INTERVIEW: ‘King Kong’ performer Ashley Andrews travels from UK to Skull Island
Photo: King Kong is currently playing the Broadway Theatre in New York City. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by BBB with permission.
King Kong, the musical, theatricalizes the well-known tale of the giant ape and his journey from Skull Island to New York City. The Tony-winning show is unprecedented in how it uses puppetry to portray the title character, yet the audience’s eye is also drawn to the many performers who are acting, singing and dancing in the shadows of the big man.
Ashley Andrews, who recently moved from the United Kingdom to make his Broadway debut, has a lot of responsibility when it comes to the performers on the Broadway Theatre stage, where King Kong continues until Aug. 18. Andrews serves as resident choreographer, dance captain and swing for the show, meaning he’s tasked with keeping the choreography of Drew McOnie intact and appreciated amongst the cast members.
The journey Andrews has taken to Broadway is an interesting and unexpected one.
“I was working in the West End for about 12 years,” Andrews said in a recent phone interview. “Having had friends in New York, for years they’d been telling me, ‘You should come over to Broadway. You’d work, you’d work.’ Obviously it just seemed like a dream that I would never be able to achieve, so my friends put me in contact with another friend of mine who had applied for a green card and had an attorney and everything. So he put me in contact with his attorney. The attorney emailed me back within 24 hours and was like, ‘Let’s do a Skype meeting the next day.’ We had a Skype meeting, and she was like, ‘Tell me about yourself and about what your case is.’ So I did, and she said, ‘I think you’ve got a case.’ So then I went away and worked my ass off for a month trying to get all the paperwork and everything together.”
Andrews filed for the green card in January of 2017 and then forgot about the entire process because he was keeping busy in the West End premiere of An American in Paris. Then, the phone call came in August of 2017 — Andrews was approved to move to the United States.
In March of 2018, he moved to New York City, and then serendipity — and his previous collaboration with director/choreographer Drew McOnie — took centerstage in his life.
“I’ve worked with Drew McOnie before,” he said. “I’m a founding member of his company back in England, the McOnie Company.”
Andrews never auditioned for King Kong and never even had a conversation with McOnie about maybe being involved in the production. Here’s how he became attached:
“Literally I was walking through Convent Garden, and my agent called me and was like ‘Hi, yes, we’ve got an offer for you. We’re still working out the negotiations, but you’re going to start rehearsals in July. You’re going to be dance captain. Obviously we need to sort it all out, but I’ll speak to you later,'” Andrews remembers. “I said to my agent, ‘I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t been to any auditions. I’m moving to New York.’ And she kept talking. She said, ‘Yeah, yeah, but we need to make sure we get this done before you go away.’ I was like, ‘Again, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ She’s like, ‘Oh, King Kong on Broadway. You’re going to be the dance captain. Anyway, I’ll speak to you later. Bye.’ Literally then I was like, what? That’s kind of how I got it, which is absolutely crazy really — amazing.”
The experience performing in King Kong has been extraordinary for Andrews. He had to move from the United Kingdom to New York City, and he admitted there was some fear about the upheaval in his personal and professional life. But when he met the big man on stage, all was good.
“To have this type of job was incredible, and it has been an amazing journey,” Andrews said. “I have learned so much about myself as a person and a creative, and it’s just been amazing. The show has helped me to grow and just realize, not in an arrogant way, that I really love what I do, and I’m really good at what I do. And I work really hard. A part of me feels like, yeah, I deserve to be here, and I’m still working hard every day to continue to pursue dreams.”
Andrews has excelled in the role of swing and dance captain, and he was awarded for his efforts with a promotion to resident choreographer. He has also expanded his opportunities when he’s not on the stage at the Broadway Theatre. He was recently named associate choreographer on the Jesus Christ Superstar tour.
“A couple of weeks ago I did some choreography for a new animated movie that’s coming out, so it’s just been loads of things keep happening that are really great, that fulfill me creatively, that make me go, yeah, I’m doing the right thing,” he said.
In his dance roles for King Kong, Andrews is tasked with maintaining the show from a choreographic standpoint, and this can be a tough challenge with such a large number of cast members.
“So it’s my job to maintain the show from how it was originally set, to make sure the integrity of the movement and the integrity of the motivation behind the movement stays as true to what was originally set by the choreographer Drew McOnie,” he said. “Obviously eight shows a week and with a show as big as King Kong, we have swings on all the time, so there are a lot of adaptations that go with dancing with different people on a daily basis. However, it’s my job to orchestrate those rehearsals to make sure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, so the show’s integrity stays as high as it did when we first opened from a choreographic point of view.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
King Kong, featuring Ashley Andrews, plays through Aug. 18 at the Broadway Theatre on Broadway in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
