It’s physical, it’s dimensional and the lighting tells you where to look or the voice pulls you in,” says Taymor. It completely surrounds you, 360 degrees. “This is where theatre is better than film. The actors manipulate the giant puppets in a movement style that recalls Bunraku theater popular in 16th century Japan.
Taymor conceived a magical African tapestry that incorporates half-human, half-animal figures African masks as headdresses above human faces stilt work and colorful Balinese-style puppets. As an actor, to be directed by someone with such vision is almost otherworldly.” Hamilton, who plays Shenzi, the hyena leader. “To work with Julie Taymor is a gift,” says Bonita J. She filled the stage with warthogs and meerkats, with birds circling high on sticks and antelopes in the mezzanine. The musical turns 25 years old on Broadway this month. Photo: AP Her task some 25 years ago was enormous: reimagining Disney’s animated blockbuster with its iconic Elton John songs – including the Academy Award-winning Can You Feel The Love Tonight – into a live spectacle set on the African savannah. Taymor, who works on theatre, operas and films, recently took time to look back at the blockbuster show she directed, designed costumes for, crafted masks and puppets with Michael Curry, and even added lyrics for the song Endless Night. Audiences were seeing Asian-inspired puppets and masks telling an African tale with several African languages, using South African performers and a Black king. So established is The Lion King that it’s easy to forget its revolutionary origins.
With plans for Phantom, to close next year, The Lion King jostles with Chicago for its crown of longest-running show on Broadway. In April 2012, it swiped the title of Broadway’s all-time highest-grossing show from The Phantom Of The Opera, despite Phantom having almost a full 10 years’ head start. The Lion King has been a model of consistency in its march through records. I had to use all the tools in the theatre tool toolbox to make it dimensional and theatrical,' says Taymor. And here you have 'The Lion King' movie – the most cinematic. 'Most plays don’t translate to film because they’re not cinematic. It is The Lion King, and it turns 25 years old on Broadway this month.
That show in a trial run in Minneapolis would soon transfer to Broadway and start a stunning streak that regularly lands it among the weekly top earners and becomes young people’s introduction to theatre. We were just overwhelmed and we knew we had something.” When the animals came down the aisle everybody shot up,” recalls director-writer Julie Taymor. “The audience started screaming so early. In the summer of 1997, audiences in Minneapolis at the Orpheum Theatre saw something no one had ever seen before: leaping antelopes, fluttering birds and elephants lumbering through the orchestra seats.
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