If ever a show differed from expectations it is this one. It should have been obvious before the curtain went up when the usual mobile phone warning against recoding and photography was issued, as it contained the pearl of wisdom that ‘memory is the best camera’. I avoided seeing the 1984 film as I was in my mid-thirties at the time and it struck me as being a piece of teen nonsense which I could do without. Add in the prospect of setting the thing to music and I was envisaging an evening when I would need to switch off my brain and go with the flow. Whilst there was an element of the frat house about it, there were so many other levels involved, it became probably more relevant to today’s world situation than the straight film would have done at the time.
Lucille Larusso, played by Sharon Sexton, with son, Daniel – Gino Ochello
The story is of a seventeen year-old Italian-American boy, Daniel, played by Gino Ochello, who moves from New Jersey to a less than salubrious area of Los Angeles when is widowed mother gets a job there. He soon meets a girl, Ali – Abigail Amin – who is from a well to do family, and her boyfriend, Johnny, whom she is trying to dump but won’t take the hint. Ali falls for Daniel, much to the consternation of the prospective future ex, played by Joe Simmons. To make matters worse, Johnny is a member of a Cobra Kai gang who practice an aggressive form of karate. In order to warn Daniel off Ali, the gang beat him up, but he is saved from serious injury by Mr Miyagi, the Japanese handyman of the block where Daniel and his mother live, and who he has befriended. He is an expert in the conventional defensive version of the martial art and sees off the gang.
Ali – Abigail Amin – and Daniel – Gino Ochello.
Daniel asks Mr Miyagi to teach him karate, which he agrees to do, but only after they have paid a visit to the Cobra Kai’s training session so that they can try to negotiate a verbal solution to the bullying. The encounter between the pair and Johnny’s fighting coach, John Kreese – Matt Mills – ends in stalemate, although a truce is declared until after the local Karate Championships have taken place, when, if Daniel wins, he will cease to be bullied and left to pursue his friendship with Ali; whereas, should Johnny win, Daniel will agree not to see her again.
John Kreese, played by Matt Mills puts the members of his Cobra Kai group through their paces
Daniel practises under the tuition of Mr Miyagi and, after a close contest, during which he is badly injured in the final by Johnny, he eventually triumphs. That is not a spoiler, the result was blatantly obvious from the outset, so on the face of it, it might appear that my initial foreboding may have been spot on but far from it.
The love story element was the familiar Romeo and Juliet scenario with forbidden love between two mismatched teens, a point illustrated by a scene in the local Country Club, where Ali had invited Daniel to rendezvous in order to meet her parents. The date ended in catastrophe, thanks to the awkwardness of being a working class youth in an exclusive establishment, and the presence of Johnny attempting to make things up with her.
Mr Miyagi, left, played by Adrian Pang with Daniel, Gino Ochello.
There was a surprising amount of political and philosophical content involved, which, although set in 1984, and some of which referred to past events, was very much reflective of the world today.
According to the programme, and what I have gleaned over the years, the mainstream version of karate is a method of self-defence, self-control, self-awareness and self-discipline. Although developed over many centuries, the modern form is only about a hundred years old. The word translates as ’empty hand’, emphasising the absence of weaponry and the Zen concept of emptiness and humility. Quoting from Amon Miyamoto, the Director, there is a saying, ‘Karate ni sense nashi, which means ‘there is no first strike’, conveying the thought that strength does not lie in hatred or attack but in the courage to prevent conflict before it begins and to resolve it with dignity and care.’ Hence Daniel and Mr Miyagi’s visit to the Cobra Kai training camp.
Johnny – Joe Simmons – in the final with Daniel – Gino Ochello
The Cobra Kai version of karate, as taught by John Kreese, had as its motto ‘Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy.’ He encouraged his followers to instigate the fight and not stop until the opponent had been totally beaten. He advised Johnny that, not only should he continue to physically assault Daniel, he should also humiliate him. Mr Kreese’s reasoning behind this was that he had fought in Vietnam and, when he showed Johnny his array of medals he told him that they did not represent heroism, but reminded him that the might of the American army had been humiliated by a bunch of people ‘wearing pyjamas and flip-flops.’
You will be pleased to learn that Johnny underwent a form of redemption and, after some soul searching resulting in him realising that he had been beaten fair and square, presented the trophy to Daniel himself, as a mark of respect.
The Composer and Lyricist, Drew Gasparini, provided a wide variety of songs to keep the work on track, ranging from tearjerkers to bangers enabling the dancers to show off their range of both terpsichorean and karate moves choreographed by Keone and Mari Madrid. The Music Arranger and Supervisor was Andrew Resnick, with the superb orchestra under the direction of keyboard player, Chris Poon.
Daniel, Gino Ochello, assumes the stork position in a break at the final, as he has treatment on his injured knee.
I was also impressed by the set which was constructed to look like a traditional Japanese room, albeit huge, with oblong frames of wood filled with white paper, which were rearranged, sometimes quite judderingly, to represent the various venues for the action, or, at a couple of points, spun round to reveal the living room of Daniel and his mother, Lucille, played by Sharon Sexton, as well as Mr Miyagi’s workshop. The lighting, by Bradley King was also spectacular.
Should you fancy seeing a production which works on several levels, entertainment being just one of them, then The Karate Kid: The Musical, from the book written by Robert Mark Kamen, continues at Leeds Grand Theatre until Saturday, 30th May. For further details and to book, please go to https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/the-karate-kid-2026/
To see what is coming to Heritage Theatres it is https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/?genre=live
Photographs by Manuel Harlan
Tyke It To The Limit 