KING KONG Reviews- Page 3

[HogansHero]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 12:23am

Charley Kringas Inc said: "I have no doubt that King Kong is a hot mess, but that dual review is incredibly smarmy."

First of all, please do us a favor and repair to your dictionary and look up "smarmy." 

Whatever the accurate descriptor, what is it about the dual review that makes it any worse (is that what you were going for?) than most of the others. Is there something about a dual review that you find objectionable ipso facto?

[SomethingPeculiar]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 12:41am

I think because we're so used to traditional "essay" reviews, the dual reviews feel less formal. But as we all know, both critics can write a scathing pan (see: The Little Mermaid, Margaritaville), and this review clearly wouldn't have been any better if just one had weighed in.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 12:42am

Please go to Jordan Roth's instagram and watch King Kong's final bow. That is just laughable and inane. If the director or anyone thought that was the way to end the show, then they deserve all the bad reviews they get. To fly in this massive, life-less puppet is just silly and totally takes away all the magic. And then to post it on social media...

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 1:03am

EW comes in with a grade of C for the show overall, but an A for the technology. 

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 1:14am

RippedMan said: "Please go to Jordan Roth's instagram and watch King Kong's final bow. That is just laughable and inane. If the director or anyone thought that was the way to end the show, then they deserve all the bad reviews they get. To fly in this massive, life-less puppet is just silly and totally takes away all the magic. And then to post it on social media..."

The show has several problems, but the curtain call isn't one of them. If you had actually seen it in person, you would know that.

Updated On: 11/9/18 at 01:14 AM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 1:14am

RippedMan said: "Please go to Jordan Roth's instagram and watch King Kong's final bow. That is just laughable and inane. If the director or anyone thought that was the way to end the show, then they deserve all the bad reviews they get. To fly in this massive, life-less puppet is just silly and totally takes away all the magic. And then to post it on social media..."

To be fair on the last point, Jordy has a financial stake, as do both of the other landlords, and some other respected producers. This is no newbie undertaking, and it is an embarrassment for all of them. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 1:17am

I'm well aware of who Jordan Roth is, and, I don't need to see the whole show - I will see it, I love a hot mess express - but I think having a limp puppet lowered in just underserves the entire preceding 2 hours. There's a far smarter, more theatrical way to stage that. That's all. 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 1:20am

Oh, no disagreement of substance. I was just pointing out that the ecstatic post is financial/marketing, not sentiment. 

[bk]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 1:55am

"To sit there and troll it is sophomoric and demeaning."  Am I really reading this comment on THIS board?  That's comedy, baby.

As to the review - it was fun and different, and probably a lot more fun than the show.

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 2:15am

For what it's worth, I checked Telecharge for Nov 30 (Fri night, a week after Thanksgiving weekend) and the house is about half sold with huge swaths of seats available at all levels.

[bear88]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 2:53am

An interesting pan from Sara Holdren of Vulture: "I mean, the monkey's amazing. And we came for the monkey, right?"

https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/theater-review-king-kong-whos-there.html

A straightforward pan from Peter Marks of the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/poor-king-kong-first-taken-prisoner-now-trapped-in-a-bad-musical/2018/11/08/34e71ce4-e2b1-11e8-8f5f-a55347f48762_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3d371fdfc195

 

Updated On: 11/9/18 at 02:53 AM

[SweetLips22]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 3:55am

The producers can't all be idiots[or can they?] so they would KNOW they had a s.it show on their hands.

I think the whole exercise, and related publicity, is to do what they did with the Dinosaurs, turn the ape into an arena spectacular then retire him off to a theme park---he will make them squillions.

It's all about King Kong-the people are just fodder.

 

 

 

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 6:14am

HogansHero said: "Charley Kringas Inc said: "I have no doubt that King Kong is a hot mess, but that dual review is incredibly smarmy."

First of all, please do us a favor and repair to your dictionary and look up "smarmy."

Whatever the accurate descriptor, what is it about the dual review that makes it any worse (is that what you were going for?) than most of the others. Is there something about a dual review that you find objectionable ipso facto?"

Good catch, I meant “smug”. I get what they were going for with the format, the AV Club does/has done it many times for a similar purpose, but as written, their dialogue is really stilted. The repartee is kind of lame, so it’s hard to buy it as banter, and it makes the skewering feel unfocused, which is a shame - it doesn’t have the laser focus of a good traditional pan.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 6:51am

That New York Times review was spot on, why global creatures went forward with this show after the Melbourne season left a lot on industry folks say it was good money thrown after bad.

Just close it now

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 7:10am

This quote : GREEN The adapters of this “King Kong” seem to have two stories they wanted to tell. One is a morality tale about the evil of trapping a living being in a cheap entertainment scheme. To judge from my own misery in the audience, I’d say this is a theme they mastered.   OUCH.

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:03am

I wrote a pan for a local arts paper once that I pulled and rewrote for being just too vicious and snide. "Ever heard the old saw about a show so bad that everyone involved should be forbidden to perform again? Well, this show goes even farther: everyone involved should probably be euthanized."

Maybe it's time they start preparing a twenty-foot hypodermic needle for poor Kong?

[WldKingdomHM]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:27am

Is anyone going to start the, “Whats next in the Broadway Theatre?” thread

[Lot666]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:46am

songanddanceman2 said: "The conversation was immature and sounded like twp dated theatre snobs who are stuck in the 50s."

massofmen said: "What a duo of nasty elitist men who have never created a single thing in their lives."

I've never liked Brantley, but he and Green are now slumming it with Riedel. It's not about thoughtful criticism, it's about malicious glee.

Updated On: 11/9/18 at 08:46 AM

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:47am

WldKingdomHM said: "Is anyone going to start the, “Whats next in the Broadway Theatre?” thread"

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1113200

 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:50am

@Kringas I agree the writing is not good, which I attribute to 2 things (these 2 are not funny and I think that rather than an actual edited transcription of a conversation the whole thing was either done by email or sitting around a table making it feel inorganic). But I don't think it is smug either.

@WildKingdom check the page. 

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:51am

LOVED the NYTimes review quote! “The adapters of this “King Kong” seem to have two stories they wanted to tell. One is a morality tale about the evil of trapping a living being in a cheap entertainment scheme. To judge from my own misery in the audience, I’d say this is a theme they mastered.”

BUT we completely anticipated that much of the show was unfortunately weak. I really did enjoy the show but again for the exact same reasons others are also agreeing. LOVED the gigantic King Kong puppet. I would not only recommend King Kong to family and friends (with some caveats that the show on a whole isn't entirely amazing - the ape is the reason to go) but I think I would actually pay to see King Kong a second time again (only because the puppet is that freaking amazing).

I have also seen "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"...I will admit that I enjoyed King Kong more! "Harry Potter..." was a long drawn out drama with magic tricks. King Kong the puppet is artistic, creative, new, something you won't have seen before and likely due to the sheer size and weight won't be a touring production.

[NYCblurb]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:58am

bear88 said: "An interesting pan from Sara Holdren of Vulture: "I mean, the monkey's amazing. And we came for the monkey, right?"

https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/theater-review-king-kong-whos-there.html

A straightforward pan from Peter Marks of the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/poor-king-kong-first-taken-prisoner-now-trapped-in-a-bad-musical/2018/11/08/34e71ce4-e2b1-11e8-8f5f-a55347f48762_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3d371fdfc195

"

Marks was spot on, sadly. I never celebrate the failure of theater, and the loss of jobs, juice and joy on a stage. Kong's ship scenes, when the backstage tilted up, with video water walls, made me move with it. I thought that was stunning. Never seen anything like that on stage. The puppet was incredible in darkness. The wires and puppet wranglers were always present that belief was only momentarily suspended until reality intruded with the lights up again. Total loss I think. Will lose all its dough. Sold less than 700K last week. Has a cast of about 25, and another 15 or so puppet people - total run cost I imagine of 1.1M a week. Won't last there at the Broadway long.

 

[NYCblurb]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 8:58am

bear88 said: "An interesting pan from Sara Holdren of Vulture: "I mean, the monkey's amazing. And we came for the monkey, right?"

https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/theater-review-king-kong-whos-there.html

A straightforward pan from Peter Marks of the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/poor-king-kong-first-taken-prisoner-now-trapped-in-a-bad-musical/2018/11/08/34e71ce4-e2b1-11e8-8f5f-a55347f48762_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3d371fdfc195

"

Marks was spot on, sadly. I never celebrate the failure of theater, and the loss of jobs, juice and joy on a stage. Kong's ship scenes, when the backstage tilted up, with video water walls, made me move with it. I thought that was stunning. Never seen anything like that on stage. The puppet was incredible in darkness. The wires and puppet wranglers were always present that belief was only momentarily suspended until reality intruded with the lights up again. Total loss I think. Will lose all its dough. Sold less than 700K last week. Has a cast of about 25, and another 15 or so puppet people - total run cost I imagine of 1.1M a week. Won't last there at the Broadway long.

 

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 9:38am

Brian07663NJ said: "I have also seen "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"...I will admit that I enjoyed King Kong more! "Harry Potter..." was a long drawn out drama with magic tricks. King Kong the puppet is artistic, creative, new, something you won't have seen before and likely due to the sheer size and weight won't be a touring production."

I didn't see Harry Potter primarily to see magic tricks?!

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 11/9/18 at 9:59am

What's wrong with the curtain call? It seems from the reviews that King Kong is the main attraction of the show and got the best reviews out of anybody and anything else, so it's probably wise to bring the puppet back and treat it like a cast member. Also, I think it was a way to celebrate the puppeters and I guess having Kong there is to make sure the audience knew who those people were, especially the ones off-stage.