A dream of Arab music: Celebrating Umm Kulthum’s enduring legacy

On the second day of March 2020, the Palladium Theatre in the West End, London, staged a show that attracted Arabic and English speakers alike. It was not just any old musical. It was based on the life of El Sit (‘The Lady’), Umm Kulthum, the legendary Egyptian singer and the Golden Era.

A tribute to the famous Arab composers, musicians and poet of our time. The show combined a dialogue in English with songs in Arabic. The sold-out theatre erupted in cheers and sang along with the various performers, who included Umm Kulthum’s granddaughter, Sanaa Nabil, and Syrian soprano, Lubana Al Quntar. The one-night show was a huge success. 

For Mona Khashoggi, the play’s producer and writer, it was a dream come true. The success of the show was an incentive for her to take it on the road, and as Covid restrictions eased, the show moved to other destinations: Paris, Dubai, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

From her home in Jeddah, Khashoggi describes the dream behind the show, which went back to her earliest memories. She grew up in Beirut and London. She explains how there was always Arabic music in her house, “songs by famous Arab singers such as Umm Kulthum, Muhammad Abdul Wahab, Fayruz, Sabah, Mohammed Abdo and Talal Maddah, all classic oldies.”

In her mind, the Egyptian musicals on TV represented a golden era where music, dance and film were refined and elegant, and actors and actresses were multi-talented, singing, dancing and portraying characters.

“It was an elevated and refined art form and this was reflected in the audience. Everything was different then. My play sought to revive that atmosphere when so many legends were created. I wanted to show the younger generation our illustrious past. I also wanted the Western audience to see a part of our culture. That is why the play was presented in English.”

The idea of writing a play came to her after a discussion with an American theatre director, Robert Wilson. At the time he was producing bilingual musicals and after watching one of his plays, she was inspired to produce a bilingual piece about classical Arabic music.

“During our conversation, he asked me about my favourite singers and I mentioned Umm Kulthum and played one of her songs on my mobile. One of other people present asked whether this was the lady with dark glasses and pearls. He explained that his mother had been a stylist for Maria Callas, the opera singer, and had also worked with Umm Kulthum. At that point, Robert Wilson asked me why don’t you produce a play about her, and that was how it started.”

After failing to find support for the production, Khashoggi decided to go it alone. “I wrote it myself, as nobody could do it the way I wanted. I got a dramaturge to look at my script. I had a Middle Eastern playwrights living in London review my play. I spent hours with them.  Writing this musical wasn’t easy, thinking from an Arabic point of view, but also having to bear in mind what an English audience would like to see, then fusing both worlds together. But my past studies of speech and Drama at school in London helped my expertise.”

There were hiccups along the way, stemming from the bilingual nature of the production. The team combined an Arab British cast with a British director and creatives. “I have to say, for all its ups and downs, we thoroughly enjoyed it! It was learning experience.”

Khashoggi’s experience of writing the play inspired her to write novels. The result was her first novel, Jaffa Orange Groves, which tells the story of a young girl in Palestine during the 1940s. She says it was partly influenced by growing up in Lebanon and the stories of families she knew there: “It was the stories of eight or nine different families, and it was based on interviews I did in 2000 and held onto for twenty years. After the show ended and during lockdown, I started listening to my old recordings. Then I did some creative writing classes. I was a little bit scared at first, I didn’t have much confidence, but my teacher gave me a lot of encouragement.”

But the theatre beckoned once again and she produced a modern dance/ballet show, another musical, entitled Sinbad the Sailor, a family show that was presented at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. She’d deliberately chosen a famous story that would resonate with both Western and Arab audiences. As with her previous production, she chose to incorporate Arabic music and songs in the play, mixing traditional sounds with contemporary material by the Emirati composer, Ihab Darwish. She rewrote the story for a dance show.

“I collected music that I loved from the Arab world, and we fused traditional dance, such as dabke and belly dancing, with contemporary ballet,” she says.

Dancers from the National English Ballet participated, along with performers from the Matthew Bourne School. In her usual way, Khashoggi was meticulous in choosing the costumes and backdrops. She and her designers worked with archival pictures of old Bagdad and Mesopotamia.

The next step will be to fulfil the dream of reaching an even wider audience. “We will take the show on tour. We have received about four offers so far, and we may increase the number of characters in the play, incorporate some puppets, and perhaps extend the show’s duration.”

In the meantime, she’s participated in the production of a concert of the legendary Egyptian singer, Muhammad Abdul Wahab, in collaboration with his family. The concert took place in the Drury Lane Theatre and showcased the soprano Fatma Said, who was accompanied by the London Arab Orchestra.Khashoggi’s next big project will take her back home: “My dream now is to write a Saudi story and revive old Saudi music.” Perhaps we can get a clue from a previous project she did, for the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum back in 2006. On that occasion, she choreographed a spectacular fashion show of traditional Saudi costumes for the opening of the Jameel Islamic Gallery there. Dancing, music and colourful garments—all the hallmarks of Khashoggi’s vibrant creativity.