KING KONG - Previews- Page 6

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 2:14pm

Tom5 said: "Carl Denham was a very bad dude. He was directly responsible for countless deaths on Skull Island and New York City. I hope in this version Kong squashes him as he did in the Jessica Lange version. (Great John Barry score there too)"

This actually made me think... so we got Ann, we got Carl.... but has the "Jack" character been cut? Has the idea of a love triangle (If you want to call it that) been scrapped as a way to make it more "I don't need NO man cus I'm a strong independent woman and this monkey gets it" thing? Are really the ONLY three characters that matter left in the show the Kong, Ann, and Carl? Woof!

[morosco]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 2:52pm

First Preview Bows

[Bwayfan292]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 2:54pm

That puppet looks amazing!
But judging the backdrop and costumes, this thing reminds me so much of spiderman

[lvance]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 5:06pm

WhizzerMarvin, you posted our thoughts almost exactly! We saw the Friday Preview.
Kong (the puppet) was amazing but the rest of the show was a hot mess.

Updated On: 10/6/18 at 05:06 PM

[Fan123]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 5:29pm

How did the show go with the portrayal of the local human inhabitants of Skull Island? I was wondering if the US production would try something a bit different with that, although I might be overthinking or poorly predicting how race would/wouldn't be considered in relation to this in the US. In the Australian production, the locals' functions in the story were mostly limited to a) being creepy and mysterious and b) offering up / pimping out an unwilling (white) woman to a monster. And I'm honestly not sure if you could have it otherwise, since the build-up to Kong's entrance needs to be disorienting and scary for Ann in order to be sufficiently exciting for the audience. (TBH, for me it was one of the best parts in a bad show.) Having the show pause for one of the locals to sing a ballad about how they're nice people really who are just in a bind because of the monster, wouldn't exactly work lol. The Australian production did have a few moments here and there which tried to show the white visitors were just as 'monstrous' as the locals in their way, for example by... (possible spoiler if this is the same in the new production)

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

...providing themselves with gas masks when they lure Kong to the beach to gas him into unconsciousness and get him onto the ship, but leaving the nearby locals, who were seemingly helping them with the capture attempt, to fend for themselves and collapse unconscious - or worse.

 

Maybe casting Ann as a black woman helped with this? Or maybe I'm way off in thinking of this as a big consideration for the US production at all!

[BroadwayBear2]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 5:36pm

Can anyone post a full song list? Is the arrangement of "get happy" still in there somewhere?

[Dan6]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 5:45pm

BroadwayBear2 said: "Can anyone post a full song list? Is the arrangement of "get happy" still in there somewhere?"

 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 5:45pm

Fan123,

There are no indigenous people living on Skull Island in this version. There are people dressed up in vines, but I thought they were supposed to acting as vegetation and not people covered in camouflage.

BroadwayBear,

Get Happy is not used.

[Dan6]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 5:57pm

Scarlet Leigh said: "Tom5 said: "Carl Denham was a very bad dude. He was directly responsible for countless deaths on Skull Island and New York City. I hope in this version Kong squashes him as he did in the Jessica Lange version. (Great John Barry score there too)"

This actually made me think... so we got Ann, we got Carl.... but has the "Jack" character been cut? Has the idea of a love triangle (If you want to call it that) been scrapped as a way to make it more "I don't need NO man cus I'm a strong independent woman and this monkey gets it" thing? Are really the ONLY three characters that matter left in the show the Kong, Ann, and Carl? Woof!"

No Jack, no love triangle. Just Ann, Carl, and Kong, with smaller roles for Lumpy (a revision of Andy Serkis’ character from the Peter Jackson film version) and the ship captain. Other than that it’s all ensemble (and puppeteers). 

[lvance]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 6:01pm

I don’t remember that any humans were portrayed as inhabitants of Skull Island

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

The second act referred to “living trees” that were on the island   In the first act she got caught up in these “living vines” and they delivered her to Kong   It was very vague and a variance from the traditional story  

 

Fan123 said: How did the show go with the portrayal of the local human inhabitants of Skull Island? 

[brian1973]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 6:01pm

Running costs are over $1million a week. 

 

This is show is doomed without rave reviews. 

[BroadwayBear2]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 6:02pm

Dan6 said: "BroadwayBear2 said: "Can anyone post a full song list? Is the arrangement of "get happy" still in there somewhere?"

"for some reason the image wont display on my computer, is it posted on insta or twitter somewhere?

 

[DrewJoseph]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 6:12pm

If theres no jack, inhabitants, dinosaurs, damsel in distress needing to be saved, than what is actually in the show? Surely it can’t be 2,5 hours of just watching the puppet? There are no sets, no story and mediocre to bad songs, so thats also not helping it. Is there any real A story line? And is there a good finale to act 1?

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 6:21pm

Here’s the Song List

ACT 1

Prologue

Dance My Way to the Light 

Queen of New York (These first three “songs” join to make the opening sequence)

Building the Boat/Setting Sail 

Cabin Soliloquy (For Ann, more of a snippet than a song)

Pressure Up

The Mutiny

Skull Island

The Ascent

The World

The Cobra Fight

Full Moon Lullaby

The Descent

Kong’s Capture (Most of these are underscoring and not real songs)

ACT 2

Entr’acte: The Voyager Returns

Bringing the King (Embarrassing Hamilton knockoff rap)

The Wild and Perilous Sea

Last of Our Kind 

Last of Our Kind (reprise)

Scream for the Money 

Dance My Way to the Light (reprise)

Broadway Nightmare

NYC Chase

 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 6:23pm

Post froze...

Continued:

Empire Ascent 

The World (reprise)

Air War

Empire Soliloquy

Free

Wow, just typing out these titles makes me cringe!

[Allen S Bishop]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 9:34pm

I am at Saturday night's intermission. Dumpster fire. It's not good, but people are loving it. The puppet reveal is pretty neat. All projection sets, but some of the projections are terrible. Music is unimaginative and messy. First act, One hour and 5 minutes and probably two songs too long. Don't see this show if you get seasick easily. I will share more after the show.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/6/18 at 11:59pm

I've been waiting to hear if this score is anything before letting myself get at all excited for Beetlejuice... :/ 

[toph509]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 12:42am

Alright. Saw the show tonight. Please forgive my disjointed sentences and rambling. It’s been a long day in the city.

My husband and my good friend loved everything about the show.

I did not.

I thought the show lacked whenever Kong was not onstage.

Everything about the puppet is amazing. The choreography of his operators. The puppeteers’ athleticism. Their timing as they disconnect and reconnect cables then jump from Kong’s back. His facials. Can he be nominated for a Tony? I think he should. My friend left the theatre saying “I am emotionally attached to a 20 foot gorilla puppet”.

I was quite shocked at how seemingly smooth the show went considering the absolute craziness of the beast on stage.

The serpent fight was awkward.

The ascension to the top of Empire State was amazing.

Any time Kong runs is the best part of the show.

The music was just okay.

The choreography is... a lot. It’s just a lot. It’s good. But Yeah. It’s just a lot. But pretty impressive to see the ensemble work their asses off as puppeteers and dancers.

Am I a jerk if I say that, while amazing to watch, Kong’s overall movements were just a little slow? Watching him stand is an amazing sight, but when it takes 20 seconds for that.......

Spoiler:

I loved the moment right before Ann rides Kong’s back for the first time, where the entire puppet team motioned for her to join him. I thought that was a great touch having them be a great extension of Kong.


Overall, I’ve been waiting for this show for six years. My husband and I promised we would come back to NYC when it finally opened, and I’m happy we saw it early.

I was expecting a technical disaster with holds galore and I was very pleased that none of that happened.

Worth the $150 ticket price? Meh. Probably not


 

Updated On: 10/9/18 at 12:42 AM

[Allen S Bishop]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 12:43am

All I can say is YIKES, this one's an all-time stinker.  Here are thoughts out of order:

• There is only one song in the entire show, Ann's second act solo, that's barely worthy of a Broadway stage.  Can't remember the name, can't hum it even now.  The song score is awful.
• The symphonic score is average, no better than bland action movie music.
• Carl climbed from SR to SL on some bungees as he sang a song in Act 1 for no reason. Lumpy climbed below him, for no apparent reason  It was weird, and I felt bad for the actors.
• The actor playing Carl is obviously talented.  I would like to see him in something else. 
• The actor playing Lumpy chose to voice him like Cookie Monster.  That is all.
• Christiani Pitts is a very, very poor man's Beyonce, but I'm not sure they made the right choice with her.  Out of her depth.  And her character's attitude was totally inappropriate.  I half expected her to snap out an "OH, NO YOU DI-IN'T!"
• There are cheerleaders with pom poms.  They look like the Atlanta Falcons dance team.
• This musical thinks it's Hamilton, which is so, so sad.
• Kong is cool at first but it wears off.  They only brought him DS once and it was impressive.  Also, there was a segment where Ann climbed on Kong's back and he ran down the street (with aid from the screens) that was effective.  But my big problem with Kong is that his mobility is limited.  
• SPOILER:  The way we know Kong defeated the snake was because of a projected blood splatter.  Seriously.
• Bad book.  Bad, bad, bad, book.  My 14 year old was rolling his eyes at those groaners.
• What might this musical have been if if Pasek and Paul had gotten hold of it?

Maybe more thoughts after I digest further.  The good news is that we also saw a matinee of My Fair Lady and it was excellent.

[Fan123]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 12:51am

Thank you, WhizzerMarvin and lvance. I guess cutting the Skull Island people altogether is one solution! In fairness, nothing I could think of would have been particularly better; but it would have been cool if the show had come up with a brilliant way to handle that.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 1:24am

brian1973 said: "Running costs are over $1million a week.



This is show is doomed without rave reviews."

That has to be the highest since Spider-Man, right?

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 11:20am

Call_me_jorge said: "brian1973 said: "Running costs are over $1million a week.
This is show is doomed without rave reviews."
That has to be the highest since Spider-Man, right?"


I believe DOLLY with Bette had an operating cost of around $1mm per week, because of the high high salaries, percentages, advertising, etc. But that's kind of a different beast than a monster musical :)

[ACL2006]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 2:20pm

Let's not forget how bad SPIDERMAN was and it ran for over 1,000 performances. Tourists love a spectacle, even a bad one. 

[VotePeron]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 4:19pm

brian1973 said: "Running costs are over $1million a week."

 

Source??

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/7/18 at 4:37pm

ACL2006 said: "Let's not forget how bad SPIDERMAN was and it ran for over 1,000 performances. Tourists love a spectacle, even a bad one."

I feel as if Spiderman had a TON more press/buzz than this does.