King Kong (1959 musical): History and Key Facts

King Kong (1959) was a landmark South African jazz-influenced musical, billed at the time as an "all-African jazz opera".

It has been called "an extraordinary musical collaboration that took place in apartheid-torn South Africa.... a model of fruitful co-operation between black and white South Africans in the international entertainment field, and a direct challenge to apartheid." Opening in Johannesburg on 2 February 1959 at Witwatersrand University Great Hall, the musical, based on the life of Ezekiel Dhlamini was an immediate success, with The Star newspaper calling it "the greatest thrill in 20 years of South African theatre-going".

It "swept South Africa like a storm" according to one report, touring the country for two years and playing to record-breaking multi-racial audiences, before being booked for a London production in 1961, by which time it had been seen by some 200,000 South Africans.

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