I had the opportunity to sit down with Stéphane Boukris, producer of the upcoming Once Upon A Time In Dubai, the UAE’s first-ever original musical, to discuss his vision and inspiration behind this groundbreaking production. Boukris shared his perspective on the challenges and rewards of bringing a completely homegrown story to life.
Interview with producer Stéphane Boukris:
Estelle Cooper: Given the central theme of the musical, the first question I have for you is what makes the story so uniquely “Dubai”?
Stéphane Boukris: So, Once Upon a Time In Dubai is the story of people moving to Dubai to accomplish their dreams. It’s the story of Will and Sophia mostly, who come from London, and Dubai is going to change their lives. So it’s really interesting because it’s your story, it’s my story, or people who live in Dubai because everybody’s leaving something else for something better and it resembles the path of many people who came here these past years. Dubai has changed a lot over the years and now people are coming for a better future, for better opportunities in a world of tolerance, coexistence, safety and opportunity, and that’s what Once Upon a Time in Dubai is about.
Estelle Cooper: Following that, in what ways would you say Sophia and Will represent the spirit of the expats living in Dubai?
Stéphane Boukris: So not only them, but the seven characters of Once Upon a Time in Dubai represent a different part of Dubai’s diverse population. We have Shay, for example, who plays Gautam, and we have Elias who’s the boss. We have many many people representing their community and their country. We also have Khalid who’s a really positive character, and we have Kim, she’s a friend of Sophia (in the show), she left a couple of years ago and she’s here to create a music show called Music Nation. Then you also have Zeina and she’s a dancer.
So, all of them have something in common, they’re here to do something better with their lives. They’re here to realize where they meant to be. They’re sometimes a bit homesick, but they realise that they have an incredible chance here because it’s like the new Mayflower, the 2025 Mayflower. People are leaving on a boat for a better destiny.
The only thing that might not be entirely true is that we don’t have that many artists in Dubai yet. And that’s also one of the projects of Once Upon a Time in Dubai, to open the way to artists in this city because there’s only one permanent show so far in Dubai, La Perle, which is a great show, but the idea of Once Upon a Time in Dubai is opening a way to other musicals and to inspire people to start their own project as well.
One month ago, we played in a school called Gems Metropole School, and we sang a song from Once Upon a Time in Dubai. We told the story and everything, and at the end we had this little girl called Nahala, she’s Emirati, and she started to cry and she ran into Jessica Alves’ (Kim) arms, and I went to the teacher of this young lady and I said: “Why is this little girl crying? Is there something wrong with what we said, or with what we sang?” And the teacher said “no, on the contrary, quite the opposite. This little girl is crying because now she sees a way. She sees a path that she didn’t see until then. Seeing Jessica Alves on stage makes her realize there’s a potential for her and she relates to her. She identifies. So thank you for what you do because maybe someday thanks to this kind of initiative, young Nahala can someday become a star in her own potential musical.”
Estelle Cooper: So, would you say you’re paving the way for creatives in Dubai by inspiring others through your work?
Stéphane Boukris: We try to do so, because Dubai has 23 million tourists, maybe more this year, 10 million residents and only one permanent show as we mentioned earlier, La Perle, and musicals are rare here. So you have a musical coming for four or five days, right now you have Annie: The Musical for two days, from today to Sunday, and we had Beetlejuice a couple of weeks ago for four days. So some musicals come and go, but we don’t have anything strong here, even though we have a strong British community, a strong French community, and people who love musicals.
So that’s what we’re trying to repair here, by having our own musical, and the first homegrown in the whole region. Not only in Dubai, not only in the UAE, but in the whole GCC. It has never been done before. And not only do we want to do the first musical with Universal, but we also want to try to do the best musical. So we’ve assembled an incredible team with professionals in visual effects, sound, and everything to provide an incredible show that people can be proud of, even prouder of their country, and of these kinds of projects.
Estelle Cooper: What was it like collaborating on an original musical built from the ground up?
Stéphane Boukris: To start off, it’s been two years. We had some good and some bad surprises on the way. Right now we can be sure that we have a couple of thousands of people who are going to see the show. So, it’s a great relief for us, and we’re really proud.
I have two stories to tell. The first story was during the winter break. I was in Paris, and I was next to the Louvre, two years ago. I went to a cafe called Cafe Marley, and I saw four American ladies wearing a Parisian beret that nobody wears except tourists. I came to see them and they were from Oklahoma City. And I said, “So I guess you girls came for the Mona Lisa and for Victoria de Mutras and all of these great pieces of art that you can find in the Louvre, right?” And they said, “No, you’re completely wrong. We came because we saw the show.” And I said, “What are you talking about?” And she looked at me like I was dumb or something and said, “We came for Emily.” And I said, “Who’s Emily?” And one of them said, “Emily in Paris?” And I said, “Who’s Emily in Paris?” They said “It’s a fictional character on Netflix. It’s like our idol.” And I said, “But is it like there’s a real story behind it?” They said “No, no. It’s a fake story, but we needed to live a life. So that’s why we came from Oklahoma to Paris.” And she used an expression. She said, “We had an emotional bond with Emily.” And I said, “Wow. Oh my god.” So maybe if the Americans believe they did that for Paris, maybe we can do the same for Dubai, creating such an emotional bond between Dubai and the rest of the world.
I have no problem with Dubai Bling and Real Housewives of Dubai, but it’s not the reality for 99.99% of the world. So the idea is to give justice to this amazing place by telling a story which is not a real story, but which is close to reality. It’s not something historical. So we’re not talking about the desert, and the fishermen and the pearls. This has been done before. We’re talking about everyday people who live their life and try to have a good life here in Dubai, with a romantic story narrative inside this.
The second story, Universal Music signed the project early on, the first time in their history that they signed a musical during the creation. There’s the producer, distributors, and co-owners of the company. And they said “the only condition is that we want you to assemble,” they said, “a team of the great”. So I had to check my contacts, who was ready to jump on the project. And my first contact came to mind was Guilles Papain. So Guilles is the guy behind the Céline show in Las Vegas at the Caesar’s Palace 10 years ago. He’s behind the show “Disney World of Colours” in Anaheim in California, the projection on Watchers. I don’t know if you know Italian television, but he did Amici, which is like the number one TV show in Italy, and many many others.
I came to see him and he said, “Wait a second, hold on. I’ll come to Dubai tomorrow and I want to know more because I don’t know this place.” When he came to the UAE, he said, “Stefan, take me to a fancy hotel. I have a question for the concierge.” So he came to see the concierge, and he said, “Miss, my name is Papain. It’s my first day in Dubai actually, from Marseilles. What is there to see in Dubai tonight?” And the lady was so proud and she smiled and she said, “Mr. Papain, you’re a lucky man, because tonight for you, we have La Perle by Franco Dragon.” And he said, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve seen like a thousand shows from Franco, and I used to work with Franco at the time, so I’m sure I’ve seen all of these scenes from the show. Do you have something else for me?” And she said, “Oh, well, if you stay until Monday, then we have Gizelle at the opera opera house, which is amazing.” “I know Gizelle, but I mean, you don’t have anything this week for me except La Perle?”. And the lady said, “No.” And then he said to me, “23 million tourists, 10 million residents, and only one show. You got a brilliant idea. There’s something we need to do here. Let’s do this Once Upon a Time in Dubai thing” and that’s another part of the creation of this project.
So it’s not only giving justice to this place, it’s also rational in terms of the market. The market is not mature yet, but it’s going to mature in a couple of years. The casinos are coming next year in Ras Al Khaimah, and this place is going, in my opinion, towards entertainment and there is not much offer to find a decent, proper venue. We had to fight a lot and where we’re playing is an amazing venue. It’s called The Agenda.
So, our investment is big on entertainment and this story, I think will appeal to anyone. The music is amazing. If we go back to the project itself, Nazim Khaled, the composer of Once Upon a Time in Dubai, has done all of the songs, from Ariana Grande to One Republic. He’s also really well known in Europe, in France he’s like number one. He’s worked with so many artists. Nazim did all of the songs with his team, and I encourage you to check Once Upon a Time in Dubai on YouTube or Spotify.
Estelle Cooper: My final question for you is, what do you hope for audiences to carry with them after the final curtain call?
Stéphane Boukris: I think they will laugh. I think they will cry. I think they will be transported even if they know Dubai. Well, we’ll have plenty of tourists next week because it’s the tourist season, but I think they’ll fall even more in love with Dubai because I think it depicts the city quite well and its promises for sure. I think it’s going to immortalize for good this city, what we’re trying to do, and that’s what I told his excellency, when I came to see him with the project. I said, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, but Burj Khalifa, as much as I love it, will never go to Barcelona. It will never go to Madrid. It will never go to London, and not to Paris or to New York. But maybe a musical, if we’re good enough, with Once Upon a Time in Dubai someday, soon enough in another not-too-long-distance future, you will see Once Upon a Time in Dubai on Broadway, West End, in Shanghai, in Las Vegas, I don’t know where, but maybe you’ll see Once Upon a Time in Dubai. It will do great things for the UAE. So it’s the most powerful soft weapon that has been developed so far for the UAE. So the path for this project is three steps. The first one is starting in exactly one week at The Agenda. Then we have two directions. The first one is touring with the project but also to stay as a permanent attraction in Dubai.
And the final step, as I mentioned before, is to have first, of course, the recording, but then the final the ultimate ambition, having a movie like The Greatest Showman or Grease. Grease actually started as a musical on stage before being a movie with Olivia Newton John. It was on stage for a couple of years and then it was adapted. So our dream and our ambition is that we can have Once Upon a Time in Dubai as a movie in like three, five years.
I think really well we’re blessed because we have an opportunity, there’s a demand and we have a strong product that people seem to like. So, we’ll have the final answer in a week, but so far, yeah, we’re really privileged to do this. It feels like pioneering, you know, being the first to do something. So, as I always say, there’ll be many other musicals hopefully, but this is the first and it will remain for history the first musical in the region. So, that’s exciting.
Estelle Cooper: It’s going to be monumental, for sure
Stéphane Boukris: Thank you so much. We’re doing everything that we can to make it a success. I have personally, you know, put my energy, time, money, love, soul to make it something meaningful. And you know the story of Dubai for the past 20 years was like people in Saudi right now. People come like mercenaries trying to make as much money as they can and they leave. And now more and more people are staying. And in my case, I didn’t take the money. I invested my money to make something incredible that to give back.
I’m not a builder, otherwise I would have built a tower or something. I don’t know how to do this, but I know how to do music. So that’s why I went wanted to bring, in French we say, “to bring your small stone to the big building” to bring your your own stuff to great things
Once Upon a Time in Dubai premiers Saturday, 20th December 2025 at The Agenda, on Abdullah Omran Taryam Street. Tickets are available here through Fever, so get ready to be swept away by Dubai’s first-ever original musical!