Skip to main content Skip to footer site map

VIDEO: First Look at Madhuri Shekar's A NICE INDIAN BOY at Olney Theatre Center in March

Previews began Wednesday, March 8, and the show will run through Sunday, April 9, 2023.

Get a first look at A Nice Indian Boy by Madhuri Shekar and directed by Zi Alikhan having its regional premiere in Olney Theatre Center's Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab in a production featuring the work of one of the fastest rising and prolific American Playwrights working. The production is scheduled to run through Sunday, April 9, 2023. Tickets are $54-$79 and available online at olneytheatre.org or at 301-924-3400.

Playwright Madhuri Shekar has proven herself a master of multiple genres since her first play In Love and Warcraft premiered at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in 2014. Her writing has tackled video games, horror, science, historical drama, and science fiction. With A Nice Indian Boy, Shekar is firmly in the mold of the great American kitchen sink dramas, leavened by a good dose of comedy. A meet-cute at the local temple brings Naveen (Carol Mazhuvancheril) face-to-face with the man of his dreams: a fellow Marathi-speaking Hindu who loves the same Bollywood films and can cook a mean dal makhani. If his parents (Lynette Rathnam and Abhimanyu Katyal) were ever going to accept him bringing home a boyfriend, Keshav (Noah Israel) would be that boy except - he's white, raised by Indian foster parents who adopted him. But they're madly in-love and so off they head to the Gavaskar house, where Naveen's white boyfriend isn't the only surprise ready to walk through the door. That additional surprise comes in the form of Naveen's sister, Arundhathi (Jessica Jain) fleeing her own, more traditional marriage. Surasree Das, Shaan Sharma, and Taylor Witt serve as production swings and understudies.

Says director Zi Alikhan, "A Nice Indian Boy is a play that immediately felt like 'home' to me-a South Asian-American story that is fundamentally an American story, one that centers on family, generational progress, and love in all its forms. I'm unbelievably excited to find out how, through this play, Olney can be a home to so many folks for whom this story is extremely familiar and to situate the Gavaskar family in the canon of families that have graced the stages here for the last ninety years.'

On the creative team, Ambika Raina serves as both the Choreographer and Assistant Director; Frank Oliva is the scenic designer, and Danielle Preston the costume designer; Kenny Neal is the sound designer, and lights are designed by Emma Deane. Olney Theatre's Director of Community Engagement, Shruthi Mukund, serves as a cultural consultant and Hope Villanueva is the production stage manager.




Review: Brava, Bravo! Fall In Love With HUBBA HUBBA at Theatre Project Photo
Brava, Bravo! For HUBBA HUBBA At Theatre Project: Don't miss the World Premiere! This new show by Alex & Olmsted, internationally acclaimed winners of multiple Jim Henson Award grants, is a pastiche of comedic scenes starring humans, puppets and an invisible fruit fly. Each carries a unique message spotlighting different facets of romantic love.

A NICE INDIAN BOY Extends at Olney Theatre Center Photo
Olney Theatre Center is extending the run of A Nice Indian Boy by Madhuri Shekar and directed by Zi Alikhan, for one week. The new closing date is Sunday, April 16, 2023.

VANYA, SONIA, MASHA & SPIKE Opens April 14th At Spotlighters Photo
Spotlighters Theatre presents Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike - three crazy siblings and one hot mess, by Christopher Durang and directed by Erin Klarner. Running April 14 - April 30, 2023

CRISIS MODE: LIVING PILIPINO IN AMERICA At Strand In Baltimore Resonates With Immigrants,  Photo
CRISIS MODE: LIVING PILIPINO IN AMERICA is a revelation as well as a personal and cultural history. Speaking for, and to, people 'other-ed' for cultural reasons, or with dualism of identities, it also resonates with anyone who has basic compassion. Heartbreaking, interactive and funny, the performance immerses one in memoir as it's being written.


More Hot Stories For You


Video: Andrew Lloyd Webber Sends Message Of Support to Ukrainian Students Performing CATS in Bomb ShelterVideo: Andrew Lloyd Webber Sends Message Of Support to Ukrainian Students Performing CATS in Bomb Shelter
March 23, 2023

Students at a school in Kiyv recorded a production of the musical CATS from their bomb shelter amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

VIDEO: First Look at THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL at The John W. Engeman TheaterVIDEO: First Look at THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL at The John W. Engeman Theater
March 23, 2023

The John W. Engeman Theater's production of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL will run through Sunday, April 30, 2023. Get a first look at the cast in action!

VIDEO: Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER Returns to The Met OperaVIDEO: Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER Returns to The Met Opera
March 23, 2023

Watch video from Lise Davidsen, a leading international soprano who has been lauded for her recent Met performances in Strauss's Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, returns to the Met stage for Strauss's grand comedy Der Rosenkavalier, singing the Marschallin for the first time in a seven-performance run from March 27 to April 20.

VIDEO: Go Inside the Music of COWBOY BOB at Alley TheatreVIDEO: Go Inside the Music of COWBOY BOB at Alley Theatre
March 23, 2023

The Alley Theatre is presenting Cowboy Bob! The new musical Cowboy Bob, created by Molly Beach Murphy of Galveston, Jeanna Phillips & Annie Tippe, with music and lyrics by Jeanna Phillips, book and additional lyrics by Molly Beach Murphy, additional music by Alex Thrailkill, directed and choreographed by Annie Tippe and runs through 26, 2023 in the Hubbard Theatre.

Video: SIX Tour Queens Sing National Anthem for San Francisco WarriorsVideo: SIX Tour Queens Sing National Anthem for San Francisco Warriors
March 20, 2023

Watch as The Queens of SIX's Aragon Tour performed the National Anthem for the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, March 11, 2023.