After five years in development, the "King Kong" Musical finally had its world premiere onJune 15 at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. The audience was in awe when the highlight of the musical, the 20-foot-tall Kong, entered the stage.

Dubbed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," King Kong is one of the most ambitious and never before seen stage productions to hit the Australian musical theatre.

Award-winning cast and crew

The new stage musical is produced by Global Creatures led by an award-winning creative team that includes director Daniel Kramer; Tony-nominated writer Craig Lucas; Grammy-nominated composer and arranger Marius de Vries; Tony Awards winner Roger Kirk for costume design; creature designer Sonny Tilders and Sydney Myer Performing Artist of the Year Peter Wilson as puppetry director among others.

It stars Green Room award-winning actress Esther Hannaford as King Kong's love interest Ann Darrow, newcomer Adam Lyon as Carl Denham, Chris Ryan as Jack Driscoll, veteran stage actor Richard Piper as Captain Engelhorn and Queenie van de Zandt as Cassandra.

The entire production is composed of around 50-strong cast of actors, singers, dancers, circus performers and puppeteers.

King Kong's anatomy

Global Creatures created a 6-metre tall gorilla out of 1.1 tonnes of steel, aluminium, lycra and latex. It is part marionette, animatronic and puppet and has over 300 metres of electrical cable, 1,500 connections and 16 microprocessors inside the creature's body.

Kong's detailed facial expression is operated by 15 industrial servo motors, which is the same technology used in the NASA Mars rovers. It also has 2 hydraulic cylinders controlled by an off-stage puppet operator in real time, who manoeuvres Kong's realistic facial expressions that are often only seen in high-end film animatronics.

In addition, Kong has air-powered and highly sculptured muscles that convincingly stretch and contracts when he moves. He is operated by 10 'King's Men' on stage composed of circus artists who were specially trained in puppetry; while another 3 puppeteers operate the creature offstage for its automation.

Musical Score

The 1933 classic story had a more modern vibe because of its musical score. Composer Marius de Vries, who did the soundtrack for the films Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, blended classic songs from the 1920s and 1930s with contemporary songs from artists such as Sarah Mclachlan, Massive Attack, Justice, The Avalanche and Guy Garvey from Elbow.

"King Kong" will only have its exclusive performance at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne until the 28th of July. Visit www.kingkongliveonstage.com for more information about tickets and show schedules.