Kong, The Cambridge Theatre, London, 1931

Kong (1931) with Oscar Asche and Ursula Jeans was the first musical staged at the Cambridge Theatre, London. The theatre opened on 4 September 1930. Kong was a production firmly in the style and tradition of previous big Orientalist West end productions such as Kismet and Chu Chin Chow (which had been a massive hit throughout World War One – see Anne Witchard’s England’s Yellow Peril for more on that). Indeed Asche had been the man behind Chu Chin Chow. Kong was written by Harold Kingsley, who also had form as a purveyor of interpretations of the Far East on stage with his A Night in Canton. However, Kong didn’t quite garner the rapturous reviews Chu Chin Chow had. The Sunday Times mocked the production by noting that Kong (played by Godfrey Tearle) was a “a wrestler with an Oxford accent” who loses his wife to a fat Mandarin (Asche). The Mandarin order Kong’s right hand cut off which is then replaced by a hook so he, inevitably, becomes a pirate, kidnaps the Mandarin’s daughter-in-law. The Mandarin dies at the end of the first act meaning Asche didn’t have much to do. As Asche was in his sixties by this time and not in great health (he died a few years later in 1936) this was probably to spare the old trooper the rigours of hard work.

the production was lavishly produced – though the papers noted that the costumes could have come straight from Chu Chin Chow, 15 years earlier, and so seemed a little dated. Fantastical as they were, tastes had shifted a little by 1931 and they appeared positively pantomime to the contemporary audience and critics. The settings are as expected to – an opium den, an Orientalist palace. Still it largely failed – not quite spectacular enough; not enough near naked females on stage due to budget constraints and the songs were just not as good as Chu Chin Chow (which made up for that production’s equally thin plot). Kong only last 20 performances and marked the end of the West End’s big Orientalist spectaculars and also Asche’s musical-comedy career on the London stage.

Drawing of the cast of Kong at the Cambridge Theatre, by Stiebel, ca.1931

Oscar Asche in Chu Chin Chow – pretty much the same look as in Kong 15 years later