Going to a puppetry store or taking in the puppetry exhibit immerses you in your creative world further and sharing these experiences with about 400 others who are equally awed and inspired by all you see. While this post will mainly be comprised of my follow-up essay for the scholarship, I wanted to mention the smaller things I didn't cover like meeting people you otherwise would not have met in the puppetry community, making friendships and the feeling of family that you only get from a group of people who understand you in a way that few people do. If you were an unsuccessful scholarship applicant, I encourage you to apply again as there are several awarded. If we're going to be in the business of turning popular movies into musicals (and the rest of the season suggests, yes, we are), it should bring something new to a familiar story: a compelling backstory or songs that open up the inner worlds of these characters.This year, I was lucky enough to receive one of the scholarships which helps defray some of the costs associated with attending.
Amazing puppetry full#
If it’s spectacle and set pieces you’re after, there are a handful of moments that, yes, will wow you.īut we already have an incredible Kong - both the film original as well as the remakes - full of their own feats of technology. Perhaps you’ll be able to get past all that. There are other inexplicable choices made by director/choreographer Drew McOnie and the production team: Why are we treated to EDM music whenever Kong is running? Why is the director character Jack (Eric William Morris) boring and completely forgettable for much of the show? Why is a majority of the second act an extended meta show-within-a-show? Other times, the puppeteers were simply going from point A to point B onstage individually, and it was clear you were to pretend as much as possible they weren't there.Įasier said than done when it's the most interesting thing happening. Sometimes the team moved in unison, as if to suggest they were a physical manifestation of the animal's internal feelings. They didn't fade to the background or become one with the beast as they do in, say, Lion King, where there are two heads but your brain processes it as one. Quick note about that team: I certainly can't think of a better solution, but it was occasionally distracting to watch a group of people dressed all in black running around stage moving Kong's body with ropes. It can't be easy being the only human character on stage for extended periods of time, and she manages to hold her own opposite her 1.2 ton co-star and team.
One stirring moment involves her initially bonding with her captor Kong after he has vanquished a cobra. She doesn't scream in distress, gentlemen! She roars! There was clearly an appreciated effort by book writer Jack Thorne ( Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) to give the character a bit more agency than she is typically granted, less damsel in distress than spunky heroine.
As Ann, Pitts is strong, doing as much as she possibly can with this material. The plot basically follows the well-worn story we all know of a damsel, an ape, and the horrors of modern society. Ending number "The Wonder" seems to be telling you, despite what you may be feeling, you did in fact see something stunning. A particular low point, from the first act, involves an almost-literal treading water song, where a bunch of sailors off to the mysterious Skull Island sing "Pressure Up." It's a monotonous song about the monotony on the high seas. The songs - a key part of any musical - by Marius de Vries and Eddie Perfect are almost uniformly terrible, a meshing of many styles that result in a score both earworm-free as well as dragged down by lyrics doing basic exposition work. The musical kicks off on the wrong foot almost immediately, with a ho-hum opening number that seems to throw a lot at the wall just to see what sticks. While Kong the beast is magnificent, the show certainly isn't. 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' on Broadway sparkles with real theater magic