The Lion King co-writers reflect on the musical's enduring legacy
The Lion King returns to the Fox Theatre, making it North America’s longest-running and most-attended Broadway tour. For more than 26 years, the Tony Award-winning musical has brought together audiences for its classic songs like “Circle of Life” and “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King.”
The Lion King will have multiple performances at the Fox Theatre from Oct. 2-20.
“City Lights” producer Summer Evans spoke with Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, the co-writers of The Lion King, both the animated film and stage version.
Interview Highlights:
On the early days at Disney:
“The studio was so much smaller then; we all fit in one little building. We were shuttling back and forth from warehouse to warehouse. There was a looseness, which I think was really fun. It was a fun atmosphere even though everyone was working long, long hours,” said Allers.
Mecchi was added to The Lion King a little later into the production, “I joined in ’92 when the company had experienced some extraordinary success with ‘The Little Mermaid,’ that Roger was a part of, and ‘Aladdin.’ So, we were there to watch the company grow. They really created a division that was like a theatre. There were some stage managers that became associate producers to keep track of everything and we workshopped the material as if it were like a Broadway show.”
Their initial thoughts on adapting it from an animated film to a Broadway musical:
“Everyone around the table said, ‘We think it’s a terrible idea!’ because all of us were just picturing people in large, fuzzy costumes. You know, animal pajamas. It just didn’t seem like it would be able to carry the dramatic moments and we all felt that way all around the table,” said Allers.
Mecchi added, “But, our executives, before they came to Disney, were with the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in downtown L.A. They also ran the Olympics Arts Festival back in 1984, and they came upon two puppet people–a woman named Julie Taymore and a gentleman named Michael Curry, and they were struck with the lightning bolt of ‘Oh my word, let’s go and bring them aboard.’ So, their theatre experience paid off for this theatre experience.”
On the Tony award-winning costume design:
“[Julie Taymore] spent time in Bali studying, and she brought some of that dramatic structure from there. The shadow puppetry, which she uses in the show. The Japanese Bunraku, where the actors are visible in manipulating the puppets. There’s the cheetah, where the woman is visible and the cheetah is an extension in front of her, and you watch her manipulate it. There was the question of, ‘Don’t we need to cover up the actors because we’ll be distracted?’ And she said, ‘No, you can experience both at the same time.’ And I think that is one of the fascinating things about the show is seeing this dual play go on and yet somehow it holds together,” Allers shared.
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