copy and paste, especially in the fashion business. It’s the old designers reshowing the same old stuff in different fabrics, with a multitude of sequins and crystals. For me, the fashion quotient and artistic part of it are a little bit lost. Every show looks the same; whether it’s one designer or another, it looks the same to me. There’s no innovation at all,” he says.

‘BENGALURU HAS SO MUCH TO OFFER IN TERMS OF CREATIVE POTENTIAL’
Speaking about Bengaluru’s creative landscape, Kevin notes that the city is “brimming with untapped potential”. “The talent here is amazing, but it’s disheartening to see the arts fading away so much around the world. The city has so much to offer in terms of creative potential; we just need to nurture it."

JOSEPH GETS A COUTURE TWIST
“I wanted to marry fashion and music – something that has never been done in musicals. With Joseph, I wanted to bring an element of couture, right from the first image to the last image. I borrowed and begged from designers to lend me couture clothes and brought them down to Bengaluru. Key pieces in the show feature international branding, including Joseph’s coat (left) which is 21 kgs of Swarovski crystal. It’s my interpretation of where we’ve taken the story since its ’70s origins,” says Kevin.

‘I CHOSE AN ALL-MALE CAST BECAUSE…’
But why an all-men cast? Kevin says, “Joseph is very male. It’s 12 brothers – it’s very male-dominated. Men have such beautiful timbre in their voices – I wanted to showcase that, and so it became quite a natural fit for an all-male ensemble. (laughs) Of course, I had a lot of grumbling from the womenfolk, asking why I’d come back after so long to do an all-male musical. I said, ‘Well, it was a twist. It wasn’t planned; it was just about how I could make it fresh.’ And who knows, I might even do an all-female musical next time.” “The musical follows a ninepart narrator format with 16 genre-fluid tracks and 100-plus male performers, aged 13–50, singing live from start to finish,” he adds.