By Harry Haun
16 Jan 2009

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Under the tutelage of his one-armed mentor, Hui Guang becomes a master of Shaolin Kung Fu, a type of martial arts that emphasizes the physical as well as the spiritual — and was featured in the films, "Shaolin Soccer" and Jet Li's "Fearless").

But marital arts is no match for a mother's love, and, when the two are reunited after years of separation, battle lines are drawn. Tradition dictates that Hui Guang fight his way out of the temple and into his mother's arms, taking on the whole Kung Fu-fighting academy as well as his beloved teacher. If you have tears to shed…

Three different actors are used to play Hui Guang (boy, teen and man), and two to play his mother — the only two women on stage. When Li Lin was asked what it felt like to be on stage with all that testosterone, the reply was "I feel so hurt," meaning she's usually on the receiving end of a lot of brutish manhandling.

Only 22, she admitted she did attempt a little aging in the course of the play: "I put in some white in my hair and make a little wiggle on my face." She meant "wrinkle," but she was the only cast member game enough to attempt to answer in English.

The 24-year-old Zhang Zhigang, who plays Hui Guang's one-armed master, really does have one arm, making his astonishing proficiency at martial arts all the more amazing. "You have to go beyond yourself," he offered by way of an explanation.

Yu Fei, the dominant and dominating Hui Guang of the evening, rather casually confessed to working out six hours every day. [Is that over-rehearsing or what?] But the physical demands weren't his driving concern: "Acting is, actually, the most challenging part. Monks study the practice and control of the martial arts. Now I have to act on stage in a theatrical production — that's the most difficult part for me."

He displayed a certain amount of social bravery at the party by drinking red wine in a spiffy, Mandarin-collar outfit that resembled Navy whites. It was the uniform of the whole company, and all come with matching (and useful) red windbreakers.

The youngest Hui Guang is nine-year-old Wang Seng, who has already spent more than half his life (five years!) temple-trained in the marital arts. It shows. His head-spinning and body-flips proved to be a constant crowd-pleaser. He did admit to accidents on stage but preferred not to go into them, prompting his dad to step up to the plate and recall how the boy once, in a ferocious effort, ripped his pants on stage.

Broadway's own Asian superstar, the twice-Tonyed and much-respected costume designer Willa Kim, was at the opening and glad to be there, thank you very much.

"I thought the costumes were sweet, simplistic and functional," Kim decreed warmly. She's a native of Los Angeles, "but you can say my parents are from Korea."