Interview: Drew Gasparini on Bringing The Karate Kid Musical to the UK

Broadway + NYC

Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Off Broadway

Cabaret

Dance

Opera

Classical Music

Eastern

Central

Western

West End

WEST END

UK Regional

International

Canada

Australia / New Zealand

Europe

Asia

Latin America

Africa / Middle East

Entertainment

TV/Movies

Music

'I'm gonna have a hard time leaving England, because I have just fallen in love with this cast'

POPULAR

Get all the top news & discounts for UK & beyond.

After debuting in 2022, the musical adaptation of The Karate Kid is now on tour around the UK, crane-kicking its way into the theatre world. The show, which “brings the legendary 1984 film to life on stage,” tells the story of Daniel, the new kid in town, who learns karate from Mr. Miyagi in order to defend himself from his bully, Johnny. The coming-of-age story has spawned multiple sequels, a remake and even a spin-off series, Cobra Kai , with fans always looking for a new way to look at the iconic tale.

Get all the top news & discounts for UK & beyond.

Recently, we had the chance to speak with Drew Gasparini , who wrote the music and lyrics for The Karate Kid . We discussed what his creative process has been like for the show, what it’s like to write for an adaptation versus an original piece of work and how he didn’t actually want to be a part of the Karate Kid musical in the first place!

So, starting with a bit of a general question, how did you first get started in the world of theatre?

By a blessed, happy accident, I would say! I did theatre growing up as a kid, I was “Man Number One” in the Fiddler on the Roof when I was a ten year old, and I remember my line still - “A horse!” That was my shining moment. And then when I got into my teens, I started becoming a songwriter. I moved to LA and tried to do the singer-songwriter life, and then quickly realised a touring musician life was not necessarily meant for me. I had three months to myself where I wrote a musical, and it was called Crazy, Just Like . I submitted it to the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMTF). That no longer exists, but it used to be this amazing festival where a lot of shows like Next to Normal and Avenue Q got their start. They wrote me a handwritten letter back that said, I’m paraphrasing, “Your show sucks, but the songs are really good,” which was nice and encouraging. And because it was handwritten, I took it very seriously - it felt like it mattered.

So I think that was what made me move to New York and give it a shot. So I really went for it! I would stay outside stagedoors and hand people demos, see if certain stars would want to sing my music. And eventually, it turned into this amazing concert life, and people started buying my sheet music. Then I got hired to write on Smash , and jobs started trickling my way. I'm very blessed, and I feel very lucky that I'm still a voice in musical theatre. I really love this weird little left turn I took to get in touch with my inner child. It has turned into this really beautiful career where I get to tell stories, speak my truth, give perspective, and offer joy in a world that is endlessly chaotic.

And what made you want to be a part of the Karate Kid musical?

I didn't want to be a part of the Karate Kid musical! I know there are sceptics, and it's fair for me to say I was one of them. There are certain movie titles that you just tilt your head at when it has “ : The Musical ” after it. And when my agents called me to say, “Hey, would you be interested in submitting for The Karate Kid ,” I laughed and said, “Absolutely not!” I was really high and mighty, so above it. But then I went back and I rewatched the 1984 original movie. A lot of people forget this, because there are all these sequels where it became a big action show - Miyagi is throwing bad guys out of windows! It got way out of hand right after the first one. But if you go back to the first one, it was a low-budget indie movie, and it's such a beautiful story. I started crying when I rewatched it, and I was like, “Oh, if I were to really do my homework here, this is a perfect musical.”

Once I started talking to the writer of the movie, who is the book writer for this, and the director and our producers, I heard all these theatrical elements that they were trying to incorporate. The producers flew me out to Okinawa, because a giant part of the story in Karate Kid is this multicultural world - an Italian-American who travels across the country and feels like a fish out of water. I knew it like the back of my hand - Italian-American, travelled across the country, felt like a fish out of water in New York.

But when it came to Mr. Miyagi , our producer, Kumiko Yoshii , she said, “When we are voicing the character of Miyagi, it's got to be accurate. It's got to be in tune to what his world is.” So it can't just be Asian-sounding music - he is from Okinawa. That’s not Japan, that's not China, that's not any of those places out there. It is such a specific nuance on that little island. So they flew me out there, and I sat in a room with three pianos and two Okinawan songwriters who didn't speak any English - and I didn't speak any Japanese! I was showing them what I was thinking, and they were like, “This is really close. Maybe change this note to this,” and, “The Okinawan scale is more like this. Here are some chord structures that work. Here’s some instruments that really enhance the vibe.” There's this three-stringed instrument called a sanshin. It's made of snake skin, and it's got this amazing, authentic sound. The producers bought me one to take back to America with me, and I started writing all of Miyagi’s songs on this three-stringed instrument.

I want people to trust that we are taking such good care of making this a beautiful, theatrical experience while enhancing the characters that fans of the movie grew to love. And there is not one song that we're using from the movie - we're not taking anything from the Bill Conti score. That lives in the movie - this is the musical. It's a separate thing. It's a theatrical experience in its original score, top to bottom. And I am so proud of the work that we have done on this.

Can you tell us a bit about what it was like to work with the writer, Robert Mark Kamen ?

Yeah! It was a really interesting experience, because this is very much a semi-autobiographical story of his. He is a karate master. He went and trained in Okinawa himself, because of how he was getting treated on the streets in New York. He was getting beat up, and he needed a way to defend himself. So it was really heartwarming and endearing to see so much of his truth that made its way into this movie.

He has become something of a Miyagi entity for me, because he has so much wisdom to offer about storytelling that he just over the years of writing all these legendary screenplays. On the other side of the coin, the first musical he ever saw was Hadestown , so he’s recent! So it was really cool for me, because where I'm learning about the storytelling aspect of it from a screenwriter's point of view, he was learning some of the more theatrical ideas. I love that he was super on board to shake the Etch A Sketch and start over with this story that has been cemented in time since 1984. Just like Miyagi needs Daniel, he has needed me in the collaborative efforts. And just like Daniel really needs Miyagi, he has been there for me. That teamwork has been an undeniable joy.

And what has it been like to return to working on The Karate Kid , this time across the pond in London?

I love coming to the UK! E ven though we're talking about sceptics, that seems to be a much more American thing, because people are super excited for it out here. That has been a very apparent shift in what we felt when we did our out-of-town in St Louis.

Having said that, we have done so much to enhance the show. We learned a lot from St Louis - we learned mostly what was not working, and we had to make those changes. And it's been really great, because over the last four years, since we did our last out-of-town, we have had the most beautiful and frustrating thing - time. We have had all this time to retweak and rewire. And the work never really stops! Even in previews, we're still making tweaks to the show before our official opening. And it's also been very cool because, over the last four years, Ralph Macchio , Billy Zabka and MartyKCove, who are all from the original Karate Kid and the Cobra Kai series, have been super vocal about their excitement about it, too. They've all come to see the show, and it's very cool to bring that out here to the UK!

And, I have never seen a harder working cast in my entire life than the one we have out here in England. We have a kid named Gino Ochello, who's playing Daniel LaRusso. He's nineteen. He dropped out of school to do this, and he's a star. I'm so amazed that we kind of discovered him for this! And Adrian Pang , who is our Mr. Miyagi . . . Again, that's so much weight on your shoulders with such an iconic role. He has so much charm and humour and heart, and they make me cry. I'm gonna have a hard time leaving England, because I have just fallen in love with this cast.

What has it been like with the rehearsals and the recent preview performances?

Rehearsals were fun, and then enter tech week, and you're like, “I want to rip my skin off!” That's just what tech week is. It's a lot of stop and start, because while we're rehearsing in some weird, stagnantly lit room, we're not really taking into account how big the stage is and what the set is actually going to feel like once we're on the stage. So that part is just so painstaking for me.

But once we get an audience in there, we are all exploding. We are all just freaking out, crying, laughing. We can't believe how everything that we've been working on in a vacuum suddenly works beyond everybody's expectations once we have our first audience. So our previews so far have been fantastic, and the word of mouth is amazing. It's also cool to see your show's title on the side of a bus or at a train stop! This is a dream. It's really, really cool.

Do you find that your creative process changes whether it's an adaptation or an original?

Yes and no, because I think the goal is the same. It's the same mountain we're climbing, which is this needs to work for an audience. Even when it's coming from the most personal place, you still have to make sure it has a universal thread through it, that an audience doesn't have to tilt their head and go, “What did I just watch?” At least that's my goal - I can't speak for everybody!

Can you take us a bit into the creative process for writing a song for The Karate Kid ?

Yeah! Karate Kid is set in 1984, so right away we have a time that we're living in. And we talked about the cultural thing too, the Okinawan music. And those accuracies felt really important. Kids around 1984 were listening to Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins , Boy George , Duran Duran, and these amazing pop British and American groups that came out in the 80s. And this is about young people! So it was really fun to make a playlist of things that were around in 1984 that people in high school might have been listening to, and using elements of those songs to incorporate into the DNA of this score.

So that's where the process starts. It starts with sounds. And especially working with John Clancy , our orchestrator, who is the most insane mind in musical theatre. He's done Shrek and Fun Home ! So before any writing really started happening with these orchestrations, before we started filling the songs out with instruments, it was just back and forth of, “Have you heard this tune from The Killers?” “Have you heard this tune from Duran Duran?” It was just listening to great music, and that's what led us to what the orchestration sound like.

What do you hope audiences take away from The Karate Kid ?

I truly hope that we defy all audience expectations. I just hope they come in th

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Interview-This-Is-A-Dream-Musician-Lyricist-Drew-Gasparini-On-Bringing-THE-KARATE-KID-THE-MUSICAL-To-The-UK-20260512)._