NTC set to host ‘Kong’s Night Out’ March 17-27
Pictured above: Featured in Kong’s Night Out are (foreground) Josh Hendricks and Sarah Lees and (background L-R) Meranda Barrett, Janet Marie Gunnels, Russ Moore, Julia Beesley, Arden Avery and Jay Serrano. Not pictured is Ralph Myers. (Photo by Susan Crutchfield Photography)
From Newnan Theatre Company Press Release
Newnan Theatre Company continues its 44th Season – branded as a much-needed Season of Laughs – with the comedy Kong’s Night Out by Jack Neary on its Main Stage for the next two weekends (Thursday-Sunday), March 17-20 and 24-27.
Kong’s Night Out tells the story of what could have happened in the hotel room next door to the one from which King Kong plucked the actress Fay Wray in the classic 1933 movie.
Myron Siegel (Josh Hendricks) is a low-end Broadway producer who desperately wants to be high end. Trouble is, he has, for his entire career, been sabotaged by his arch rival Carl Dennam (Ralph Myers), who is ultra-famous for making movies about scary jungle creatures. Carl and Myron’s fathers were also rivals back in the day and the legacy has lived on.
As the play opens, Myron has just learned that Carl has booked a theatre directly across from the theatre where Myron’s potential bonanza, Foxy Felicia, is about to open. Nobody knows what Carl is up to, but it’s big – really big! Myron gathers his entourage—his sassy mother (Sarah Lees), his scheming wife (Julia Beesley), his gangster henchman (NTC newcomer Jay Serrano), his haughty Eastern European backer with the world’s worst toupee (Russ Moore), and his wide-eyed niece straight off the bus from Buffalo (Janet Marie Gunnels) and concocts a plan to uncover the mystery that threatens his show. In addition to figuring out who Carl’s leading “man” is, Myron also learns Carl has designs on both his wife and Foxy Felicia.
As the story unfolds, doors in the five-star hotel suite set fly open and slam shut constantly, accompanied by mistaken identities, pies in faces, deceit, underhandedness and even a couple of romances – and King Kong movie buffs will be delighted how the script is meticulously coordinated with the events depicted in the 1933 movie. The show also features Meranda Barrett as Ann (the role made famous by Fay Wray) and Arden Avery as her courageous but dim-witted fiancé Jack Driskel.
“Kong’s Night Out was the Audience Choice play for our 43rd season, chosen by our patrons at our January 2020 Gala, just six weeks before we were shuttered for more than a year by the pandemic,” said NTC Executive Director Mary Caroline Moore. She added, “It’s not a stretch to say that hundreds of people in our community, in addition to our staff and actors, have been looking forward to this opening for more than two years!”
Kong’s Night Out is directed by NTC actor-director Joseph Moore, who also directed NTC’s 2019 Blackbox Theatre hit The Haunting of Hill House. “I am blown away both by the comedic genius of Jack Neary’s script and by how our incredibly funny cast brings it to life,” he said. “The cast surprises me with something new at every rehearsal. This may be the funniest show NTC has ever staged!”
Continuing in the NTC’s tradition of incredible sets, Faith Farrell and John Caldwell have again combined to summon forth an astonishingly believable five-star, sixth floor Manhattan hotel suite, thanks in part to a donation from another local nonprofit. “NTC recently received a generous donation of high-end furniture and other luxury items from the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society,” said set designer Farrell, “and this show is the perfect vehicle to show off many of our newest set pieces.”
Kong’s Night Out runs the next two Thursdays (March 17, 24), Fridays (March 18, 25), and Saturdays (March 19, 26) at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees on March 20 and 27at 3 p.m. All tickets are $12 on Thursdays, and for all other performances, tickets for Adults are $20; for Seniors (65+) and Students are $15; and Children (10 and under) are $10.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit NTC’s website at newnantheatre.org or call 770-683-6282. Newnan Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
