Sher, Yazbek and Hwang Team Up For Broadway's 'Bruce Lee'

Bartlett Sher, who has received great acclaim as well as a Tony nomination and Drama Desk Award as Best Director of A Musical for the current Lincoln Center Theater production of South Pacific, will direct the new musical BRUCE LEE: JOURNEY TO THE WEST, to be produced on Broadway by Elephant Eye Theatrical.  Joining Sher are Tony nominees David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) composing the music and writing the lyrics and David Henry Hwang (M Butterfly, Yellow Face) penning the book.  Choreography will be created by Dou Dou Huang, the Artistic Director of the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble, referred to by Time Magazine as a Chinese "national sensation" who has "reinvented mainland dance for the 21st century."   BRUCE LEE: JOURNEY TO THE WEST is targeted for the 2010-2011 Broadway season.

BRUCE LEE: JOURNEY TO THE WEST tells of the martial arts legend'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. In a show fusing sources as diverse as martial arts, Chinese Opera, modern dance, and pop music, Bruce struggles to master his skills, purify his spirit and forge a link to unite East and West.

Bartlett Sher directed the current Broadway revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center, which has just received 11 Tony Award nominations, including Best Director of a Musical. He's also just won a Drama Desk Award for his direction.  He received a 2006 Tony nomination for his direction of Awake and Sing! by Clifford Odets and 2005 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle nominations for his direction of The Light in the Piazza. In 2006, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera with Rossini's The Barber of Seville. As the artistic director of the Intiman Theatre, he has directed Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth and Our Town;

Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters, the world premieres of Prayer for My Enemy and Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth and Our Town; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters, the world premieres of Prayer for My Enemy and Singing Forest  as well The Dying Gaul; and the world premiere of Nickel and Dimed. Sher received the Callaway Award for the off-Broadway production of Cymbeline. His direction of Harley Granville-Barker's Waste won the 2000 OBIE for best play. He serves on the Board of Theatre Communications Group, and has held positions as associate artistic director at Hartford Stage and company director at The Guthrie Theater under his mentor, Garland Wright.

David Yazbek began his career writing for David Letterman's late night television show where he and the writing team won an Emmy in 1986. Yazbek has released three rock albums and has written many songs and background music for children's television shows, including many on The Disney Channel. He also wrote the theme song to the children's television game show Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? featuring the musical group Rockapella. Yazbek has written and produced tracks for the band XTC, Spacehog, Tito Puente, The Persuasions, Queen, and Sarah Saturday. Collaborating with librettist Terrance McNally, Yazbek wrote the music and lyrics for The Full Monty. Yazbek was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music. In 2002 he was a contributing lyricist for the musical Bombay Dreams .Yazbek also wrote the music and lyrics to the musical adaptation of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, for which he received Tony and Drama Desk nominations.

David Henry Hwang was awarded the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and John Gassner Awards for his Broadway debut, M. Butterfly, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. For his play Golden Child, he received a 1998 Tony nomination and a 1997 Obie Award. His new book for the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song earned him his third Tony nomination in 2003.  Hwang's most recent play Yellow Face, premiered at the  Mark Taper Forum, as a co-production with East West Players, and had its Off-Broadway premiere at Joseph Papp's Public Theater.  It was recently named a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He also penned the English language libretto for an operatic adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with music by the Korean composer Unsuk Chin, which received its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera in 2007. Hwang served as book writer for Disney's 2006 Broadway production of Tarzan and as co-book writer for Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida, also produced by Disney. Current projects include an adaptation of the 1986 David Cronenberg film The Fly, in collaboration with Placido Domingo.  

Dou Dou Huang is the Artistic Director and Principal Dancer of the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble and has been at the helm of the ensemble since 1995. He has been designated a "First Class National Artist" in China, a highly coveted consideration, and his performances, as well as choreography, have been acclaimed all over the world. Combining ancient, classical and contemporary traditions and techniques he is responsible for moving Chinese dance into the 21st century. Time Magazine described him as a Chinese "national sensation" who has "reinvented mainland dance". Some of his most notable works have been: 'Dancing Dancing I' in which he combined modern multi-media, modern acoustics and optic technology with dramatic performance, performed as part of the International Opera

Master Class performances at the Shanghai Conservatory, and 'Golden Door and Silver Threads", a large-scale performance which won the Grand Prize at the Second National Minority Literary Festival. Dou Dou Huang and Jacques d'Amboise held a joint performance at the Shanghai Grand Theatre called 'Dancing into the Future'. Dou Dou starred in the performance "Chinese Gong Fu" in the closing dance ceremonies at the Athens Olympic Games. In 2005, Dou Dou Huang was awarded a scholarship from the Asian Cultural Association which has lead to the opportunity for further study and research in the United States.

Elephant Eye Theatrical was formed by producers Stuart Oken, Michael Leavitt and Five Cent Productions in late 2005,  and is a theatrical development and Production Company dedicated to the creation of new book musicals for Broadway. In addition to Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, EET is currently developing The Addams Family, a new musical based on characters, cartoons and sketches by the legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, (the librettists for Jersey Boys,) music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party) and direction and design by Improbable Theater founders Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, who have recently received wide acclaim for their work on the Philip Glass opera Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera.   EET plans to premiere The Addams Family in the 2009-2010 Broadway season, preceded by an out-of-town tryout.  EET is also involved in the Playwrights Horizons production of the new musical Saved, now in previews. 

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.