After 86 years, "King Kong" hit Broadway

New York, March 10 (Overseas Network) When the giant gorilla King Kong fell from the roof of the Empire State Building, the heroine's mournful singing voice sounded, the dawn gradually appeared, and the surging applause poured onto the stage from all directions. On the evening of March 7, the musical "King Kong" staged at the Broadway Theater in New York ignited the enthusiasm of the audience, and more than 1,700 people in the audience stood up and warmly applauded the closing credits.

In Merian On the 86th anniversary of the premiere of C. Cooper's original "King Kong," king kong descended on the Broadway stage. In the past three months, the perfect combination of electronic animation technology and traditional puppet shows has brought the audience a grand-scale but delicate visual feast unprecedented in the history of stage dramas. "The show was quite stunning! Compared with the impression left by the 2005 movie science fiction films, the humanistic color of this Broadway version of "King Kong" is particularly touching. The Columbia college student who walked out of the theater was less than emotional.

The play is based on a novel published in 1932. The story takes place during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when young actress Ann Darrow and filmmaker Carl Denham left bustling New York City for a secluded, pristine island to shoot the wonders of the world. They meet the giant gorilla King Kong on the island, thus opening a strange adventure.

King Kong rescues the actress when she is attacked by a giant python, but she is tempted by the fame and fortune of the producer to betray King Kong. King Kong was captured by the crew and taken to New York to perform "The Legend of Beauty and the Beast". The heroine is ashamed to see the falsehood of the producer and the pain of King Kong, so she helps King Kong escape. King Kong, who ran wild on the streets of New York, was finally surrounded by planes on the roof terrace of the Empire State Building and was strafed and killed.

The contemporary interpretation of this classic story is Jack Thorne, the screenwriter known for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The conflicting character design in the play is touching: the filmmaker Carl has the compassion to protect the heroine and the greed to use her to achieve his goals; the heroine Ann Darrow is gentle and kind, but also difficult to escape the shackles of utilitarianism, and has a strong and brave side after the epiphany; the gorilla King Kong, who seems to be the most powerful monster, is actually a real victim.

In addition to the writers who touch people's hearts, King Kong brings together first-class creators: director and choreographer Drew McEoney won the Oliver Award for London's West End version of "In the Highlands"; composer and music producer Marius de Villiers was a four-time Grammy Award winner who wrote music for films such as "Philharmonic City" and "Moulin Rouge"; songwriter Eddie Perfe is a Heppmann Award winner, representing the musical Heroes of the Dancing Nation.

"With the wild roar of the gorillas, the moment the huge King Kong appeared, I saw a breathing life!" Alan, who watched the show, sighed.

As the most expensive musical in recent years, one of the highlights of "King Kong" is to use high-tech means to carry giant gorilla puppets that are 6 meters high and weigh more than 900 kilograms onto the Broadway stage. Simulation bio designer Sony Tildes has made an unprecedented degree of fusion of animation technology and traditional puppet theater in the history of stage drama, through the perfect integration of robotics, puppet control and stage design, so that this legendary monster that has only appeared on the big screen has entered the Broadway Theater and vividly had a shocking encounter with the audience.

"What I'm most curious about is that the gorilla wood idol on the stage seems to be real, especially the facial expression changes vividly and touchingly, how to do it?" Allen said.

"King Kong's subtle facial expressions need to be completed by 15 industrial servo motors, and its eyelids, eyelids, nose, lips, corners of the mouth and chin are pre-programmed with expressions, combined with the real-time control of the puppeteer, with a delicate look that only high-end cinema graphic creatures have, which is unprecedented in the history of the stage." Zhou Keying, director of global marketing and public relations at Hongyang International, said that the vocal dubbing underwent real-time electronic processing during the performance, which was also closer to the rich voice dynamics of the gorillas and was full of appeal.

"This time, in order to solve the language barrier for international tourists to watch "King Kong" on Broadway, Schubert Ticketing has launched services such as hearing aids, closed captions, oral images and multilingual subtitles." Zhou Keying introduced. As a multinational cultural company focusing on broadway and the theatrical investment and production in London's West End, New York-based Hongyang International has been working closely with musical theatre producers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Europe and other places for many years, continuously bringing international musicals, immersive dramas and children's dramas to Asia, and deepening the production, copyright operation and development of new plays. In 2017, the "Jersey Boys" China tour was widely popular, and this year will launch the musical "Madagascar" and other tours to China. (Zheng Sining)