So I wrote, produced, and directed a King Kong/Hamilton mash up musical

Back in 2019, when the world was young and hopeful, I made my musical directorial debut with an absolutely bonkers mashup.

It was the story of a young immigrant who came to America, fought in a war, fell in love, and died tragically. Of course, I'm talking about King Kong.

https://vimeo.com/369838590

It started with this post: https://imgur.com/gallery/pQyPsoD

I got into a little Twitter conversation with a comedian and artist, and suddenly we had a song. That led to another...and another.

Suddenly, I had written 33 song parodies of the entire Hamilton songbook.

I was asked (by my somewhat worried friends) what on Earth I planned to do with this collection of madness.

Enter the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Here, anyone had the opportunity to create and display their art, and copyrights be damned.

After thoroughly researching copyright laws so that I wouldn't be sued into the ground, I registered and prepared to cast my show. One problem: I didn't have a book.

For those of you unfamiliar with musical terminology, the "script" of the play (the spoken dialogue) is referred to as the book, while the lyrics are considered separate. I wrote my first draft and ended up with a 3 hour play about King Kong. Peter Jackson, eat your heart out.

Thankfully, I enlisted some talented artists to read through that version...and they gutted it.

After a few weeks of rewrites, we were at a slim 90...which is still too much.

It was about this time that my director pulled out.

I had always intended to write and produce the play, but I figured I would need a talented director to bring it all home. I had never directed live theater, so I wasn't ready to jump into the hot seat.

Well, too bad. My director got a paying gig and had to leave...which meant I had a new hat to wear. At the exact same time, one of my actors had to pull out (the one with the Lafayette rap), and I was the only person ready to jump in on such short notice.

So, with no experience in any of the most important parts of putting on a musical, I soldiered on.

Rehearsals went...fine. I didn't exactly have the money to constantly rent out a theater, so we practiced wherever we could. This meant my apartment, the park, or even a quiet street on a weekend.

Fortunately, I was blessed with titanically talented actors that recognized my limitations. Specifically, that I should have brought in a Musical Director to work on vocal arrangements.

Still, I blundered foreword and prayed we could pull this off.

I had let my obsession ride, wrote a full-length play, trimmed it to 90 minutes, and rehearsed to the best of my ability. I figured we were ready. I was dead wrong.

Opening day went bad.

A 90-minute play is...too long, if it isn't holding the audience. And we were running LONG. Scene transitions were sloppy, lighting was a mess, actors dropped cues and mixed up harmonies.

Suffice to say, my inexperience cost us the first impression. I was beside myself...but the cast needed to see me positive and eager for the next show.

We grabbed dinner and drinks and discussed what to do next, and once again my cast stepped up to fill my inabilities. They helped cut 30 minutes from the show. Suddenly we had a lean hour-long play. But was it enough?

From then on, we were a golden child. Obviously, the incredibly catchy songs were already on the forefront of our audience's mind, which made the additional of some Kongery even better. The jokes landed, the emotional beats hit, and suddenly we had a dang play on our hands.

We ended up winning an Encore award, came back for a final performance, and packed the house with eager guests for one last journey to Skull Island.

So if you have a strange dream, follow it. Write that odd play. Film that indescribable short. Go forth and create a show that you want to watch. As wild as it may be, I can guarantee you'll find an audience.

And you'll get some sweet shirts out of the whole deal.

https://vimeo.com/369838590