The Exotic Marigold Hotel – Just The Best!

If wisdom, beauty and joy were to be personified then they might best be represented in the wonderful characters residing at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Now probably India’s most famous mythical property, largely thanks to the hugely successful film of the same name, I can only urge you to sprint to Leeds Playhouse and see this magnificent production before the sun sets on Bangalore this Saturday!

What an enthralling play, full to the brim with magnificent performances from the likes of Rula Lenska and Hayley Mills, two of the grand mesdames of British tv, film and theatre.

Sadly that other ‘name’, Paul Nicholas, wasn’t on stage last night but his understudy, Adam Morris as ‘out of love’ Douglas, was equally brilliant in this near flawless theatrical tribute destined, I am sure, for a West End airing.

Based on Deborah Moggach’s Sunday Times bestseller - the inspiration for the original movie in which that other doyen of the theatre, Maggie Smith, holds court - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel takes us on a journey to India with an eclectic group of British retirees.

In some ways England with its-self centred ways and a social welfare system designed to put them ‘into care’, has given up on this diverse bunch.

But, unperturbed, they strike out for adventure and a new life and, in return, find love, peace and friendship, those things they have either lost, or mislaid, in their earlier lives

I cannot claim to have seen the hugely popular movie, however, it was with an air of expectation that I sat down to enjoy the warm climes, nuances and humour of the Asian sub-continent: and I wasn’t disappointed.

Like Mark Rosenblatt’s 2014 production of Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men, in which the director transported everyone so brilliantly to America’s dustbowl, so Simon Friend and Jenny King’s 2023 production takes us so seamlessly to India.

One static set had the potential to be ineffective but it never was and I loved the scene changes in which ‘the call centre’ so quickly found itself on and off the stage!

The sound plot was beautifully complementary and the soft lighting, designed to create ‘warmth’, almost had everyone peeling off as temperatures plummeted outside!

Rekha John-Cheriyan as Mrs Kapoor, was the wonderfully overbearing, manipulative ‘Indian mum’ determined that her boy, Sonny (Nishad More), should marry the girl with lots of cash and not the woman of his dreams, whilst Hayley Mills was the sincere Evelyn who falls for Douglas, each rediscovering their raison d’etre in life.

Neither will I forget would-be lethario Norman, played by Andy de la Tour and Muriel (Marlene Sidaway) who discovers Indian food for the first time: both exemplary.

I really did love this play and it is rare that I ‘recommend’ but this time I can, and do, without fear of getting it wrong.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is thought-provoking easy listening that will make you laugh, cry and realise that there really is a life after arthritis, aching joints and those overbearing laughter lines that greet you in the mirror each morning!