When 16-year-old Jane tells her mum, Kate, that she has got a job in the movies, Kate is disbelieving: "Oh, has Halle Berry phoned in sick, then?" Jane's job turns out to be front-of-house at the Star, an ailing Bollywood cinema on Leicester's Belgrave Road.
Jane, who is not exactly Einstein ("one GCSE and a swimming badge"), has never heard of Bollywood but falls in love with it at first sight, since it represents an escape from her difficult life with Kate, who wants her daughter to pay her own way. And her introduction to this strange, exciting world is made all the more pleasurable by her guide: 18-year-old Dini, a would-be actor and dancer.
Amanda Whittington's Bollywood fairytale may stretch your credulity, but never mind, because this slight and bittersweet tale plucks at the heartstrings and is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of make-believe.
That's not to say that it is entirely lightweight: underneath the floating saris and sequins, the swelling music and swelling bosoms, is an unsentimental examination of the relationship between a teenage daughter and a mother who was only 16 herself when she gave birth. At 32, Kate feels she has never had a chance to follow her dreams.
Whittington has already written a tale of gymslip pregnancy in her successful Be My Baby, which cleverly entwined classic 1960s hits into the narrative. Here, staged sequences from Bollywood films are presented to terrific effect. Bollywood is big in theatre at the moment, but this is the most successful integration that I have seen.
The slight scenario is cleverly fleshed out by Kully Thiarai's slick production and a cast who play every word as if it comes straight from the heart. And Whittington succeeds in sidestepping the obvious happy-ever-after ending in favour of something that is perhaps no less preposterous, but somehow seems just right.
All in all, a lovely little show for those who haven't had a dream for a long time, but who still believe that miracles sometimes happen.
· Until May 17. Box office: 0116-253 9797.
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