SummerStage Theater is back! This series is part of the City Parks Foundation effort to make art more diverse and accessible throughout New York City’s five boroughs. All productions are free and aim to present a unique voice. This season’s theatrical events are two musicals: King Kong and Diablo Love.

King Kong is a 1970’s musical interpretation of the classic beauty and the beast story. In this case, King Kong is a black musical artist from the south Bronx, who is preyed upon by Jewish music biz executives and inevitably becomes enamored with a beautiful and virginal blonde. This musical delves into nearly every stereotype you can imagine, including race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, sex, and sexual orientation.

A thoughtful review of this production from Aurin Squire at New York Theatre Review observed, “It appears that the point of the satire is 1) Blacks are, in fact, human 2) Jewish people care about more things than money 3) academic women can loosen up and discover love by becoming objectified as sexual objects and 4) the music industry owes its respect and profit to Black musicians. In order to achieve such a low-bar of transformation, most of KING KONG is spent showing the opposite.”

Sometimes exploiting stereotypes in the name of educational satire turns out to be just exploitative. The jury’s out on whether this show is racy and sexy or just racist and sexist.

Diablo Love is a love story about Howlin’ Wolf, an American blues singer, and Emma, a fledging Gospel singer, who together embark on a musical and emotional journey. This musical re-imagines Wolf’s music, along with original Blues and Soul compositions.