Sunday October 4th, 2026

I attended the opening night for The Karate Kid The Musical  https://www.mirvish.com/shows/the-karate-kid  at Toronto’s  Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King Street West).  The musical, based on the 1984 film that starred Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Martin Kove & Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi(I saw it in theatres back in the day) was written by the original screenwriter, Robert Mark Kamen with music and lyrics by Drew Gasparini .  The plot is very much like the film, a New Jersey teenager moves to California and learns how to fight by learning Karate  from his apartment handyman to overcome local bullies and compete in a local martial arts tournament .  So I was definitely looking forward to seeing The Karate Kid The Musical  https://www.thekaratekidthemusicaluk.com  because I’m a big fan of the franchise including the Netflix series Cobra Kai  https://www.netflix.com/title/81002370 so I wanted to see how they would adapt this movie to a stage show.  Not many of these work but this one does even if you’ve never seen the film.  The new original music works(don’t expect to hear any of the 80’s classic hits  related to the movie) and the actors are very good in their rolls especially Adrian Pang(Mr Miyagi) & Gino Ocello(Daniel LaRusso).  If I have any negative criticism’ its that to try and re-create the chemistry that the original film had is impossible and that’s was it lacks(no ones fault).  The Karate Kid The Musical  https://www.mirvish.com/shows/the-karate-kid is family fun and for 80’s fans, a great way to return to a great time.  I give The Karate Kid The Musical  https://www.thekaratekidthemusicaluk.com  three and a half stars out of five .  The Karate Kid The Musical  https://www.mirvish.com/shows/the-karate-kid runs September 29 – November 1, 2026.

(The Karate Kid: The Musical  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfWeR9-kGQ  )