![]() ![]() The event is performed in the McCourt space at The Shed, which has been configured to seat 1,200 spectators. Perhaps connoisseurs of kung fu artistry will be able to appreciate Zhang Jun’s martial arts choreography, but otherwise Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is a work of staggering inanity. Ceaseless waves of pretty, if pretty busy, colored and patterned lighting manage to animate these proceedings considerably more artfully than the script, music, staging, or performances. This leaves plenty of room for frequent martial arts mayhem upon the floor, which is accented by water and fire effects, and occasional aerial flights traveling up and down an 80-foot height. There also are two interludes at night clubs where gyrating dancers wear what appear to be futuristic pajamas.Īnyway, the twins meet up when they are 18 years old and their nearly incestuous reunion on the dance floor leads to even further kung fu combat and, improbably enough, a happy ending.Īll of this transpires within a cavernous open space that is overhung by a pale forest of fabric streamers and which features a semi-circular stage, a modest outcropping, and a spindly elevated skywalk. ![]() The details of some rigamarole concerning a legendary key to eternal life escape me, but whatever it signifies will motivate a duplicitous marriage, a mortal betrayal, a ritualistic funeral, and, of course, various exhibitions of kung fu fighting. Set in and around Flushing, Queens, of all exotic locales, Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise centers on fraternal twins, boy and girl, separated as infants and reared to be martial arts warriors by their murderously estranged parents. In the meantime, it is impossible to tell whether the show’s 20 performers are lip-syncing or actually singing. By no means do these numbers illuminate the tale or push it along. Half a dozen pop songs composed by Sia, such as “The Greatest” and “Courage,” here excessively remixed and heavily amplified, provide the canned soundtrack. ![]() While this world premiere features plenty of simulated kung fu combat, a musical it is not. That wild, high-octane, immersive spectacle, which enjoyed a 2007-2016 New York run, dealt out a lot more entertainment than Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise, a show that desperately strives to thrill audiences at The Shed and fails to do so majorly.īilled as a kung fu musical, Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise offers a two hour-long mishmash of martial arts fighting, antic club-style choreography, aerial doings, laser-like strobe effects, and, oh yes, a clunky story vaguely written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who co-conceived this farrago with Chen Shi-Zheng, who stages it. Golly, where’s Fuerza Bruta when you really need it? The finale of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise. ![]()
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