King Kong is headed to Broadway in 2018

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Lots of weird things make it to the stage as a musical or play (who expected a GROUNDHOG's DAY musical, which is currently doing well on Broadway?), but this one takes the ape- uh, cake. KING KONG is coming to New York soon, but he won't be chained to a boat: he'll be preparing to make his U.S. stage debut!

It has been announced that KING KONG, which actually started off in Australia in 2013, will head to the Great White Way in 2018, with a brand new creative team involved. According to Playbill, Olivier Award-winning book writer Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Let the Right One In), Olivier Award-winning director-choreographer Drew McOnie (Strictly Ballroom, In the Heights), and Australian songwriter Eddie Perfect, who is also adapting Beetlejuice for Broadway.

Wait. BEETLEJUICE is also headed to Broadway? Maybe we can make an ALIEN musical happen next.

Creature designer Sonny Tilders developed this Kong with animatronics and puppetry.

"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 Carmen Pavlovic said in a statement.

Based on the original 1933 screenplay, this latest take on King Kong is described as a contemporary take on the classic tale of beauty and the beast. Check out the video below to see how exactly they bring the beast to life on stage. Actually? Kind of cool.