King Kong (musical)

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King Kong was a South African jazz influenced musical, billed at the time as a jazz opera.

The music and some of the lyrics were written by Todd Matshikiza. The lyrics were by Pat Willams and the book by Harry Bloom. It was directed by Leon Gluckman with orchestration and arrangements by pianist Sol Klaaste, tenor saxophonist Mackay Davashe, alto saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi and composer Stanley Glasser.

The decor and costumes were designed by Arthur Goldreich, a Jewish communist, architect and visual designer (who was later arrested during an apartheid clampdown).

King Kong had an all-black cast. The musical portrayed the life and times of a heavyweight boxer, Ezekiel Dlamini, known as King Kong. After a meteoric boxing rise, his life degenerated into drunkenness and gang violence. He knifed his girlfriend, asked for the death sentence during his trial and instead was sentenced to 14 years hard labour. He drowned himself at the age of 32.

This musical was a hit in South Africa in 1959 and played at the Princes Theatre in the West End of London in 1961.

The musical launched the international career of Miriam Makeba who played the shebeen queen of the Back of the Moon, a shebeen of the time in Sophiatown.

The male lead was Nathan Mdledle of the Manhattan Brothers. There was cast of 72.

Others in the cast were Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Kippie Moeketsi and Thandi Klaasen, all of whom went on to have successful careers.

Note: The song Sad Times, Bad Times was a reference at the time to the infamous South African Treason Trial in Pretoria. Among the accused were Albert Luthuli (ANC president), secretary Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. The trial lasted for more than four years before it collapsed with all the accused acquitted.