“Bruce Lee” the Musical

By Jen | Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 1 Comment

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bruce lee imgone Bruce Lee the Musical

When I heard that a Broadway musical based on Bruce Lee’s life was being created, I thought it was just a bad idea (similar to a deranged barber going on a murderous, revengful spree…a musical about the 4 seasons…Xanadu…need I say more?)…ok, I’ve been wrong before! I was most impressed to see the production team is quite impressive, with high class Broadway talent.

David Henry Hwang is going to be writing the book for the musical of Bruce Lee’s life. David is such a stunning storyteller, he wrote the script for the Gwenyth Paltrow movie Posession, as well as many plays on Broadway, and won the Tony award as the first Asian American to win for Best Play, M Butterfly.
Bartlett Sher will be director!! Just won the Tony award for Best Director for the current Broadway production of South Pacific…I am a *huge* fan! I loooved his productions of Light in the Piazza, and the Met Opera’s production of the Barber of Seville, as well as his quietly touching production of the Broadway play Awake and Sing. I can imagine a lush, minimalistically modern but beautiful production of…Bruce Lee’s life? I am only excited to see what Bartlett will think up!
David Yazbeck is writing the music and lyrics. Previous fame from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (which I loved!!), the Full Monty musical (honestly, not my fave)…the music of Yazbeck plus Sher’s direction will definitely be worth seeing.

The Bruce Lee musical will be the story of his life intertwined with Chinese folklore of the Monkey King…mixing Chinese pop and culture, I can’t even imagine what this musical will be like.

For casting… B.D. Wong comes to mind…my personal pick would be Darren Lee because he is such an amazing dancer (anyone see an Asian guy dance in the background in the movie Chicago with Catherine Zeta-Jones? That’s Darren!). What do you think? Hokey or brilliant?

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