AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review - Soul of Shaolin - Martial Arts Spectacle Tells Charming Tale

New York Times

Duck! These Monks Have Feet and Fists of Fury
“Soul of Shaolin,” a Chinese martial-arts pageant, ultimately seems a pretty cheap enterprise

New York Daily News

High-flying 'Shaolin' a missed chop-ortunity
To borrow from "A Chorus Line," "Shaolin" rates as follows - Martial arts: 10. Magic: 3. The story, told through dance, acrobatics and kung fu, concerns a ...

amNY New York City Theater

Theater Review of Soul of Shaolin
Can someone please explain why “Soul of Shaolin” (pronounced “SheOW LEEN”), a Chinese martial arts spectacle, is on Broadway? Wouldn’t it be better suited for an athletic arena or perhaps even a monastery? Well, we suppose that some form of temporary programming has to fill Broadway’s theaters after this month’s massive parade of closing shows.

New York Post

Everybody's Kung Fu fighting on Broadway
Sure, , meditation and spiritual harmony get their due in "Soul of Shaolin," the Chinese martial-arts extravaganza that opened...

Associated Press

'Soul of Shaolin' mixes sentiment and strength
It's sort of Bruce Lee -- with more noble aspirations.

Variety

Review: Soul of Shaolin
Like a swift kick to the head, "Soul of Shaolin" is a rushed, expertly trained assault that leaves you slightly confused afterward. Battered audiences will be able to discern enough continuity to get the kidnapped-child-becoming-a-warrior plot straight, but the Chinese government's first attack on Broadway is a little weak on storytelling and variety.

Back Stage

Soul of Shaolin reviewed by David Sheward
With the current economic downturn shuttering Broadway shows left and right, we can expect to see more attractions like Soul of Shaolin, a martial-arts spectacular more suited to a theme park in Shanghai than the Great White Way.

TheaterMania

Review: Soul of Shaolin
This Chinese martial arts spectacular boasts truly impressive Kung Fu fighting, but suffers from a lack of dramatic conflict.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: Soul of Shaolin
An army of impossibly muscled, singularly focused human fighting machines? Absolutely. An old man who radiates austere authority one moment and pinpoint pugilistic accuracy the next? Sure. A young boy, 10 years old at most, who performs ...

CurtainUp

Review: Soul of Shaolin
I can't think of a better way to celebrate the Lunar New Year (the year of the Ox) than with this extraordinary and agile company of 30 Chinese Nationals

 

New York Times

All Alone in a Crowded Country Home
It feels right that the proportions are all wrong in Sam Mendes’s seriously comic production of “The Cherry Orchard.”

New York Daily News

'Cherry' blossoms at BAM
With talk of reform everywhere, it's an ideal moment to mount "The Cherry Orchard," now in bloom at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Anton Chekhov's last play is, after all, about the resistance to change

New York Post

Play's ripe for the picking
The production of "The Cherry Or chard" that opened this week is as much an act of diplomacy as the ater. This first entry of...

Associated Press

Bridge Project births a splendid 'Cherry Orchard'
The old order passes with remarkable poignancy in Sam Mendes' splendid, stylish revival of "The Cherry Orchard," the first production of the director's laudable Bridge Project, a new attempt at trans-Atlantic theater cooperation.

Wall Street Journal

Chekhov's Fingerprints
Dancing at Lughnasa in FL; Cherry Orchard at BAM

Bloomberg.com

Mendes Gets Symbolic in Transatlantic `Cherry Orchard' at BAM: John Simon
The Bridge Project, an admirable venture between London and New York, gets going this week with Chekhov’s last play, “The Cherry Orchard,” directed by Sam Mendes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Variety

Review: The Cherry Orchard
...but Sam Mendes' robust staging of Stoppard's witty new adaptation boasts strong ensemble work, centered by the gravitas and emotional nuance of Simon Russell Beale's riveting Lopakhin.

Back Stage

The Cherry Orchard reviewed by David Sheward
"People shouldn't go to plays. They should look in the mirror at their gray lives," says the confused, disheartened Madame Ranevskaya in Tom Stoppard's compassionate yet brutally realistic adaptation of The Cherry Orchard.

TheaterMania

Review: The Cherry Orchard
Simon Rusell Beale and Sinead Cusack are heartbreaking in Sam Mendes' often disappointing production of Anton Chekhov's melancholic drama.

The Guardian Performing Arts Blog

Alexis Soloski: Mendes's Cherry Orchard gives a view of the Bridge
The Bridge Project's vision of Anglo-American collaboration has finally been realised in Sam Mendes's production. But the differences are more interesting than the similarities.

&nbps;

There's something exceedingly charming about large portions of Soul of Shaolin, the Chinese kung fu spectacular that opened on Broadway last night at the Marriott Marquis Theatre.

It may seem odd to consider a show that features nearly three dozen men expertly trained martial arts professionals from Shaolin Temple "charming," but consider the story that's told in "Soul." The show's a fairy tale of sorts about a woman (Wang Yazhi) in ancient China who is separated from her baby son during a time of war. Na Luo (Zhang Zhigang), a monk at the temple, finds the infant, Hui Guang, who's raised at the temple and learns to be an accomplished master of Shaolin Kung Fu himself. Eventually, mother and son are reunited, but only after each has taken a journey filled with hardship.

Underscored with a wildly eclectic recorded soundtrack, the story is told with no dialogue, and there's only scant narration (heard in what sounds to be a taped voiceover). Audiences will have no problem, however, following the tale, which unfolds through a series of sequences featuring intricate Kung Fu choreography and acrobatics (from Liu Tongbiao, who's also directed). The most dazzling work in "Soul" actually comes during the production's opening moments when the artists whirl and leaps across and around the stage as the warriors who are attacking the province near the temple. Many of the men wield weaponry – spears and scimitars with mylar blades that whir ominously, whips that produce short popping bursts when used, sounding like firecrackers. These aural effects (and Song Tianjiao's lighting design that shifts in fragmented staccato bursts) help make the first minutes of "Soul" simply heart-pounding.

After this, "Soul" settles into a sort of elaborate story theater mode (a sense enhanced by the backdrops and set pieces from Xie Tongmiao that look like ancient Chinese illustrations). Theatergoers see Hui Guang as a preteen (an enormously appealing and exceptionally talented Wang Sen), an adolescent (Dong Yingbo) and young man (a commanding Yu Fei). At times the show beguiles (particularly when a trio of teenage monks – really scallywags – is at play). At others, it astounds by virtue of the feats that the performers accomplish. Fei, when rescuing a woman in distress – whom he doesn't know is his mother – shatters two swords on his head. Another monk manages to send a threaded needle through a sheet of glass, puncturing a balloon. Perhaps the most amazing acrobatic feat, accomplished by young Sen and several of the adults are back flips that are accomplished not with their hands, but rather with their heads.

The art of Shaolin Kung Fu has been seen in any number of films, on television and recently at the opening of the Beijing Summer Olympics, and it's even more impressive to see it performed live than it is on screen. And when these artists' (or more appropriately athletes'?) routines are used to tell this slight story of love and overcoming obstacles, well, it is, in a word, charming.

---- Andy Propst

---

Soul of Shaolin continues through January 31 at the Marriott Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). Tickets are $50-$95. Performance schedule varies for complete information and ticketing visit: www.ticketmaster.com or www.SoulofShaolin.com. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 212-307-4100.

Printer-friendly version

 

It's been and is a weekend of heavy theatergoing to shows with shortish runs. I've caught two that really will disappear if you blink, and I think they're both worth mentioning, so herewith mini-reviews….

At the Zipper, Dan Guerrero will offer one more performance of his solo show ¡Gaytino! tonight – Sunday, January 11 – at 7pm. This is a sort of Chicano version of Billy Crystal's one-man play. In it, Guerrero charmingly pays tribute to his father, singer/songwriter Lalo Guerrero and boyhood friend Charles (better known today by his birth name Carlos) Almarez, who, like the younger Guerrero, re-embraced his heritage in adulthood, and became a world-class painter.

Guerrero's play charts his boyhood in East Los Angeles, his forays into the theater world of New York in the late 1960s and mid-1970s, and his later success as a producer back in California. Along the way, he shares his love of musical theater (his rendition of "Spanish Rose" from Bye Bye Birdie) is priceless, some fascinating tales about gay life in the days before Stonewall, and some juicy show biz gossip.

Although there were some rough spots in the show during its first performance, and though the piece would benefit from a sure-handed dramaturg who might help shape the material beyond a mere chronological biography, Guerrero is so winning and the stories so fresh and touching, that it's worth a look and hopefully will return to New York stages in a longer run.

You also have just one more chance to catch Jester of Tonga at P.S. 122 (tomorrow, Monday January 12 at 9:30p.m.). This piece, written and performed by Joseph Silovsky, is something of a multimedia shaggy dog story based on the exceedingly timely tale of Jesse Dean Bogdonoff, a banker charged with investing millions of dollars for the government of Tonga; money that eventually was lost, sending the country into chaos. (The SEC complaint against Bogdonoff can be found here.

Silovsky's play is notable on a number of levels. First there's the presence of the robot Stanley, who plays the financier. There's also Silovsky's use of shadow puppets, video and incorporation of tangential stories that make "Jester" not only a tale for today,but also an exceptionally amusing one.

---- Andy Propst

Printer-friendly version

Washington Post

'West Side Story' at the National Theatre
This 'West Side Story' Is Fluent In the Language of the Heart

Baltimore Sun

Revved-up 'West Side Story' gets a trial run in Washington
The Broadway-bound revival of West Side Story that opened last night in Washington has dirt on its shins and blood under its fingernails.

Variety

Review: West Side Story
...a sincere and energetic production that still dazzles with Jerome Robbins' riveting choreography and the landmark Bernstein-Sondheim score. It could be the perfect tonic for Broadway's economic blues.

Potomac Stages

Review: West Side Story