Though in absentia, two gigantic personalities tower over the upcoming fall Broadway musical season: King Kong and Cher, writes Ron Cohen.
After much huffing and puffing, King Kong, the musical featuring a 20-foot tall puppet as the mighty Kong, will finally make it to the Great White Way with previews starting 5 October 2018 for an official opening on 8 November.
The King Kong musical, which first saw the light of day in Australia in 2013, has plowed through various creative teams. On board for the Broadway venture are Marius de Vries, who was with the Australian outing, listed as composer and music producer Eddie Perfect as songwriter, and Drew McOnie as director and choreographer. The book is by Jack Thorne, who worked wizardry with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Christiani Pitts, coming in from Broadway’s A Bronx Tale, will play Ann Darrow, the actress who becomes the apple of Kong’s eye, and Eric William Morris portrays Carl Denham, the adventurous movie-maker who looks to capture Kong on film and otherwise.
Moving closely on Kong’s trail will be The Cher Show. Previews start 1 November with the opening set for 3 December. The show, of course, recounts the life and a career of more than 50 years of the performer who first made waves as the female half of Sonny and Cher, went on to solo fame as both a singer and actress and eventually evolved into an icon.
As with Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, the show, which has had a limited run in Chicago, utilises three actresses to portray its titular character. Micaela Diamond embodies Babe, the kid starting out; Teal Wicks is Lady, the glam pop queen, and Tony Award nominee Stephanie J. Block takes over as the final incarnation, Star.
Other notables in the cast include Jarrod Spector as Sonny Bono, Emily Skinner as Georgia Holt, Cher’s singer-songwriter/actress mother, and Michael Berresse as both filmmaker Robert Altman and designer Bob Mackie, whose costumes contributed mightily to the Cher aura. As for the real-life Mackie, he’s been busy designing for the show.
Rick Elice, whose credits include Jersey Boys, wrote the book, Jason Moore directs, and Christopher Gattelli choreographs.
Coming as sort of a breather between these two powerhouses is The Prom, which starts previews 23 October and opens officially on 15 November. The musical, which had its try-out in Atlanta in 2016, tells of a student who wants to bring her girlfriend as her date to her high school prom. It causes an uproar among the conservative small-town citizenry, a situation that gets some eccentric Broadway types involved.
Director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw, whose taste for high school revelries has apparently not been quelled by Mean Girls, helms The Prom. It features a book by Chad Beguelin and Bob Martin. Beguelin also wrote the lyrics, and Matthew Sklar the music. The cast is topped by a trio of Broadway familiars: Beth Leavel, Brooks Ashmanskas and Christopher Sieber.
Meanwhile, though there’s hardly been any touch of autumn in the torpid New York summer air, the first half of the 2018-19 Broadway musical season has started in earnest. As of this writing, three of the six productions set to open during the first half are already in previews and will be officially underway before the end of August.
Here’s the line-up:
Head over Heels. Opened on 26 July. The jukebox musical, which had its world premiere at the prestigious Oregon Shakespeare Festival and later played San Francisco, features the tunes of the 1980s female rock band The Go-Go’s. Those titles include such as ‘We Got the Beat’ and ‘Over Lips Are Sealed’, in case you’ve forgotten.
The plot whips up an Elizabethan love story inspired by Sir Philip Sydney’s 16th century pastoral Arcadia. Conception and original book are by Jeff Whitty, with adaptation by James Magruder. Michael Mayer directs and Spencer Liff choreographs.
The cast includes Broadway vets Rachel York and Tom Alan Robbins, while Peppermint, the show notes, is “making a Broadway debut as the first transgender woman to create a principal role”.
And oh, yes, the army of producers includes someone named Gwyneth Paltrow.
Gettin’ the Band Back Together. Previews started 19 July for an opening on 13 August. The show is making it to Broadway after a well-received premiere in 2013 at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It concerns an investment banker who loses his job, has to move back in with his mother and prompted by some twisty plotting has to get back together his high school rock group to forfend financial disaster. Mitchell Jarvis plays the banker, while TV and Broadway name Marilu Henner portrays his mum.
The book is a collaboration between producer Ken Davenport and a group of writers and performers identified as Grundleshotz, who helped develop things through improvisational rehearsals. Mark Allen wrote the music and lyrics, while Sarah Saltzberg contributed additional materials. John Rando is the director and Chris Bailey is the choreographer.
Pretty Woman: The Musical. Previews began 20 July for an opening on 16 August. It is, as you might suspect, the musical adaptation of the cherished 1990 rom-com movie. You know the story: a corporate raider needs a social escort, hires a prostitute for the job and true love ensues.
The show, which played earlier in Chicago, has a book by the late Garry Marshall, who directed the film, and J. F. Lawton, who wrote it. Music and lyrics are by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance.
Mitchell, whose credits include Kinky Boots and On Your Feet!, directs and choreographs. Samantha Barks, who played Eponine in the recent film version of Les Misérables is the Julia Roberts character, and Andy Karl, who after Rocky and Groundhog Day seems to be making a habit of playing heroes in film-to-musical-stage rebirths, is the rich guy. The cast also includes Karl’s real-life wife, the singularly named Orfeh, plus Eric Anderson, Jason Danieley and Ezra Knight.
And finally, a word of warning to the Pretty Woman. In no time at all, King Kong, who has a thing for lovely gals, will be in residence just several blocks up Broadway. (Not great humour, I know, but we need all we can get these days.)
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