Word: hong
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...world in which ordinary rules of theater and of theater reviewing do not necessarily apply. Creating an original musical entirely from scratch is never an easy matter, and it is probably less so when the show is written by committee. The fact that a musical as coherent as The Hong Kong has emerged from such less-than-ideal circumstances should probably be viewed as a minor miracle...
Designed as a parody of prime-time television melodramas, Hong Kong contains a little of everything, from heartbreak to hysterics. In the opening number, we are introduced to six Harvard students making a late night at the Kong. Each has a dark secret that is eventually revealed to the others through fortune cookies cooked up by Kong waiter and Harvard dropout Hei Yiu (Andy Olsen '02). But the road to fortune is a leisurely one, and there are frequent bus stops at the cities of Parody, Satire, and Random Joke. In one minute-long exchange, three of the students list...
...entirely polished product. Bumpy spots in the script and score--and there are several--are smoothed over by the good intentions of the audience members, who want nothing more than to like the show that is being performed for them. Fortunately, the students involved in Hong Kong met the audience halfway, putting a lot of effort into making the evening fun for all concerned--and that's really the only thing that matters in the world of the Freshman Musical...
...would be the new "Radcliffe Professors"? Katha Pollit, Nancy Chodorow, Toni Morrison, Donna Shalala, Judith Butler, Maxine Hong Kingston, Catharine MacKinnon, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Arlie Hochschild, Alice Walker. You fill in the blank. The availability of serious scholars is not the problem. Here, the Field of Dreams dictum of "if you build it, they will come" prevails...
...becomes a famous conductor, the other a rowdy mechanic. Add two girlfriends and some triad intrigue, and you have one of the Chan man's giddiest workouts. Look for cameos by Hark, Lam, John Woo and Kirk Wong--all top action auteurs. But the real fun is in seeing Hong Kong pop cinema at its innocent, crowd-pleasing best. And for Jackie, that goes double...