NEW YORK – King Kong is a musical with a creative team that includes book writer Jack Thorne, director-choreographer Drew McOnie, and Australian songwriter Eddie Perfect. It is based on the 1933 film of the same name. It premiered on November 8th with Christiani Pitts as the leading Ann Darrow and it will ends on April 29, 2019. The centerpiece of the production is also its titular star: a 20-foot-high, 2,000-pound silverback gorilla that towers over his co-stars, a menacing aggressor whose lifelike face is capable of expressing a breathtaking range of emotion.
MY JOURNEY – “I saw the 2005 film with Naomi Watts and Jack Black as Ann Darrow and Carl Denham (which is played by Eric William Morris on Broadway). Jack Driscoll was played by Adrien Brody but we don’t have this character in our show because we wanted to focus on Ann’s story that doesn’t necessarily need a man to save her, she saves herself. I loved the story and I went to the theatre specifically to watch Naomi Watts but also got fascinated by that type of CGI. The way the film production created Kong was beautiful.”
ME AND ANN DARROW – “We get to learn a little bit more about who she is. For the longest time she’s just sort of being the target of Kong. Kong fell in love with her because she was different than anything else he’s ever seen. In our version you learn why she ended up on a boat with all men in 1930s, why she came to New York in the first place, you discover her ambition and then when she’s on Skull Island. She’s not a damsel whom Kong destroys. She’s his equal partner, they understand each other on an emotional level and it gets deep because it starts to speak about why and how people can connect without speaking the same language.”
KINK KONG LIVE – “That’s magic. Technically there are ten actors who manipulate his arms, legs and “soul.” There are four actors in a booth that we called the Voodoo Lounge on the second tier of our mezzanine and they operate his head, shoulders, face and voice. The process is insane, when I first interacted with him I didn’t think it would have been that scary but I was terrified. I couldn’t see him so I had no idea how close he was or if he would come to life and really eat me. We want the audience to know they are about to go on a ride of a lifetime, feeling like you are in the show.”
MY GRANDMOTHER – “I feel I have a big connection to the character in a powerful way to me. Ann is a version of my grandmother so I do feel like I can lose myself in the character but still have all these sort of instinctual things going on that I have as a person but they’re connected to. Ann is so faithful, strong and determined that if I just continue to stay in that world and channel what it means to be extremely focused, I will stay safe as Ann and not worried about getting lost or forgetting a line. It enhanced my process because I have to stay so true to the exact moment at the exact time or something could go wrong.”
THE DREAM – “I love Patina Miller and in my dressing room underneath the table there’re many signatures and one of them was hers so it turned out I have the same dressing room as Patina Miller had during Sister Act. It makes me really emotional because I tweeted about her so many times before mooing to the city and being an actress but I wanted to do this my whole life and I’ve looked up to people like her and so many others to figure out what to do and how to do so. Sitting on her chair and be doing a show every night it’s surreal.”
THE FUTURE – “I don’t take it lightly or for granted when I go out of the stage door and meet people who tell me that I inspire them or that they want to do this. I tell them to keep going because if you’re ever somewhere and you said you wanted to be there and I was there and my signature was there…well, it can happen. God blessed me more than I thought was possible so everyone can make it.”
- Christiani Pitts Discusses Her Role In Broadway’s “King Kong”
Leave a Comment