King Kong
To Open on Broadway in Fall 2018
At the Broadway Theatre
Producers Global Creatures (CEO Carmen Pavlovic) and Roy Furman are pleased to announce that King Kong, will arrive on Broadway in the fall of 2018 at the Shubert Organization’s Broadway Theatre.
King Kong’s first preview, press opening, and on-sale dates will be announced in the coming months. King Kong will play the Broadway Theatre following the limited engagement of Miss Saigon which as previously announced will begin its North American tour in September 2018.
King Kong is written by Jack Thorne, who received the 2017 Olivier Award and the Evening Standard Award for Best Play for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and wrote the critically acclaimed play Let the Right One In.
The show will be directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, an Olivier Award winner for the London production of In the Heights and an Olivier Award nominee this year for Jesus Christ Superstar. McOnie directed the U.K. premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical, and the recent London productions of The Wild Party and On the Town.
The score for King Kong is composed by four-time Grammy nominee Marius de Vries (the films La La Land, Moulin Rouge, and Romeo + Juliet) with songs by Helpmann Award winner Eddie Perfect, composer and lyricist of the Broadway-bound Beetlejuice, Strictly Ballroom The Musical and Shane Warne The Musical.
Pioneering creature designer Sonny Tilders developed Kong for the show, bringing together the worlds of animatronics and puppetry that has never been seen on stage before. Tilders was honored by the Helpmann Awards, Australia’s highest theatrical honor, for Outstanding Theatrical Achievement.
Carmen Pavlovic said, “I’m thrilled that King Kong will be coming to Broadway next season led by Drew McOnie and Jack Thorne, who will bring a new dimension to the telling of Kong’s story. Drew’s physical world will allow Kong to live in ways we never thought possible, propelled by Jack’s text and the score and songs written by Marius de Vries and Eddie Perfect.”
Producer Roy Furman said, “King Kong is a quintessential New York story and I’m proud to be involved in this historic production. Our team is creating a theatrical experience that we hope will astound audiences, while delighting them with its heartfelt storytelling."
Based on the novel of the original 1933 screenplay, the stage show of King Kong is a contemporary take on the classic tale of beauty and the beast.
King Kong’s design team for Broadway will include Peter England (Set Design), Sonny Tilders (Creature Design), Roger Kirk (Costume Design), Peter Mumford (Lighting Design), Peter Hylenski (Sound Design), Gavin Robins (Aerial and King Kong Movement Director),
King Kong is authorized by the Merian C. Cooper Estate.
Casting, additional members of the creative team, and ticketing details for King Kong will be announced at a later date.
BIOGRAPHIES
JACK THORNE (Text) writes for theatre, film, television, and radio. His theatre credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hope, and Let The Right One In, all directed by John Tiffany; Junkyard, a Headlong, Rose Theatre Kingston, Bristol Old Vic and Theatr Clwyd co-production; The Solid Life of Sugarwater for Graeae Theatre Company and the National Theatre; Bunny for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Stacy for the Trafalgar Studios; 2nd May 1997 and When You Cure Me for the Bush Theatre. His adaptations include Woyzeck, Old Vic; The Physicists for the Donmar Warehouse and Stuart: A Life Backwards for Hightide. On film his credits include Wonder, War Book, A Long Way Down, and The Scouting Book for Boys. For television his credits include “National Treasure” (2017 BAFTA winner), “The Last Panthers,” “Don’t Take My Baby,” “This Is England,” “The Fades,” “Glue,” and “Cast-Offs.” He won 2016 BAFTAs for Best Mini-Series (“This Is England ’90”) and Best Single Drama (“Don’t Take My Baby”), and in 2012 won Best Series (“The Fades”) and Best Serial (“This Is England ’88”).
DREW McONIE (Director, Choreographer) is one of Britain's most sought-after emerging directors and choreographers. He is the Artistic Director of The McOnie Company and a proud Associate Artist at The Old Vic theatre. Drew won the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreography for In the Heights in 2016 and he was nominated for the same award in 2017 for the ground-breaking production of Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Theatre credits as director/choreographer include: On the Town (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Strictly Ballroom (Toronto/West Yorkshire Playhouse). Theatre credits as a choreographer include: Jesus Christ Superstar (Olivier Award Nomination for Best Theatre Choreography 2017 – Regents Park), Kinky Boots (Malmo Opera), In the Heights (Olivier Award Winner for Best Theatre Choreography, WhatsOnStage Award Nomination for Best Choreography, Winner of the Off West End Theatre Award for Best Choreography – Southwark Playhouse and Kings Cross Theatre), The Lorax (Old Vic), Hairspray (BroadwayWorld Award Winner for Best Choreography – U.K. national tour), Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith), Oklahoma! (U.K. national tour), The Sound of Music (Curve Theatre Leicester), Little Red Riding Hood (NYB), Chicago (Curve Theatre Leicester), West Side Story (NYMT), British Style (collaboration with Matthew Bourne at Buckingham Palace – BBC), Laurel and Hardy (The Watermill), James and the Giant Peach (U.K. national tour), 13 (directed by Jason Robert Brown – West End), Tommy (European tour), Spring Awakening (German premiere – Frankfurt), The Full Monty (German premiere – Frankfurt), Kes (Liverpool Playhouse & U.K. national tour). For The McOnie Company: Jekyll and Hyde (BroadwayWorld Award Winner for Outstanding Achievement in Dance – Old Vic Theatre), DRUNK! (Curve Theatre Leicester/ The Bridewell Theatre London) which lead to him being nominated for the Emerging Artist Award at the National Dance Awards, Making Midnight (Jermyn Street Theatre/ Latitude Festival) Slaughter (Audience Choice Award Winner – The Place Prize), and Be Mine! (Robin Howard Theatre). Film credits include: Me BeforeYou (directed by Thea Sharrock) and Recordare: Days of Remembrance (pre-selected for the Cannes & Berlin Film Festivals). Upcoming projects include: choreographer of Stephen Sondheim’s Company (directed by Marianne Elliott for the new Elliott Harper Theatre Company in the West End).
MARIUS DE VRIES (Composer) has won two BAFTAs, an Ivor Novello award, and four Grammy nominations. He is best known recently for his music direction and production on the multi-award-winning musical La La Land, which won 2017 Academy and Golden Globe Awards. Beginning his career playing keyboards for The Blow Monkeys, he has worked with artists such as Madonna, Bjork, David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Chrissie Hynde, Neil Finn, Annie Lennox, Bebel Gilberto, David Gray, P.J. Harvey, U2, Massive Attack, Elbow, Perry Farrell, Josh Groban, and many others. In the film and theatre world, he has collaborated with Baz Luhrmann, George Lucas, Andrew Lloyd Webber, A.R. Rahman, Zack Snyder, Daniel Kramer, and Stephan Elliott. De Vries' long collaborative relationship with Nellee Hooper was responsible for landmark recordings with Massive Attack, Björk, Madonna, The Sneaker Pimps, Tina Turner, and U2, and ultimately the soundtrack and score for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet and the groundbreaking Moulin Rouge. Marius composed the score for Stephan Elliot’s The Eye of the Beholder and Easy Virtue. In musical theatre, Marius has worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber on Bombay Dreams and the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera: Love Never Dies. He also produced the cast album for Jerry Springer The Opera. In 2010, Marius contributed score and song productions to Kick-Ass and Sucker Punch, as well as co-producing an LP with Robbie Robertson. Another collaboration with Rufus Wainwright arrived in early 2016, an album of musical settings of nine Shakespearean sonnets, released to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, entitled Take all My Loves. Marius worked on George Lucas' animated fairytale musical, Strange Magic. He is now attached to Teen Spirit, starring Elle Fanning, directed by Max Minghella, and earlier this year he signed an agreement with the English National Opera to develop new and adventurous opera-related projects. He is also completing an album with The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.
EDDIE PERFECT (Songwriter) is one of Australia’s most diverse, respected and prolific writer/composer/performers, having made his mark in the fields of comedy, music theatre composition, playwriting, screenwriting, classical music, jazz and acting for stage and screen. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Mick Holland on Ten’s Offspring, a judge on Australia's Got Talent, and as the new host of Play School, Eddie has won multiple awards for his work both as a performer and a writer. His stage credits include Baz Lurhmann and Global Creatures’ Strictly Ballroom, Malthouse Theatre Company (Babes InThe Wood, Drink Pepsi Bitch, The Big Con), Shane Warne The Musical, Keating! The Musical, Songs From The Middle in collaboration with ANAM, Iain Grandage and the UK’s Brodsky Quartet, Opera Victoria’s The Threepenny Opera and Opera Australia’s South Pacific. His solo music comedy shows (Angry Eddie, Drink Pepsi Bitch, Misanthropology) have received Helpmann and Green Room Awards, touring Australia, New Zealand, Edinburgh and London. His first play The Beast (for Melbourne Theatre Company) was a commercial and critical hit, before touring Australia with Ambassador Theatre Group in 2016. Eddie is currently writing a new play (Vivid White) for Melbourne Theatre Company, a musical adaptation of Beetlejuice for Warner Bros. Theatricals in New York, and is co-Artistic Director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival.