Burning bright on Broadway

One play with a distinct Indian connection is gathering critical applause on Broadway. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo opened at the Richard Rodgers Theater on March 31,2011,and stars Robin Williams in tattered clothes as the eponymous tiger,roaming the streets of present-day Baghdad “trying to find the meaning of life.” Directed by Moisés Kaufman,the play is an adaptation of a piece written by 36-year-old Indo-American playwright,Rajiv Joseph. The story was the winner of the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) award for Outstanding New American Play and was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play had debuted at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in May 2009. The Cleveland-born Joseph’s mother is of Franco-German lineage,while his father is an Indian immigrant to the US. He has acknowledged that he caught on to writing while volunteering for the Peace Corps in Senegal.