www.broadwayworld.com: KING KONG, which ran in Australia is 2013, has long been rumored for a trip overseas to Broadway. As previously reported, following a successful run in Melbourne, the producers of KING KONG were planning to bring the mega-musical to Broadway in December 2014. Due to the "huge scale of the production" and to allow the creative team necessary time to implement changes, the producers decided "to not rush in before the end of the year."
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King Kong - Turn off the Jungle is what we are looking at here. In Australia, the show picked up all the technical awards it could, such as Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design. However, getting people in to see a King Kong musical is going to be a massive undertaking. I make the Spider Man comparison because one of the talking points of that show was the music written by Bono, whereas one of the talking points of this show is Jason Robert Brown participating. Newsflash, theatre going public. A name is 1/500th of the workforce on the show. The other 499 names are also contributing, and what we see is always the sum of it's parts, sometimes it is more, sometimes it is less. The puppetry for the show, and Kong in particular, does seem to be very striking, but if the production it is built around is fundamentally flawed, then no one will see it. Honestly, big name movies and stories making their way to Broadway aren't enough for people to get in there and see some shows. A prime example of this is Rocky, a musical that got good marks for it's tech value, but never really got audiences fired up.
I honestly did not know there was a King Kong musical and to be honest I am skeptical. Obviously it is a real thing I am just skeptical how good it is. If it did well in Australia it can’t be bad but will it be Broadway worthy or will it be another Spider Man. I hope the trend of HUGE scale musicals with little substance does not last. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about production value and I’d rather watch some mega musical then a really low scale but intense drama (some may question my taste), but something just does not feel right about King Kong type shows taking over Broadway. I feel as though Broadway is reserved for the best of the best, not the biggest of the biggest. King Kong the musical would be great at universal studios or some arena tour but Broadway is sacred and I don’t want to see it turn into a commercialized spectacle of money and unnecessarily scaled productions.
I feel like this goes to show that anything can be made into a musical. I haven’t actually seen King Kong, and though if I had enough time I would, there are a lot of movies before it on my “movies to see” list. Even though that is the case, I’d really like to see KING KONG the musical. First of all, the nearly twenty foot (I needed to convert it to imperial to be able to picture it) gorilla sounds incredible. I’m also intrigued by circus performers, as I feel that can add a lot to the musical. Additionally, the fact that they got awards for lighting, scenic, sound, and costume design is amazing, and I’d go see the show just because of that alone. That being said, when I saw the title of this article I immediately though, “Really? A King Kong musical?” For some reason I couldn’t help but picture a giant tap dancing gorilla. Maybe I have a poor understanding of King Kong, but from what I know of the plot, I’m very curious about how they converted into a functional musical. Still, given how successful it is, I’m assuming it is good.
I don't know how to respond to this. Obviously my first reaction is to the very probable cheesiness of a King Kong musical. Broadway has been churning out musicals made from movies fairly consistently, with mixed results. For every successful version (Billy Elliot, The Lion King, The Producers), there are untold numbers that produce corny, tacky or downright boring theatre (Aladdin, Big Fish, Rocky, Elf, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to name a few). I understand why these productions get made. As idealistic as we like to be, theatre does ultimately need to make money in order to be viable, and people are drawn spend to money on names they recognize. However, that very need to be commercially successful often leaves theatre gutless and toothless. The thing with King Kong, however is that it is a story that has teeth (pun intended). It is an intriguing story about colonialism and the brutishness of humanity itself. This musical could be a show of actual merit, but I fear that the desire to capitalize off of the franchise will overwhelm the desire to great authentic art. The amount of time put into this show gives me hope. As long as it doesn't become a 2 hour show about the spectacle of a giant ape, I think there could be an intriguing theatrical production on our hands.
I am super excited for this show! There is so much potential for some incredibly beautiful and awesome theater to be created. I have the same hesitations that I had when I head that they were creating a spider man musical. That is that how can spider man, or in this case King Kong, be a musical? I know that I am of a limited few, but Spider Man actually did make a particularly amazing musical, and I think that King Kong definitely has the potential to follow in its footsteps. It intrigues med that Jason Robert Brown is on the team. I do not really see his style of music lending itself to King Kong. However, that really just makes me even more interested in it. The scale of this show is going to be ridiculously huge in more ways than one (all puns intended) and I can not wait to see what happens next.
I'm intrigued by the technical aspects of this show, especially the giant gorilla puppet mentioned in the article. I'm also curious to see what kind of music is in the show, and how it will augment the plot (for the better or for the worse). All that being said, I think this is a show that we should try to keep an open mind about because despite its unlikely premise, it also seems to have a lot of potential. I think the original content the musical is based on doesn't necessarily effect its quality as much as the musical itself-- in other words, a really great show could some out of a strange idea. King Kong is a story that everyone knows at least a little bit about, and I think the musical could use this familiarity to its advantage. I also think the thrill aspect of a giant gorilla coupled with the ludicrous-ness of a giant gorilla could potentially breed a kind of dark humor similar to the giant man-eating plant concept that Little Shop of Horrors uses. I'm not sure if that's really the direction they're going for, but regardless I think there's a lot of good material to work with and I'm interested to see how it turns out.
What?! When I read the heading of this article I was already thinking what a potential disaster this could be. King-Kong the Musical sounds like one of those awful ideas someone has in a high school drama class. I was surprised to read that the musical had quite a successful run in Melbourne, and I am beyond curious to see how well it will be received here in the U.S. It’s no surprise that the show picked up awards for Best Scenic Design, Lighting Design, Costume Design and Sound Design. Without those key elements this show could come off as hokey very quickly. I found a clip of the show on YouTube, and the movement and behavior of Kong himself is very impressive. I would go to see the show solely for all of the technical elements. This makes me mildly reminiscent of another technically baffling show that made it to Broadway and then was a complete and utter flop. Hopefully this production will not have people plummeting to injury on a regular basis like that show. Nevertheless, an American audience will rapidly test the validity of this show and determine whether it will make as big of name for itself in theatre circles as the story did in film circles.
Theatre has turned into a spectacle contest and I am not a fan. The larger the set, the more gaudy the costumes, and the brighter the lights the more important and bigger headlines the show gets. This production of King Kong is no exception. Though I am sure the music by Jason Robert Brown will be beautiful and make a great sound track will the story of King Kong even make an impact on the audience or will they leave blown away by the spectacle of the one-ton puppet floating above their heads? I believe that theatre is about telling the story of people on stage with the use of technical elements to enhance that story. Adding spectacular elements take away from the story and are more often than not distracting.
Im curious to see what technical aspects are imposed in this show and how much of it is necessary. By the description of the article, its a technically huge show. I am very interested to hear the music for the show as Im not really a fan of Jason Robert Brown's style. Im not really sure how it will complement the savagery of the story itself.
I hope the visuals on stage do not take away from the actual performance though. If it was too big of a show to transport across the sea, I hope its not too big for broadway. Though a lot of people do love having a huge puppet terrify the heck out of them.
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