dancical

Chapter Five, "The Irony and Rhetoric of the Global Millennium," brings readers up to date with Hwang's latest works, including his forays into musical theatre--most notably his revisionist Flower Drum Song (discussed in detail in an essay in chapter 6 by Josephine Lee) and his most recent project, Kung Fu--a "dancical" about the early career of Bruce Lee (124).

Choreographer De-Napoli Clarke uses his life as inspiration for the autobiographical show The Dancical, combining dance of all styles ( reggae, jazz, plus martial arts.

The "dancical"--some crix deny it's a musical because it contains scant live singing, though it is loaded with impressive dancing--sold 750,000 tix during a 14-month tour of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane that began in November 2004.

Against the odds, De-Napoli recovered and in The Dancical, we see 10 young performers from RJC, the company he helped found, relive some of the joys and traumas of a life with much to celebrate.

Performed by his company New Adventures, Bourne's "dancical" waltzes to the irreverent tune that has made his Swan Lake with male swans, his wartime Cinderella, and his horn-honking, bisexually inclined Car Man such irresistible satires.

Indeed, this year we have had our first true "dancical" since Fosse's Dancin' in 1978 with Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, directed and devised by Wolfe with choreography by Savion Glover.

By show's end, you're left with a bold but only halfway successful attempt at the newly energized genre (some are calling it "the dancical") pioneered by another Sadler's Wells regular, Matthew Bourne, whose "Swan Lake" brought Cooper to international fame.

RJC , that's reggae, jazz and contemporary, returns to Huddersfield with The Dancical, an autobiographical piece by De-Napoli Clarke, a dancer whose career has been severely tested.