King Kong (NYC) NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (858)
See it if You want to see the best puppetry on Broadway by a long shot. You want to see something that isn't being done in any other show to date.
Don't see it if You believe that a strong score and book are the only things worth seeing in a show. You want to leave with the songs stuck in your head. Read more
See it if you like spectacle and a large ambitious Broadway show!!! The sets were amazing and Kong was well conceived.
Don't see it if You don't really like period piece costumed dramas or who have small children who might be traumatized see a menacing full sized puppet.
See it if good music, great performances, sexy dancers, well-staged, insanely impressive combo of puppetry & projection. Strong storytelling.
Don't see it if you want to hate watch. (You will probably end up actually liking it.) Genre blending music put some people off (pop vs. 30s at points).
See it if you enjoy good singing and dancing.
Don't see it if you expect the King Kong puppet to perform amazing leaps and jumps.
See it if You like musicals or want to see for yourself Kong come to life on stage. He is spectacular. Give it a try!
Don't see it if Don't like musicals or are easily led by critics. It's actually pretty Good!
See it if Dazzled me...& my favorite effect was not even King Kong! I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, but enjoy it I did. Pitt was IMPRESSIVE
Don't see it if you can't just sit back and enjoy it for what it is -- an amazing spectacle of broadway design artistry. Way too loud which was unpleasant. Read more
See it if you are eager to witness a gigantic marionette puppet. The Kong character is incredible and his facial movement are strikingly animated.
Don't see it if you expect a fully thought out story. I wanted to love it so much, the opening number had me hooked, but full the story is way too ambitious
See it if you don't think every show needs a deep message. You enjoy amazing puppetry. You want an afternoon/evening of just plain fun!
Don't see it if your shows must solve the worlds problems and be deep and political. You can't just sit back and enjoy something for the moment.
Critic Reviews (67)
"Lacks a memorable score, dramatic intensity, and grippingly engrossing characters. For a show based on 'the greatest horror film of all time,' its fright threshold is not much greater than a kid…at Halloween…The visual elements are so seamlessly integrated with the physical staging that they often inspire a visceral response…The ape never transcends its artificial existence to represent anything approaching a threatening presence."
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"It’s strongest elements include the larger-than-life puppet. There’s also good work by scenic and projection designer Peter England, costume designer Peter Mumford, lighting designer Peter Hylenski, aerial and Kong movement director Gavin Robins, and Artist in Motion is credited with video and projection imaging. Together they will convince patrons that they’re getting their money’s worth...But writing? Acting? Directing? Thorne takes liberties with the plot that don’t pay off."
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"Playwright Jack Thorne has rejiggered the tale in the musical...but its old bones are in place...Every now and then, people break into Perfect’s songs, which are both vacuous and risibly on the nose...Yet in the center of all this embarrassment is something deeply, even primally impressive...Kong’s entrance is the best thing in the show...We see how ridiculous it is to do a crummy musical next to something so big, so true, so magnificent."
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"As a feat of stagecraft and structural engineering, 'Kong' is cool...A clumsy retread of the 1933 movie though now with a less coded racism, less coded rape and fewer anxieties about the tension between primitivism and modernity. What’s left? A show that makes breathlessly little sense and is rarely even fun...If 'King Kong' is an allegory of the havoc that ensues when you give a star subpar material, well done. Otherwise it’s a one-ton cockup."
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"That he’s a puppet only makes his performance all the more riveting. But he/it has an advantage over the human actors on stage. Kong doesn’t sing one song composed by Eddie Perfect or utter one word written by Jack Thorne...As designed by Sonny Tilders, Kong is a genuine marvel that requires no fewer than 10 people to operate its limbs, torso and, most amazingly, facial features...Whenever the story line lags, which is most of the time, your attention goes to those 10 puppeteers."
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“The topline takeaway of ‘King Kong’...is the dazzling stagecraft...What this show irrefutably nails is the scale and scope of its stagecraft...What it clearly misses is a show strong enough to support that stagecraft, and any critical depth or address of 85 years of discussion about the meaning of its source material...The attempt, by this all male-creative team, to remake Ann as a feminist icon is as transparent as it is poorly executed.”
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"This adaptation...makes some anachronistic updates to the format and plot, the characters, and their motivations, rendering them largely unlikable and heartless opportunists...The best moments in the production are when Kong takes the stage...Unfortunately the show’s cross-temporal music and choreography present an inconsistent jumble of period styles and errant references that contribute little to the story or justify its production as a musical."
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"The problem with 'King Kong' is that the humans on stage do not know what to do when King Kong is elsewhere, and the production doesn’t know what to do with them either...As pure spectacle, 'King Kong' thrillingly delivers. The songs are fine rather than memorable and the story simple and fluent rather than dense and chewy. But really, neither has to do much more. This is all about the hulking, crouching, flying, not-very-hidden King Kong—and the ape has totally got this."
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