Its Karate Kid - THE MUSICAL!!!

[HedCold]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.itskaratekidthemusical.com/">http://www.itskaratekidthemusical.com/</a><!-- m -->

i'm going to this dec 11 with friends. its going to rock. listen to the mp3s. i like the way of the fist the best

[drusilla]

i'd rather see raodhouse with taimak in a blonde wig

[Keyser Soze]

wow that is awful

[HedCold]

yea it really is. i can't wait!

[Goatweed]

Roadhouse was a pretty good movie.

[2 tired 2 give N F]

Is Arpi workin there?

[Keyser Soze]

lights on, lights off

[TheGMANN]

Its not the same without William Zabka

[Arpikarhu]

lights on, lights off

i must admit, its a sweet gig.

[drusilla]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/intern/karate">http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ern/karate</a><!-- m -->



By The Intern
Page 2

NEW YORK -- How many curtains went up in Manhattan on Saturday night? A hundred? Five hundred? A thousand?


Some will launch careers. Some will win Tonys. Most will involve Mathew Broderick at some point. But I guarantee there was only one place where you could run into Ralph Macchio's buddy in the bathroom line: "It's Karate, Kid! The Musical."


"I called Ralph and told him about this show, and he didn't believe me," said a complete stranger to my friend Matt during the intermission. "He said, 'What is this, am I on the radio? I'm being punk'd, right?'"


Well here's another guarantee: Had Ralph come out to New York from Long Island, he would have been checking for hidden cameras and trucker hats ... the entire time.


It says a lot about the surrealism of the show when the most conventional thing was the theater. It took place at Teatro La Tea on the second floor of a building on Manhattan's lower east side. By my count, there were 67 seats in all -- four rows of 13, then three rows of five on each side of the stage. The stage itself consisted of a chain-link fence, some orange construction netting, multiple flourescents and a few fog machines. Picture a youth group putting together a haunted house. Like I said, this was the least ridiculous thing.


The most -- and if you've seen the web site, this won't be a shock -- was this was not a straight adaptation of the movie, and I mean "straight" literally. It's as if Travis Kramer, who wrote the show when he was at Fordham, flipped a coin to determine sexual preferences, and only Ali and Mrs. Larusso came up heads. Like Daniel said, "Hey, it's the '80s." Do whatever you want to do. But it did create one fundamental problem with the plot. If Johnny is ... you know ... and Daniel is also ... you know ... then why does Johnny want to pummel Daniel for hanging out with his ex? And why were they together in the first place? One of the words in the glossary may have explained this. I can't print it, but it means "a female that enjoys the often exclusive company of gay men." If that's the case, who was he jealous of, Daniel or Ali? No comprende.


Looking past that, the premise was initially too absurd not to like. Things like a drunken, drug-addled Mrs. Larusso meeting Ali and saying "Lez be friends?" (Okay, maybe she was a tails, too), or Mr. Miyagi dispensing twisted similes to Daniel such as "Karate is like lotion ... always yes." Then there was the Evil Sensei, who was fantastic (not to mention having the most over-the-top pair of colored-on eyebrows since Uncle Leo). His bio says it all. "Thomas is happy to be joining the cast after his long run of two Jesus Christ Superstar Europeans tours as Pontus Pilot." How's that for range? If he was as good in Europe, we may have the next Bo Jackson on our hands. When he was introducing himself at the end of Act One via song, ("I'm the evil sensei" / "I run an evil dojo." / "I teach evil karate." / "I'm evil as a mofo.") it made me wish John Kreese was in more than three scenes in the movie.


That said, as time went on, I found myself laughing more at the idea that this show existed rather than the show itself. It became like Stifler in "American Wedding." A hundred variations on the same dirty joke. Ali's frustrated with Daniel. Johnny's friends want to beat down Daniel. Lucille sold the station wagon for $75 worth of crack money. I get it. I get it. Outside of Miyagi, Daniel and Ali drinking 40s of Olde English out of brown bags while Miyagi lamented about the loss of his wife, I don't remember anything about act two. Well, one thing.


I got most of my enjoyment in the after intermission watching this stern-looking middle-aged guy in the third row. He must have been related to somebody in the cast, because this was not the kind of thing you stumble upon coming back from the Olive Garden. This guy looked like Steven Spielberg, but carried himself like Neil's father in "Dead Poets Society." You know, the disapproving dad whose son performs in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," then gets punished so severely for it so he blows his head off. In short, he wasn't amused, and I thought this was hilarious. If Freddie Fernandez isn't played by somebody named James DeRosa next weekend, we'll know what happened.


I couldn't really blame him. Call it "Weekend at Bernie's" Syndrome. You're essentially being asked to laugh at the same joke for two hours. Once it's not funny anymore, nothing else will be. Instead of the dead guy that everyone thinks is alive, it's "The Karate Kid," but everybody's a pervert. Take it or leave it. For some people, like my friend Matt, it worked the entire two hours.


"I loved it. I'm going to tell all my friends to come see it."


But for me -- and maybe it was the expectations that came with eight hours of driving -- I could only think one thing.


"Really?"


"It's Karate, Kid! The Musical" is running at New York's Teatro La Tea until Dec. 18 ... or something like that.

[Galt]

I like the intern's stuff. He's real good.

[drusilla]

i do enjoy the little break i take to read their pages each day

[Galt]

I would just like to point out, that I discovered Bill Simmons in the world. Me.

[drusilla]

ok

[Galt]

Sure, he was writing in Boston for five years before I'd heard of him, but I was reading him before he was on ESPN.

I've also recently discovered BBC's The Office first in the world.

[HedCold]

this saturday! can't wait!

[drusilla]

no no, i believe you

i really do

[crx girl]

I've also recently discovered BBC's The Office first in the world.

yeah, i never heard of that before

[HedCold]

the play wasn't that great but suprisingly entertaining. it wasn't as one joke oriented as the intern made it seem. some slow parts in the beginning but it picked up in the second half. i give it a solid 2 1/2 stars.

i'm also easily entertained