Watch Out for ‘King Kong’ on Broadway

Getty Images “King Kong” recently opened in Melbourne, Australia.

The new big-budget musical “King Kong,” featuring a 20-foot-tall puppet in the title role, may arrive on Broadway as early as next year if one of the few theaters that can fit the show becomes available, the lead producer of the musical said on Tuesday.

Now that the $30 million show has opened in Melbourne - with glowing words from critics for the specal effects and puppetry, but more mixed reviews for the music and book - the producer, Carmen Pavlovic of the Australian company Global Creatures, said she planned to move ahead with a second production of “Kong” in late 2014 and a third in 2015. She has received “enthusiastic messages” from producers and investors in several major theater markets, she said, and could foresee future productions in cities and countries like New York, London, Seoul, Japan, Germany and Holland.

In an interview at The Times, she said she hoped to bring the show to Broadway next, but that there were only four or five theaters - out of the 40 houses on Broadway - that have the vast fly and wing space to accommodate the enormous physical production and puppetry, which cost more than $30 million in Australia. None of those Broadway theaters are currently available, but Ms. Pavlovic noted that she had “strong interest” from the major theater owners in New York t! o make a home for “Kong” once a suitable house opened up.

Ms. Pavlovic also said she would not seek a total rewrite of the book, by Tony Award nominee Craig Lucas (“The Light in the Piazza”), or to hire a script doctor to tackle criticisms of the dialogue and story leveled in some of the reviews. Nor does she plan to rethink the score, which includes original music as well as contemporary songs.

“I do expect we’ll make some changes to the musical before our next production,” she said, “but we’re all very happy with the shape that the show is in right now, and don’t see a need to rush or make any major changes.”

Ms. Pavlovic was in New York briefly this week for design meetings for another show, the musical adaptation of the 1992 Australian film “Strictly Ballroom,” which is scheduled to open in Sydney in early 2014 Baz Luhrmann, who directed the movie, is staging the musical, which Ms. Pavlovic said she also hoped to bring to Broadway at some point.