Boxing to Broadway: Mike Tyson's bizarre show-and-tell
Mike Tyson, Spike Lee announce their Broadway show
Watch out, Barbra Streisand! Mike Tyson and Spike Lee are heading to Broadway.
The former heavyweight champion and the Oscar-nominated director have announced that the boxing titan will star in his autobiographical one-man show, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, at the Longacre Theatre in New York. It will run for six nights from 31st July to 5th August, 2012.
The expansive look at Mike's struggles with drug abuse, professional triumphs and a series of personal setbacks was first staged in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel. The show doesn't shirk from the seedier elements of Mike's story, with the boxer discussing his encounters with hookers and the ear-chomping incident with Evander Holyfield.
Writing in Time magazine, Gary Andrew Poole called the Vegas show "bizarre" and wrote, "As a performer, Tyson forces many of his lines and has a nervous habit of saying 'and s**t' at the end of practically every sentence. He paces the stage drinking water, often breathing hard into his microphone and robotically moves his body across the stage."
It apparently will be overhauled for the Great White Way, as Randy Johnson and not Spike directed the original stage version.
"It is an honour to work with Spike Lee," Mike said in a statement. "I have always admired his work. Sharing the highlights and lowlights of my life with New York is especially important to me as I was born and raised in Brooklyn."
Undisputed Truth marks the Broadway debuts of both Mike and Spike. Tickets range from US$75 to US$199. A limited number of VIP tickets, which include a meet and greet and photo with Mike after the show, are available for US$300, the producers said. Thankfully, not at a theatre near you.
Source & Images: Reuters
Published: 19th June 2012
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