VOA慢速英語(yǔ):李小龍走上功夫舞臺(tái)！

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Welcome to American Mosaic from VOA Learning English.

I’m June Simms.

On the show today, we play music from "The Boss," Bruce Springsteen.

But first, we go to New York to check out a new off-Broadway play.

Bruce Lee 'Dansical'

"Kung Fu" is the name of a new play about America's most famous martialartist, the late actor Bruce Lee. Playwright David Henry Hwang centered hiswork on Lee's young adulthood. Marsha James tells us more about the play at the Signature Theater.

Bruce Lee became an actor as a young child. He also studied dance and theChinese fighting style Kung Fu while growing up in Hong Kong. He was anexpert in both by his teen years. At that time, he returned to the United States, the country of his birth.

Lee worked as a dance and Kung Fu teacher in Seattle, Washington duringcollege. Playwright David Henry Hwang represents that period of Bruce Lee'slife in his play, "Kung Fu." Mr. Hwang says he first tried to write the play as amusical. But, he says dance pieces worked better than songs in the story.

Bruce Lee in a 1973 publicity photo.

"It's got 17 dance numbers, a lot of fighting. This is something that really Idon't think has been done before, at least in America, which is to create whatI'm calling a "dansical," a show which is a combination of drama and dance."

Mr. Hwang is best known for his plays "M. Butterfly" and "Golden Child." Likethose works, "Kung Fu" is concerned with questions of Asian Americanidentity and prejudice. As a young actor in Hollywood, Bruce Lee foundhimself offered only small, racially predictable parts. Hwang represents theseexperiences in a scene where Lee talks to a television producer. Theproducer wants him to play Kato in the superhero series "The Green Hornet."

"Every time I see the bowing, scraping Chinaman with the long pigtail, I wantto smash the TV!"

"I agree. The way Oriental people are portrayed by Hollywood: villains, enemysoldiers, comic relief, it makes me sick. In my project, you would play acompletely different kind of character."

"The hero."

"Well, he works with the hero, and he's a hero, too."

Kato, of course, was not the hero but the assistant to the hero, the GreenHornet. Kato is a martial artist in the series and the part made Lee famous in the U.S. and Hong Kong.

But David Henry Hwang says Bruce Lee still did not receive offers for leadactor roles.

"As talented and as amazing as he was, (Lee) wasn't able to break the glassceiling in American entertainment, and a lot of the second act of the play isabout his struggles trying to get work as an actor in America. And at the end of the show he finally realizes that it's not going to happen for him in America, and he decides to go back to Hong Kong where he will eventually make thepictures establish him as the star that we know today."

The play ends before Lee gains stardom in the martial arts action movies that he filmed in Hong Kong in 1971 and 1972. Bruce Lee died of a brain swellingthe following year at the age of 32. His first big Hollywood film, "Enter theDragon," was released a short time after.

Some critics say "Kung Fu" is not an exciting drama. But almost all havepraised its dance sequences.

High Hopes

Bruce Springsteen fans will recognize the album’s titletrack from the live version performed in the 1996 film“Blood Brothers.” The movie was a documentary of the singer’s reunion with the E Street Band.

The new studio recording of “High Hopes” is a muchfuller version of the song. It includes horns andbackground singers. Tom Morello of the group RageAgainst The Machine also performs on the song.

Bruce Springsteen performing in 2012.

om Morello played guitar during Springsteen’s recent shows in Australia, andworked well with the group. In his liner notes to the album, Springsteenpraised Morello for “pushing the rest of this project to another level.”

Morello’s guitar work can be heard on eight of the 12 songs. He also singswith Springsteen on “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” The song was first heard as the title track to a solo acoustic album “The Boss” released in 1995.

Critics are mixed in their opinion of "High Hopes." Some say the album is notdecisive as some of Springsteen’s “project” albums. Project albums arerecords with songs based on a single theme or sound. But Springsteen sayshe meant “High Hopes” to be a collection of what he calls “songs thatdeserved a home and a hearing.”

“Down In The Hole” is an example. Springsteen wrote this haunting song forhis 2002 album “The Rising.” But, the artist said he left it off because he didnot think it fit in with the other songs.

Danny Federici played organ on “Down In The Hole.” The longtime E StreetBand member died in 2008.

You can also hear Clarence Clemons playing on the new album. The E StreetBand saxophonist died in 2011. Clemons can be heard on the song “Harry’sPlace.” It was also cut from the final version of “The Rising.”

A few years ago, there were reports that Bruce Springsteen was working on agospel record. “Heaven’s Wall” sounds like it may have started as part of thereported project. But it has found a home on “High Hopes.”