Breaking News: Jason Robert Brown Joins Creative Team for Broadway-Bound KING KONG; NYC Reading Set for October

KING KONG, which ran in Australia is 2013, has long been rumored for a trip overseas to Broadway. As previously reported, following a successful run in Melbourne, the producers of King Kong were planning to bring the mega-musical to Broadway in December 2014. Due to the "huge scale of the production" and to allow the creative team necessary time to implement changes, the producers decided "to not rush in before the end of the year."

Now BroadwayWorld has just learned that a developmental reading of the new musical will take place this October in New York City. Directed by Tony Award-nominee Eric D. Shaeffer, this version features a book and lyrics by Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman and a score by Marius De Vries and Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown.

Produced by Carmen Pavlovic and Roy Furman, a production schedule for King Kong will be announced at a later date.

KING KONG picked up five 2013 Helpmann Awards (the Australian equivalent of the Tonys) for Best Costume Design - Roger Kirk (He is also a former Tony Winner 1996 for King and I, 2001 nominee for 42nd Street); Best Scenic Design - Peter England; Best Lighting Design - Peter Mumford; Best Sound Design - Peter Hylenski (He was nominated for a Tony last year); and Outstanding Theatrical Achievement - The Design, Creation & Operation of King Kong.

One of the world's great modern myths about an enormous creature and his battle for survival in New York City, King Kong has gone back to the source--the novella of the original film by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace--in this first adaptation as a large-scale musical. Featuring a cast of 49 actors, singers, dancers, circus performers, and puppeteers; a crew of 76; and arguably the most technologically advanced puppet in the world--a one-tonne, six-metre giant silverback--KING KONG will be an epic and dazzling original theatrical experience.