The Daily SHAG: Cole Horibe as Bruce Lee

The Daily SHAG: Cole Horibe as Bruce Lee

Back in October, excitement was in the air when it was announced that Cole Horibe was chosen to play the legendary martial artist, Bruce Lee, in the world premiere of David Henry Hwang’s new play Kung Fu. The play, directed by Leigh Silverman, will premier in February of the upcoming year. So who exactly is this Cole Horibe you ask? He was a contestant on the ninth season of So You Think You Can Dance in the category of martial arts fusion. During Hwang’s search for the perfect Bruce Lee, Cole Horibe made quite the impression. “Cole’s electrifying martial arts and dance performances immediately riveted me,” explains Hwang. “He shared Bruce’s charisma and even resembled him physically. Later, in his auditions for Kung Fu, he brought the same raw talent to his acting that he’d shown so brilliantly in his dance. We feel incredibly blessed to have found in Cole a star who can bring a legend to life.” All of Horibe’s talent is perfect for the play which combines dance, martial arts, Chinese opera and drama to tell the tale of the martial arts icon. Original Article...

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CUNY TV’s ASIAN AMERICAN LIFE to Feature KUNG FU’s Cole Horibe Beginning 3/7

CUNY TV’s ASIAN AMERICAN LIFE to Feature KUNG FU’s Cole Horibe Beginning 3/7

CUNY TV’s monthly ASIAN AMERICAN LIFE series – recently nominated for a New York Emmy® Award for Best Public/Current/Community Affairs Series – returns in March with an all-new interview with actor Cole Horibe, star of David Henry Hwang’s Kung Fu, a new play about the late Bruce Lee, now in an extended engagement at New York City’s Signature Theatre. Hosted by Ernabel Demillo from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine – where Chinese artist Xu Bing’s monumental project, Phoenix, is hanging in the Nave – the episode premieres Friday, March 7 (2014) and is broadcast and cablecast at 10am, 3pm and 8:30pm; repeated Sunday 3/9 at noon; and returns Friday 3/21 at 10am, 3pm, and 8:30pm and Sunday 3/23 at noon on CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station. CUNY TV is broadcast over-the-air in the tri-state area on Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision/Optimum), Ch. 77 (RCN) and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). On and after March 7, the program can also be viewed online anytime on www.cuny.tv. The episode also features previously-aired “Best Of” segments that feature playwright Hwang; author and Pulitzer finalist Susan Choi; jewelry designer Nancy Leung of Leungdesigns; fashion bloggers Grace Chang (“Mama is Haute”), Deanne Yee (“Dream Sequins”) and Cornell University professor and author Minh-Ha Pham; and photojournalist Corky Lee, who has chronicled the Asian American Experience for four decades. Series correspondents are Kyung Yoon and Paul Lin. Original Article...

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So You Think You Can Dance Star Cole Horibe to Channel Bruce Lee in David Henry Hwang’s Kung Fu

So You Think You Can Dance Star Cole Horibe to Channel Bruce Lee in David Henry Hwang’s Kung Fu

Get ready for some off-Broadway hand-to-hand combat! So You Think You Can Dance contestant Cole Horibe will embody legendary martial arts star Bruce Lee in the world premiere of David Henry Hwang’s new play Kung Fu. Directed by Leigh Silverman, performances will begin February 4, 2014, with an official opening night set for February 24 at the Irene Diamond Stage in the Pershing Square Signature Center. Kung Fu is slated to play a limited engagement through March 16. Horibe will reunite with So You Think You Can Dance’s Sonya Tayeh, who will choreograph the production. Additional casting will be announced shortly. “Obviously, a huge challenge inherent in Kung Fu was finding an actor who could credibly portray martial arts icon Bruce Lee,” Hwang said in a statement. “Cole’s electrifying martial arts and dance performances immediately riveted me. He shared Bruce’s charisma and even resembled him physically. Later, in his auditions for Kung Fu, he brought the same raw talent to his acting that he’d shown so brilliantly in his dance. We feel incredibly blessed to have found in Cole a star who can bring a legend to life.” Horibe will make his off-Broadway debut in Kung Fu. He appeared as a contestant on the ninth season of TV’s So You Think You Can Dance, in the category of martial arts fusion. Kung Fu tells the story of international icon Bruce Lee’s journey from troubled Hong Kong youth to martial arts legend. The new play blends dance, Chinese opera, martial arts and drama into a new theatrical form. The production follows Lee in America as he struggles to prove himself as a fighter, a husband, a father and a man. The production will feature specialty choreography by Dou Dou Huang, scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Anita Yavich, lighting design by Ben Stanton, sound design by Darron L. West, projection design by Darrel Maloney and music by Du Yun. Original Article...

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Bruce Lee’s Story Headed to Broadway

Bruce Lee’s Story Headed to Broadway

Because I’m a black-belt in martial arts — I break boards the way “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark” breaks actors — one of my favorite songs is “Kung Fu Fighting” by the great Carl Douglas. They were funky Chinamen From funky Chinatown They were chopping them up They were chopping them down What a lyric! See if you can top that, Steve Sondheim. And so it gives me great Aiya! to announce the first-ever martial arts play with music: David Henry Hwang’s “Kung Fu!,” about my hero, Bruce Lee. There was a reading of the play on Monday, and the word of mouth is, as we say in class, an bong fok tsai — which means “fabulous, darling!” Director Leigh Silverman has put together what one of my spies calls a “spectacular” production that blends Chinese opera, dance, martial arts and authentic karate-chopping music. Hwang’s “emotionally strong” script (according to my spy) charts Lee’s rise from the streets of Hong Kong to superstardom in Hollywood. The emotional center of the show is his conflicted relationship with his father, a man of the old ways who didn’t want his son to get caught up in the modern world. Everybody’s raving about Cole Horibe, who played Lee. He was a contestant on “So You Think You Can Dance,” and apparently he’s got it all — looks, charisma and high kicks. “I’d never heard of him before, but he was amazing,” says a potential investor. “The kid is a star.” The music, by Du Yun, is a pastiche of scores from the great Bruce Lee movies — “The Way of the Dragon,” “Fists of Fury” and “The Big Boss.” (Personally, I think Lee’s best appearance was as Kato in “The Green Hornet,” but I may be in the minority there.) The dancing, which one source calls “thrilling,” is by Dou Dou Huang, artistic director and principal dancer of the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble. Check him out on YouTube. You’ll be mesmerized. A bunch of Broadway martial arts masters were at the reading — Jordan Roth, leading practitioner of the Jujamcyn Technique; Bob Wankel, inventor of the Shubert Leg Bumping Kick; Jimmy Nederlander, after whom the famous Nederlander Naval Propping Punch was named, and Public Theater chief...

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