No In-House Shuteye

...for Jeremy Henerson who was dragged to the theater by his father last night to experience "Be Like Water" at East West Players, the story of a gung fu loving 13 year old in 1978 Chicago who is visited by the ghost of Bruce Lee.

This is the same Jeremy Henerson -- age 10 in January -- who will begin taking martial arts lessons himself, so perhaps the punching and kicking component kept him from snoozing. Or maybe it was the fact that a scene break included the playing of the Village People's "Y.M.C.A.", guaranteed to get any 4th grader bouncing along in his seat.

Maybe it was the raffle tickets I bought during EWPs Next Generation event, wherein the theater bought a bunch of pizzas and sodas and played music in the courtyard an hour before showtime. The raffle prizes _ given away at show's end -- included some Bruce Lee DVDs, a Bruce Lee fleece blanket (everybody needs one!) and a Nintendo DS (which Jeremy already owns, his prize possession).

Or maybe, just maybe, there were no mitigating factors and young J. simply was into the play. The poor kid has to get up at 5:30 every morning and goes to bed around 8:30 or so. So schoolnight excursions that run past 10 (this one got us home after 11) aren't advisable, but I can be a bit batty when it comes to my offsrpring's cultural education.

My review of "Be Like Water" appears tomorrow in the LA Daily News and on LA.com. Check it out.