Theater review: ‘King Kong’

The Island Now
(Photo by Matthew Murphy)

By Elyse Trevers

When the 2000 pound robot is on stage at The Broadway Theatre, the new musical “King Kong” is spectacular. In fact, if I could only write about “him,” this review would be glowing.

Unfortunately, Kong is not always onstage, and sadly, it is the human involvement that is rather disappointing, It’s surprising, given that the book for the musical is written by Jack Thorne who wrote the blockbuster “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Thorne’s story is weak and downright silly sometimes. The show is disjointed and a bit of a mess theatrically. “King Kong” features a full orchestra with lush sound, but the songs by Eddie Perfect and a score by Marius de Vries are often atonal and mostly forgettable.

The story tells of Ann Darrow (Christiani Pitts) who comes to New York to find stardom but is rejected at every turn. So when she meets Carl Denham who offers her adventure and a leading role in his movie, she grabs the opportunity.

They set off in a ship called “The Wanderer,” but neither the captain nor the crew even know the destination. Finally, they arrive at Skull Island in search of a fabled gigantic beast, King Kong.

When Kong shows up, he grabs Ann but doesn’t hurt her. Although she’s terrified, she growls back at him and the two begin a guttural conversation of sorts. Denham is unable to get footage of Kong but realizes that the beast, himself, would be a better spectacle than a mere film of him.

So he sets out to capture him to bring him to NY to put him on display. Although Ann helps capture Kong, she’s filled with great remorse when she sees him in captivity,

Although he based the musical on the 1932 novel, Thorne creates a more modern woman in his characterization of Ann; she is not a “damsel in distress” and, in fact, she finds it difficult to yell for help on cue. She’s so tough that she even threatens to blow up the ship when the captain and sailors want to toss Denham overboard and return home (I kept wishing they HAD thrown him overboard.)

We hear Kong moments before he enters, and the din is incredibly loud. There are sounds of his footsteps trampling down the ground and his deafening roar is frightening. The effects are impressive, even those we don’t clearly see. When Kong battles a giant serpent, the battle is shown in silhouette until ‘blood’ splatters on a screen.

There is no attempt to totally hide the crew of puppeteers manipulating Kong. The mechanical robot is fascinating, frightening, mesmerizing and strangely touching, especially when his lifelike expressions show unhappiness.

When he gets hurt and Ann ministers to him, he clearly shows his confusion but, at the same time, feels gratitude towards her. In one of the best moments of the musical, the Voodoo operators and ensemble, all dressed in dark clothes, come out from their positions around Kong to gaze at Ann. The enormous creature usually has two operators on each paw making the movement incredibly lifelike and frightening.

When the 20-foot high creature moves to the front of the stage and reaches out as if to touch the audience, one could feel a slight shift as we all leaned back.

Designer Sonny Tilders has created a realistic (albeit giant) animal, and the movement by Aerial movement director Gavin Robins adds to the effect. For his work, Tilders won an award in Australia for combining puppetry and animatronics.

Pitts (“A Bronx Tale”) works hard in a thankless role, one in which even the music is unsatisfying. Denham (Eric William Morris) is a brash, opportunistic character who we dislike and his assistant Lumpy (Erik Lochtefeld) becomes the moral conscience of the show. (Do we really need a moral conscience?) He tells Ann that she reminds him of his very wise 14-year old daughter who died of smallpox.

I spent the entire two hours rooting for Kong, despite knowing he could never escape.

The designers have created a convincingly sentient creature, and, like Ann, many of us reacted to him.

King Kong breaks free of his chains and escapes with Ann in his hands to the top of the Empire State Building where he is shot down in a hail of bullets.

My companion found it hard to believe that Ann could be there with him through the entire siege and not even get grazed. As for me, I didn’t wonder because, at that point, I was no longer engaged. King Kong deserves a better fate. King Kong deserves a better show.

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