Theater News

Huang, Hwang, Sher, Yazbeck to Collaborate on Bruce Lee: Journey to the West

Bartlett Sher
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
Bartlett Sher
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

Director Bartlett Sher, composer-lyricist David Yazbek, librettist David Henry Hwang, and choreographer Dou Dou Huang will collaborate on Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, a new musical that is targeted to open on Broadway during the 2010-2011 season.

The show tells the story of martial arts legend Bruce Lee’s difficult road to success, as figures from Chinese mythology follow his quest and the Monkey King, a beloved warrior god, becomes his heavenly ally.

Sher is currently represented on Broadway by South Pacific, for which he received a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Yazbek is a two-time Tony nominee for The Full Monty and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Hwang won the Tony, among other honors, for M Butterfly and was most recently represented on stage by the autobiographical play Yellow Face. Huang is the artistic director of the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble.

The show will be produced by Elephant Eye Theatrical, which is involved with the current Playwrights Horizons’ production of Saved and is developing another Broadway-bound musical The Addams Family.