HomeAAPI Actors'Kung Fu Panda' Writers Bring a Kung Fu Musical to the Stage
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‘Kung Fu Panda’ Writers Bring a Kung Fu Musical to the Stage

What happens when you combine Kung Fu and musical theater? The creators of Dragon Sprig Phoenix Rise are hoping to find out.

Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is a Kung Fu musical created in collaboration with Kung Fu Panda screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, Director Chen Shi-Zheng, featuring a score by artists Sia and The Haxan Cloak. The show will premiere at The Shed, a multi-million dollar art complex in NYC’s recently opened Hudson Yards. According to The New York Times, the project has taken three years to come to fruition.

According to theshed.org, the musical is about a secret sect of Kung Fu warriors in Flushing, Queens who protect the power of eternal life. The twin descendants of the sect’s grand master must protect the sect, and the world, from a powerful enemy.

“I wanted to create a modern myth about immigrants in America and how they survive,” Chen Shi-Zheng, the show’s director, told The New York Times. “When I came to this country in the late ’80s, it was cool to be different. But lately I’ve been feeling so much hostility, and that kind of subconsciously went into the plot.”

Mr. Chen is well known for his production of The Peony Pavilion in 1999, for which he earned International acclaim. He is also an avid fan of Kung Fu.

Mr. Chen was born in Changsha, China and trained in baguazhang, a form of Kung Fu, in his youth. He carried his passion for Kung Fu to NYU in 1987 where he received an MFA in experimental drama. When pitching the musical to Alex Poots, the CEO and artistic director of The Shed, Mr. Chen used a clip of a young Bruce Lee in 1964 auditioning for the television series The Green Hornet.

It took Mr. Chen more than a year to find performers for the show’s multidisciplinary ambitions, a combination of musical theater and martial arts. He decided to put together a cast of contemporary dancers given a crash curriculum in martial arts training, aerial choreography, and singing lessons.

The result? A high energy performance with pyrotechnics swinging performers in enormous physical scale much like the likes of the now-closed Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”.  According to AllArtsTV 80 feet high aerial choreography will be used in the 17,000 square foot space called The McCourt.

The show opens officially on June 27 but previews start on June 22. It is recommended for ages seven and up.

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