The Karate Kid - PreBroadway in St. Louis Reactions- Page 2

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/31/22 at 3:44pm

Hamilfan2 said: "Fwiw London audiences seem to respond more positively to these types of shows. American Psycho, Ghost, Groundhog Day all did great in London and then couldn’t find an audience once they came to NYC."

The major caveat to your point above is that GROUNDHOG DAY and AMERICAN PSYCHO were both produced in limited engagements at subscription theatres in London. They had commercial transfers on Broadway. IIRC the reviews were somewhat better in London than NYC, but not raves.

BACK TO THE FUTURE is a huge title, but it's not one that immediately jumps out as "this should be a musical." Whereas if someone tells you they're making a musical of TOOTSIE or MEAN GIRLS or DEVIL WEARS PRADA or MATILDA, a lot of people would say "oh yeah I see that being a fun musical!"

[blaxx]

Posted: 5/31/22 at 9:40pm

80% percent of movie to musicals flop. At least on Broadway, nostalgia doesn't sell alone on recognizable brands.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 6/1/22 at 10:45am

Opening Night is tonight and there was a feature in NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/theater/karate-kid-musical.html

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 8:51am

Couldnt find any reviews or anything online :/

Also, I hate that logo/branding. 

[perfectliar]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 3:35pm

WldKingdomHM said: "We need Teen Witch-The Musical"

It exists! There's a studio cast recording from about 15 years ago, and Lauren Patten does the "Top That!" rap.

[OhHiii]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 4:25pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Hamilfan2 said: "Fwiw London audiences seem to respond more positively to these types of shows. American Psycho, Ghost, Groundhog Day all did great in London and then couldn’t find an audience once they came to NYC."

The major caveat to your point above is that GROUNDHOG DAY and AMERICAN PSYCHO were both produced in limited engagements at subscription theatres in London. They had commercial transfers on Broadway. IIRC the reviews were somewhat better in London than NYC, but not raves."

While yes, both were financial catastrophes, Groundhog Day basically got wall to wall raves on Broadway. American Psycho...did not.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 4:33pm

blaxx said: "80% percent of movie to musicals flop. At least on Broadway, nostalgia doesn't sell alone on recognizable brands."

Though isn't that about the same rate as musicals that are not adapted from a movie? I would be very surprised if the ratio is any higher no matter what the source material is.

[OhHiii]

Posted: 6/3/22 at 11:55am

AEA AGMA SM said: "blaxx said: "80% percent of movie to musicals flop. At least on Broadway, nostalgia doesn't sell alone on recognizable brands."

Though isn't that about the same rate as musicals that are not adapted from a movie? I would be very surprised if the ratio is any higher no matter what the source material is."

It's exactly the same rate of success for ALL Broadway shows. Only 20-25% of Broadway shows recoup. Dislike movie musicals all you want, but their rate of success is not dissimilar from the overall.

[blaxx]

Posted: 6/5/22 at 1:15am

OhHiii said: "AEA AGMA SM said: "blaxx said: "80% percent of movie to musicals flop. At least on Broadway, nostalgia doesn't sell alone on recognizable brands."

Though isn't that about the same rate as musicals that are not adapted from a movie? I would be very surprised if the ratio is any higher no matter what the source material is."

It's exactly the same rate of success for ALL Broadway shows. Only 20-25% of Broadway shows recoup. Dislike movie musicals all you want, but their rate of success is not dissimilar from the overall."

That's my point.

Banking on an original musical or a nostalgia trip gets you similar financial results. Adapting a blockbuster from yesteryear will not guarantee success from the name alone, so questioning all these adaptations that usually go from ok to dismal is fair.

[Bryce 2]

Posted: 6/7/22 at 11:26am

Bumping since I'm seeing it tonight! Will post my thoughts after

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 6/9/22 at 1:45am

The St. Louis Dispatch's theater critic, Calvin Wilson, did a preview piece about ''The Karate Kid: The Musical''  on May 25, and it opened June 1 at Stages St. Louis. A small handful of reviews have appeared since then, but has anyone seen the Dispatch's review? Or did we miss it? If so, please post a link. Thanks!

Updated On: 6/9/22 at 01:45 AM

[rawrali]

Posted: 6/9/22 at 10:47am

Here is a review from a StL theatre goer whose reviews I always enjoy reading. I think she posts here sometimes?

https://snoopstheatrethoughts.com/2022/06/03/stages-looks-to-the-future-and-the-past-with-promising-crowd-pleasing-karate-kid/

[beagle]

Posted: 6/9/22 at 7:00pm

I'm emerging from lurkerdom to thank you for posting my review, rawrali!

I also want to add that, as for the Post-Dispatch, they sent out an email a while back to local arts organizations announcing that they will not be publishing arts reviews anymore, apparently because they don't generate a lot of traffic on their site. They will still be posting feature articles about arts topics, however, including theatre. Here's a story about it:

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/post-dispatch-to-end-arts-reviews-as-the-rft-restarts-them-37679452

I'm not particularly fond of this decision, and neither are a lot of theatre people in St. Louis, but sadly there isn't much we can do about it. 

Updated On: 6/9/22 at 07:00 PM

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 6/21/22 at 1:36am

Feature with scenes from the dress rehearsal

[hamiltonboys]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 11:54pm

Saw this tonight! First off, STAGES new theater is absolutely gorgeous.

The show itself was fun! The actors, set, and choreography were all Broadway ready. I really enjoyed the direction- the scene transitions were all very smooth. As stated by others, the songs need some work, though. I think that will be its biggest hurdle towards longevity if it does make it to Broadway. 

Also, it's not advertised anywhere, but there is a rush! Students can get up to 2 tickets for $10 each and general rush is $39. Our tickets were the second to last row of the mezz, but it's a relatively small theater so there's not a bad seat in the house.

[brendcat]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 1:00am

Agree that the KPAC theater is wonderful and a great space to see the show. I’m not a big fan of the movie, but still enjoyed the musical. I thought Kate Baldwin was a standout and I wish she was around and sang more. But since she plays the mom and it is not her story, that would sidetrack things.  Rest of the cast is good and the simple set worked well and was versatile. The real eye catching design for me was the rival dojo soaked in red light and cool costumes and showcases the top notch ensemble. I didn’t find the songs very memorable but might need a 2nd time to let them soak in. I think the big karate fight is troublesome… to keep the actors safe, my fourth row seat showed  the lack of any close contact or blows. That really lowers the stakes of the scene when it looks that staged. And doing some of the “slow motion” choreo didn’t help. I didn’t get to see Rocky on Broadway…maybe that was an issue there as well?

[hamiltonboys]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:10am

Despite how great Kate is, I felt the mom role in general was too expanded. Giving her the opening number was a bit of a bizarre choice. Her song in the second act really slowed down the pace.

I thought the karate scenes at Cobra Kai and in the tournament were done really well. The first few times Daniel got beat up by Johnny, on the other hand, didn't work as well and ended up being more comedic than intended.

[YvanEhtNioj]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:17am

hamiltonboys said: "Despite how great Kate is, I felt the mom role in general was too expanded. Giving her the opening number was a bit of a bizarre choice.
"

Someone above mentioned they are rewriting the opening number, so they probably realized that too (because yes, that is weird)

 

[rawrali]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 12:49pm

I saw yesterday's matinee performance. I agree with pretty much everyone else. I'm going to be super picky in this post but really, I walked away having enjoyed my time. I've certainly seen worse shows. The problem is that none of the songs were particularly memorable. Ali's song has stuck in my head a bit but not the others. I almost think Daniel needs another song? Perhaps at the beginning - something that's not about Ali or karate but about him. 

Kate Baldwin was of course great, but the expanded role of the mom just wasn't really needed. The opening scene reminded me of the opening of Footloose, minus the religion. The later mom scenes felt like they were trying to be "Anybody Have a Map?" or "So Big / So Small" from Dear Evan Hansen but missed the mark.

I liked the idea of Ali not being sure of who she wanted to be, but I feel like there needed to be something else there. She doesn't want to go to USC like her parents, but what else? What are her interests beyond Daniel? I feel like maybe her bedroom set could have given a hint of something else - maybe instead of all of the posters of Patrick Swayze and Grease and other appropriate white, rich-girl interests, there could have been a photo of like, River Phoenix or someone a little edgier but still time period appropriate (?? who that would be I don't know). Or some cool original art or something? Like, rather than USC does she want to go to Berkeley or NYU or what? Give us a little hint of some additional personality she may have hiding.

I thought Jovanni Sy did a great job with Miyagi. Despite the heavy accent I could always understand him. Other actors may have difficulty with that - and it may depend on the sound quality and acoustics of the theatre it plays in. I thought they could have stayed just a minute more in the anniversary scene and really drive home the point that he was fighting for the US while his wife and unborn child were dying in an internment camp.

The idea of Kreese telling the Cobra Kai kids to befriend Daniel to "get in his head" was kind of bizarre and fell flat. I don't remember it from the movie but maybe it was there? In the musical, Johnny was mildly friendly to Daniel once, but that was the extent of it and I didn't see that Daniel was fazed by it at all. Make it something more or cut it.

The high points were absolutely the set and lighting design and the quality of the actors. I thought everyone sounded great from start to finish. I was front row center of the mezzanine and agree that some of the fight choreography could be a little better, but overall it didn't bother me too much. I thought the choreography was good overall and I liked the conceit of the "spirits."

[Cori2016]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 2:08pm

I completely agree about Kreese telling Johnny to befriend Daniel- didn't add to the story at all. I also didn't like that that was the closing of act 1, especially since there wasn't much of an impact plot wise. I thought it would make more sense for act 1 to close with "Method to His Madness" (the wax on/wax off song). Of course, the show I saw was the 2nd preview so it's possible things I saw have been changed since then.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 3:27pm

Kate from TheatreIsLife just offered her review of ''The Karate Kid'' musical ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Ip-9YQJfg

[hamiltonboys]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 4:30pm

The first things she loved were the score and the opening number... very interesting lol

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/25/22 at 4:38pm

For those who have seen it, are they still using the standard canned orchestra that Stages has been using for years, or did they finally break down and hire live musicians for this one?

[DaveyG]

Posted: 6/25/22 at 5:18pm

hamiltonboys said: "The first things she loved were the score and the opening number... very interesting lol"

I see her on TikTok frequently, and IMHO I think she has terrible taste. 

[veronicamae]

Posted: 6/25/22 at 8:52pm

AEA AGMA SM said: "For those who have seen it, are they still using the standard canned orchestra that Stages has been using for years, or did they finally break down and hire live musicians for this one?"

While I'm not sure there are NO canned instruments, there are at least some live - my friend is one of the keyboardists.