A reminder isn't really needed, though. Chicago and its success still runs fresh in our minds and in the minds of everyone who witnessed the first run last summer, the second run in winter (again in Karachi) or the third run in Lahore two months ago. Lahore didn't really work out as well as they had hoped, Nida says, but it was a beginning and it was worth every paisa of the three million rupees loss they ran into. They wouldn't have lost money, she points out, if either they'd had a full house every day in Lahore or if the corporate sponsorships had come through. Or even if one of their venues for Karachi's second showing – the Alhamra Arts Council – hadn't been sabotaged and cancelled at the eleventh hour. Made4Stage, Nida's production house, had to pump in around three million to construct a venue from scratch. And that money was never recovered. Though it was a lot of 'razzle dazzle' that one saw on stage, the ground reality of putting a production like Chicago together in Pakistan was apparently not as glamorous.

The NAPA nightmare
"We ran into huge problems thanks to NAPA (National Academy of Performing Arts)," Nida remembers the logistical nightmare they encountered when NAPA cancelled their booking of the Arts Council where Chicago was supposed to be staged. That too merely days before the curtain raiser. "We had to shift to Area 51 and set up our own stage. But our posters and tickets had already been printed and sold. Our cost went up; it was a nightmare. It was sabotage and just showed the mentality and insecurity of the older, more experienced lot. Hell, I am just a kid in front of them!"

But she is one kid who put together a production more successful or entertaining than anything NAPA has done of late. They recognized her potential, which is why they offered her to come and work with them right after Chicago's first run in Karachi.

"They wanted me to link up with them for three years," says Nida, "but that meant that everything I produced would have the NAPA stamp. I said 'no way' to that! I did not want to associate myself with any institution because I wanted to establish myself as an artiste. I had to prove that I could do it."
That apparently didn't go down too well with the thespians and according to Nida, she heard on the grapevine that "they weren't too pleased" with the way Chicago turned out.

"I don't expect to get much help or guidance from the old institutions now. One of their senior members said a very funny thing to me: he said Chicago was good because halka halka music was playing in the background. They called me and then tried to put me down and then also wanted me to work for them. They had ego issues. I do think NAPA does a lot of theatre but it isn't doing so well. They need to be more commercially aware. If they are putting out art and culture, it should be done in a more entertaining way."

And who better to talk about the commercial success and importance of entertaining theatre than Nida? The song and dance in Chicago blew audiences away, in Karachi as well as Lahore.

Taking Shah Sharabeel head-on
"You see Lahore is used to Shah Sharabeel's productions with the CD playback," she says, "and many of them found it hard to believe that our singing was live."

Ironically, it was Shah Sharabeels' production of Phantom of the Opera that gave Nida her first taste for theatre in Pakistan and Phantom is the next musical on her mind. Hasn't it been done too many times before, one asked?

"Phantom of the Opera has been done many times in Pakistan by Sharabeel," Nida agrees, "but I've seen how he's done Phantom; I've acted in it. My version would be nothing similar. He's done a CD version: can you imagine how the Phantom soundtrack would sound live? The quality of dancing and the live music in Chicago was my seal of approval. Musicals have been done before but never with the live element. For Phantom I would need soprano singers and a string quartet. Just that would blow the audience's mind. I'm very excited because Phantom will be a step up from Chicago and maybe I need to do another Chicago-level-musical before I take that step up."

And Nida is certain that somewhere in Pakistan, her next team is waiting, soprano singers and string quartet et al.

"It's not possible not to find the right people," she enthuses with a spurge of confident excitement. "Those people are out there and when I set to it, they will turn up."

Just as they turned up the first time. Nida resigned from her job as legal coordinator (she's a lawyer by profession) at an NGO to pursue a passion for theatre. That's when she directed and produced The Producers, another classic script. She had no training whatsoever, just lots and lots of common sense and the perseverance to put in endless hours of auditions and rehearsals. Luck, she adds, also played a big role in getting the show on the road.

"I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on every person, from getting them to write biographies of their partner or have them rehearse in dark rooms so they would get a better feel of how they actually sounded," she remembers. "Even without the training, I managed with common sense."