Walt Disney's
The Lion King musical opened in 1997 at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Lion King's success from the screen version was sure to translate to Broadway. After just eight weeks playing in Minneapolis, the production moved to the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City. Clearly, audiences were excited about
The Lion King and for this phenomenal movie moving to the Broadway stage.
The success of
The Lion King's Broadway run was not only due to the talented cast, exquisite costumes and scenery, but the overall production. The genius direction, skilled choreography and life-like puppets and animals made for an amazing experience. With talent such as Elton John and Tim Rice in charge of the music and lyrics,
The Lion King was bound to be a Broadway bombshell.
The Lion King won numerous accolades including six Tony Awards for "Best Musical" and a Grammy for "Best Show Album."
The Road to Broadway
Like several other musicals, including Grease and The Beauty and the Beast, the transition from film to a stage performance was challenging.
The Lion King, the 1994 movie, was a blockbuster hit and was the highest grossing animated movie of all time until Finding Nemo was released. Lion King is still the 24th highest grossing feature film with $783 million. The movie received high marks and rave reviews from film critics.
The Lion King tells the tale of a young lion cub named Simba whose life as a prince of the jungle is fun, adventurous and carefree. When Mufasa, Simba's father dies, Simba is a suspect and is exiled from his familiar home only to return as king of the jungle. In
The Lion King, Simba discovers himself, redemption, trust and confidence.
The genius behind
The Lion King musical is director Julie Taymor. She is a hands-on director who also helped design the costumes, but also contributed musically to the original score by Tim Rice and Elton John. In creating the film to a stage production, Taymor wanted to combine and illustrate the story of animals with a human touch. Thus, she created masks and puppetry with actors, leaving their face shown to reveal expressions and emotion. Her next challenge for
The Lion King was scaling the film to a stage production. For
The Lion King musical, she envisioned the African Savannah, stampedes and the jungle. Envisioning them was one thing, but creating them was another. She succeeded and the grandness of the scenes (i.e. the wildebeest stampede) from the movie was carefully reproduced for live theater. Taymor incorporated staging techniques like canvas scrolls, portals and large rollers to create the illusion that thousands of animals were running.
Can You Feel the Love Tonight?
British singer and all-around musical genius Elton John composed five songs for the film version of
The Lion King. Elton John worked with lyricist Tim Rice to pen ""The Circle of Life," "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and "Hakuna Matata." For
The Lion King musical, Elton John and Tim Rice wrote three additional songs for
The Lion King musical, including "The Morning Report," "Chow Down," and "The Madness of King Scar."
The Lion King musical is feeling the love all over the world now. Only a year after its Broadway debut in 1997, the production toured Tokyo. Then, the production toured every year to a different location. In all,
The Lion King musical toured Los Angeles, Hamburg, Sydney, Toronto, The Netherlands, Melbourne, Seoul, Paris, Johannesburg, Paris, Taipei (Taiwan) and Mexico City. In 2009,
The Lion King musical will travel to Spain to perform its first Spanish production at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Madrid. A stop to Las Vegas will also begin in 2009 at the Mandalay Bay on May 2, 2009.
With the animals on the road, it's a likely chance that everyone will get a chance to see the love and the power of this magnificent musical.
The Lion King is an entertaining and mesmerizing show filled with excitement, gasps and will leave you with a smile on your face. Be sure to get your tickets in a city near you.