The Lion King turns 25 years outdated on Broadway this month.
The musical first opened in the summertime of 1997 on the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Audiences noticed one thing nobody had ever seen earlier than: leaping antelopes, flying birds and elephants strolling by means of the seats.
“The viewers began screaming so early. When the animals got here down the aisle everyone shot up,” mentioned director-writer Julie Taymor. “We have been simply overwhelmed and we knew we had one thing.”
That present in Minneapolis would quickly transfer to Broadway. Broadway is an space in New York Metropolis the place the most important and most well-known performs and musicals are carried out.
The Lion King would proceed to carry out for 25 years. It typically sells probably the most tickets per week amongst all Broadway performs. It is usually typically younger folks’s introduction to theater.
In April 2012, The Lion King turned Broadway’s all-time highest-selling present. It handed The Phantom of the Opera which began nearly 10 years earlier. With Phantom to shut subsequent yr, the musical will compete with Chicago for the dignity of longest-running present on Broadway.
It’s simple to neglect how revolutionary The Lion King was on the time it was launched. Theatergoers have been seeing Asian-influenced puppets and masks telling an African story with a number of African languages. The musical had South African performers and a Black king.
Along with writing and directing the present, Taymor additionally designed clothes and wrote the phrases for the hit tune Limitless Night time.
Her job some 25 years in the past was large. She needed to rewrite Disney’s common film right into a stay present. She stuffed the stage with birds flying excessive on sticks and antelopes marching close to the seats. The actors function large puppets in a motion common in Sixteenth-century Japanese theater.
“That is the place theater is best than movie. It utterly surrounds you,” Taymor mentioned. “I had to make use of all of the instruments within the theater toolbox to make it dimensional and theatrical.”
Taymor didn’t cowl up the wheels and poles that convey her puppets to life. The human beings that management the puppets and put on the animal masks are totally seen. It’s the viewers’s job so as to add the creativeness.
She referred to as it “the double occasion.” That’s the place the viewers not solely watches the animals, they watch people driving the story, too.
The Lion King made Taymor the primary girl to win a Tony Award for greatest director of a musical. Many Broadway stars over time have additionally carried out in The Lion King.
There have been 28 Lion King productions for the reason that first. It has been carried out in 9 completely different languages and seen by 110 million folks. It has performed over 100 cities in 21 international locations.
A part of its lengthy life is due to the film connection and its simple-to-understand and family-friendly story. However it’s also an enormous manufacturing that’s not depending on big-name stars.
Earlier than it turned successful, Disney despatched its prime officers to a rehearsal. One movie official steered Taymor lose the puppetry when it got here time for the principle characters. She didn’t agree.
Taymor then arrange a check on the Palace Theatre on Broadway. She offered the musical in three alternative ways — simply facial make-up, half-mask, and her authentic thought.
Then-Disney chief Michael Eisner preferred her thought: “He mentioned, ‘The larger the danger, the larger the payoff,’” Taymor mentioned. “How many individuals say that?”
I’m Dan Novak.
Dan Novak tailored this story for VOA Studying English primarily based on reporting by The Related Press.
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Phrases in This Story
viewers — n. a gaggle of people that collect collectively to hearken to one thing
aisle — n. a passage between sections of seats in a church, theater, airplane, and many others.
overwhelm — v. to have an effect on somebody very strongly
revolutionary — adj. inflicting or regarding an amazing or full change
puppet — n. a doll that’s moved by placing your hand inside it or by pulling strings or wires which might be hooked up to it
masks — n. a overlaying to your face or for a part of your face
dimensionality — n. having many various options or qualities, particularly in a means that makes one thing appear actual, somewhat than being too easy:
rehearsal — n. an occasion at which an individual or group practices an exercise to be able to put together for a public efficiency
