HERE'S a chance to experience the exciting song-and-dance phenomenon that has spread from India around the world in a unique theatrical format.

Interspersing spoken drama with lengthy dance routines, Merchants of Bollywood traces the 100-year history of the celebrated film industry.

The early days are told through a narrator, but the focus is on modern-day India, and a young woman's quest for glory in Bollywood as a choreographer.

Ayesha Merchant's attempts to follow Western cultural trends brings her great success but also the disapproval of her grandfather, a former choreographer in Bollywood himself.

The struggle between old and new unfolds on stage as classical dance is gradually replaced by the sexy outfits and funky beats of the MTV generation.

Sadly, the drama wasn't much to write home about. (A comic turn by three older men in the middle of the show was painfully unfunny.) But there were diamonds to be found in the cast of all-Indian dancers. Carol Furtado carried the show as Ayesha, and the standard of performance was excellent overall.

The glitzy, disco finale was of course in keeping with the themes of modernisation, but lacked the elegant gravitas of the traditional dance (which I personally enjoyed much more).

The production runs until Saturday.