Lion King's arrival displays Disney’s animal instincts

The Lion King has been seen by 65m people in 16 years. It opens in Dublin in April, says Jo Kerrigan

THE Lion King will open at the Bord Gais Theatre in Dublin on Apr 27. Stephen Crocker, the director of creative services for Disney, says bringing such a huge show on the road is difficult.

“It seemed impossible in the beginning,” says Crocker. “To turn a cartoon-movie like The Lion King into a stage show — how would you set about it? Before that, we’d only ever brought Beauty and the Beast from the screen to the stage, but that, if you like, seemed quite natural. After all, you’re dealing with human beings, so you’re halfway there. With The Lion King, though, there seemed no way of doing it.”

Thomas Schumacher, president of the Disney theatrical arm, thought of Julie Taymor, an Academy Award-winning director in opera, movie and theatre. Schumacher knew Taymor would have the vision to transmute a cast of loveable cartoon animals into a live stage show and make it believable and popular. He was right.

Taymor created what has become a stage legend, and became the first woman to win the Tony Award for directing a musical, in addition to a Tony Award for original costume design.

Masks, puppetry, and Asian and African theatre are Taymor’s stock-in-trade, and in The Lion King she has fused them brilliantly. There are 28 different types of animals, birds and fish in the show, and she had to make the audience believe in them.

A lesser designer might have created one style and then represented that across the spectrum, but not Taymor. She knows her animals, and she was determined to invent a different style for each one. She didn’t want to hide the performers, though.

It’s a double event, says Crocker. “The audience sees the giraffe and recognises its shape and movement, but you see the dancer/actor, too, and it’s incredible and stimulating and uniquely theatrical. You’re watching something live, conjured in front of your eyes.”

The amount of work that went into creating the incredible costumes — and, indeed, into keeping them perfect for every performance — is scarcely believable.

Hand-carved masks, hand-beaded costumes, every detail was lovingly worked out and put together, with a fanaticism usually reserved for the world’s top couture houses.

Now, 16 years on from its legendary Broadway premiere, The Lion King still carries a huge backstage staff devoted to repairing, stitching, beading, and repainting costumes between shows.

“One woman spends her time sewing on beads. It’s got to look great always, eight shows a week,” Crocker says. That kind of detailed preparation is expensive, and, given the untried nature of the idea, a gamble. “Yes, it was a huge risk and it seemed an unlikely success, but the faith we all had in Julie made us believe it would work. She is gifted as a storyteller and never lost sight of the fact that we are telling a story here: the story of Simba, the young lion cub, as he journeys through life and struggles to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and his destined role of king.”

Before opening in New York in 1997, The Lion King took the traditional route of an out-of-town try out. “We weren’t sure how they would take it, but, right from the ‘circle of life’ opening and the first giraffe coming on stage, the audience spontaneously burst into applause. They just went with it. You couldn’t predict the worldwide success it became, but it happened and it has happened at every single performance since then.”

One of the misconceptions, says Crocker, is that The Lion King is a children’s show, when it’s for every age and every experience. “There are so many different levels on which you can appreciate it. Each person will take from it something quite different.”

Since that Broadway premiere, Taymor’s multi-award-winning production has been seen by more than 65m people across 15 countries, on five continents, and has been translated into seven languages, achieving phenomenal success on an international scale and enthralling audiences with its timeless story and universal messages.

Crocker spent four years planning the current tour and is excited about bringing the vast production to Ireland. It is the largest musical ever to tour either here or the UK, with 21 giant trucks being used to transport the hundreds of masks and puppets, thousands of lights, spectacular scenery and more than 700 elaborate costumes.

And then there is the cast of more than 50 actors, singers and dancers, from 17 countries, supported by a backstage team of more than 100.

“Everything is as it would be in New York. People might think that because it’s touring, it’s going to be smaller, but it isn’t. We’re not going to have a secondary show on the road. Our audiences deserve absolutely everything they get in NY.”

Crocker pauses, then pronounces the firm Disney mission statement: “We wouldn’t care for anyone to see less than the perfection.”

The Lion King has been playing to packed houses in Manchester since last December, with not a ticket available for love nor money during the remainder of the run. It closes there on Apr 20 and take-down starts immediately.

The gigantic trucks make their ponderous way across the Irish Sea on a series of ferries and start arriving in Dublin from the Sunday. Build-up begins, with the cast rehearsing from Thursday, and the very first performance of The Lion King in Ireland on Saturday, Apr 27. “It’s always incredible to see that. Suddenly, magically, it’s there.”

*Disney’s The Lion King opens at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin on Saturday, Apr 27 and will run to Saturday, Jun 22. Tickets may be booked at www.thelionking.ie