'King Kong'

Robert Massimi.

King Kong at the Broadway Theatre should have been the show of the year. Unfortunately, it was not even close. There are several reasons this musical falls flat. The first is the casting of Kong. Aside from the leading stars, Christiani Pitts, Eric William Morris and Erik Lochtefeld having little to no Broadway experience, to really speak of, they do not mesh or ever blend together. The next problem is the music. The music is not really linked to the plot of King Kong. The songs are neither relevant nor resonant to the audience as well. The third and final bewilderment is Kong himself. It was very distracting to see ten puppeteers move this behemoth around all evening. Two puppeteers had to put Ann Darrow in the apes hand for her to be lifted. When I say, "should have been the show of the year" it falls beyond flat and lifeless.

The show begins with Ann Darrow (Pitts) who comes to New York City to be an actress and cannot find work. She meets an ambitious Carl Denham Morris at a dinner. He offers her a job in a picture to be filmed at Skull Island. The Captain (Rory Donovan) does not want to go and neither does his crew as they see it as too dangerous. During the filming we meet Kong who loves Ann Darrow. Kong lays down his life to protect her as we see in the scene with the serpent. While some may over look the awkwardness of Kong, one could not help thinking the serpent was absolutely ridiculous. Peter England, who did the scenic design and the director/choreographer Drew McOnie, really did a terrible job when they land on Skull Island. Trying to make the show goth at that point of the musical is a disaster. What was a classic film should have been a classic musical. The gothic, dark realm, of this point of the show was needless.

Deciding that it is easy money to bring Kong back to New York then finish the film, Carl Denham has an elaborate scheme to turn Kong into a side show for people to come and see. Denham has big dreams but those dreams are quickly dashed by Kongs affections for Ms. Darrow. Kong breaks out of his chains and snares Ann Darrow as to escape the bad people in the world. Kong wants to be rid of these poachers and has no intent on killing any of them. We see the famous climb, but at that point it was useless as the evening is a bust. The emotion, the romance, and the drama was never there the whole show long.

Many people will want to see King Kong for the sake of seeing the ape. The sets are great and will no doubt be up for a Tony Award. The New York City set as well as the boat is truly remarkable. It is not enough, however, to carry the show. The dance scenes as well as the songs themselves were both done without any emotion, reminiscent of a rehearsal more than a show. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this show was not getting reworked when it toured the world before coming to Broadway. Surely the notices abroad could not be any better than what is about to come when the show opens.