THE KARATE KID musical prepping for Broadway?

Kumiko Yoshii, Naoya Kino****a, and Michael Wolk will present a private reading of The Karate Kid - The Musicalat Open Jar Studios today. The reading will be directed by Amon Miyamoto and choreographed by Keone and Mari Madrid and will begin with a presentation by Derek McLane of his revised set design. The reading will debut a revised book by Robert Mark Kamen and five new songs by Drew Gasparini. Jon Jon Briones will join the cast as ‘Chojun Miyagi’ and Daniel Marconi will play Daniel LaRusso. They join Kate Baldwain, Alan H. Green, Jake Bentley Young, Jetta Juriansz and Abby Matsusaka who will reprise their roles from St. Louis.

From today’s Briefing

Every show is coming to Broadway until it isn’t. But that release seems to be playing up the “look how much we revised the show” element. It’s just a matter of getting a theatre and money in place.

I don't know why, but the title "The Karate Kid: the Musical" seems like something you would see a parody of on The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. I wish movie musicals would create their own original titles.

I saw this in StL and I thought that the set design, lighting, and choreography were all stellar and worked very well together to support the piece. The music was the weak piece, which is never what you want in a musical. Daniel needed 1-2 more songs that allowed him to shine - he somehow seemed less important than both his mother and Ali. And the music overall just wasn't particularly memorable. Hopefully the 5 new songs improve things.

As someone who was never a big Karate Kid fan in the 80s/90s, I was surprised as how much I liked it despite its weak points. I'm interested in how they changed the book as I thought it built upon the movie storylines well.