When it’s all said and done in King Kong, the $35 million show opening this week on Broadway, the final bows – and biggest cheers – are saved for the dozen-plus performers who bring the 20-foot gorilla to life every night.
There’s no question that the show is an over-the-top spectacular whenever King Kong is on stage, whether it is battling a giant, prehistoric snake; dashing through a burning New York City with Ann Darrow on his back; or challenging a veritable fleet of planes trying to take him down from the Empire State Building.
It's the rest of the show that's such a downer.
It’s been a long journey for Kong to make it to this stage, starting a decade ago in Australia. There has been plenty of work since then, including an early version of the show produced in Melbourne in 2013.
Puppet designer Sonny Tilders took on the epic task of creating the massive marionette, which weighs in at around a ton. To bring the high-tech puppet to life requires plenty of on-stage help. A dozen performers manipulate his arms and legs, while a quartet, stationed in the off-stage “voodoo box,” control the facial features.
This also includes Kong’s voice, as one of the team handles his roars, which are enhanced to shift into the monstrous noise that comes out on stage.
The basic outline of the story has remained the same. A film crew, including young starlet Ann Darrow. head out to Skull Island. There, they find a giant monster. The monster is brought back to New York City and displayed like a circus animal. He escapes, climbs the Empire State Building with Ms. Darrow in tow. Biplanes shoot the gorilla down and we get the end.
There are differences in the details, however. Instead of being tossed between a giant gorilla and the film’s romantic lead, Ann is her own woman. In fact, there is no romantic lead to be seen.
While these changes can make for a more interesting story, their application on stage leaves plenty to be desired. Likely, it was going to be impossible for the production to top the moments when King Kong was on stage, but the rest of the show struggles to make any impression, let alone a positive one, whenever our simian friend is off stage.
Even though the creators won’t add this tag to the show, King Kong is definitely a musical. And while that could work with stronger material, the songs provided by Eddie Perfect pretty much pass in one ear and out the other.
Better is Marius de Vries’ incidental music, which blends traditional movie scores with electronic styles for sounds that help to drive the high action along.
The three human leads are also upstaged by their puppet colleague. Christiani Pitts brings some steel to Ann Darrow, but lacks the presence to take over this stage when needed. The massive set and high tech visuals swallow her up at almost every turn. The one time it doesn’t? When she has some quality time with Kong. There, Pitts clearly shows her skills as a performer, which helps to make Kong all the more real.
The same can be said for Eric William Morris (as filmmaker Carl Denham) and Erik Lochtefeld (as Denham’s assistant and Darrow’s confidant Lumpy). All three show signs that on another stage, their performances could carry the day, but they lack the outsized, operatic scale needed here.
Really, that’s the issue in a nutshell. We’re here for King Kong, and there’s too much time spent without him onstage. Obviously, you don’t want wall-to-wall monster, but a tighter, slimmer production would give us what we want without nearly as many distractions.
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| Photo by Bruce Silcox |
Puppets of a different scale at Open Eye Figure Theatre
If you are in the Twin Cities and want to check out some puppets of a different scale, Open Eye Figure Theatre has brought back its signature piece, "A Prelude to Faust" for one final run.
First presented 20 years ago, Michael Sommers riff on the Faust legend helped to spark Open Eye as an ongoing theater. The show is loaded with the type of theatrical delights that have marked so much of Sommers' work.
Tickets for the remaining performances are extremely limited, but the show has been extended to Nov. 18.
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