Variety
September 18, 2000 - September 24, 2000
'King' preps for L.A. coronation
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD
Move over Leo --- a new feline is coming to town.
Three years after it took Broadway by storm, Disney is unveiling the first U.S. company of "The Lion King" outside New York, comfortably located in the Burbank, Calif.-based company's backyard of Hollywood.
Beginning performances Sept. 28, the new production will open Oct. 19 at the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. As in New York, where the gorgeous restoration of the New Amsterdam Theater added an extra layer of luster to the show's arrival, the venue itself is part of the show. The Nederlander Organization, which owns the site, has spent $ 10 million restoring the theater to welcome the new tenant.
Although the run is being called a limited engagement and tickets are only being sold through June of next year (perhaps mindful of "Beauty and the Beast," which ran a year and a half in Los Angeles but was not the smash it was on Broadway), most observers expect the show's phenomenal success elsewhere will be replicated in Los Angeles.
"We're selling this cautiously," says Tom Schumacher, who with Peter Schneider is a producer of the show. Schumacher adds that the L.A. company, at least for now, is expected to become the bedrock of a national touring version when the run ends. No plans are under way to mount a separate road version.
The prospect of a portable staging doesn't mean the L.A. version is a stripped-down "Lion King," says Schneider. "This is essentially the same production sizewise as the one in New York, but we've been very smart about some physical issues of the show that would make touring simpler."
Disney doesn't divulge production prices, and some have questioned the profitability of such a lavish and meticulously produced show. "We would not be here if we weren't going to make money," says Schumacher. "This is a business, and the economics of it work."
The L.A. "Lion King" is in fact the fifth production (aside from the N.Y. original) running around the globe. There are two Japanese productions, in Tokyo and Osaka, that were staged by the original team, led by director Julie Taymor, but are licensed to the Shiki Co. Disney produces the versions in London and Toronto, as it does the L.A. show.
With the musical being replicated with such frequency, is there a danger that the theatrical magic that won the show six Tony Awards and has kept it SRO for three years in Gotham will be replaced by a more synthetic variety of stagecraft?
Helmer Taymor, who herself took home two of those Tonys (for direction and costumes), is adamant that each production has its own energies.
"The main thing is that the actors are different," she says.
Although it's her wondrous staging that is often discussed, Taymor stresses that "Lion King," like all stage musicals, "is about great singing, great acting and great dancing. So the individuals you hire are always changing the piece. As a director, I'm always inspired to adjust my vision by the performers. I know that we've done some changes for the L.A. company: a few lyric changes, choreography that goes a little further in different areas." (Only John Vickery, the original Scar on Broadway, and Danny Rutigliano, who played Timon recently in New York, are veterans of the show.)
"You have to bring the same enthusiasm to each new production, because for almost everyone involved in the show, it's brand new," adds Schneider. "Most of the people in the L.A. production won't even have seen the Broadway version."
Disney is also adamantly tight-lipped about advance ticket sales, but Taymor sounds confident about the extension of the show's West Coast visit.
"This show can sit down for a long time," she says, "because it's a show that many people enjoy more the second time, or return to when they have children growing up. We're saying this is the beginning of a tour; we'll see. They have to be cautious because a lot of shows don't last in L.A. But if this feels like it can stay, it will stay."
The cautiousness may have something to do with the widespread perception that L.A. is not a theater town, an accusation Taymor, who has directed at the Los Angeles Opera, refutes, at least on aesthetic grounds: "Some of best theater I ever saw was in L.A., back when (the Los Angeles Theater Center) was alive and well. There are so many great actors out there."
There is some hope that a blockbuster show such as "Lion King" can help reignite interest in the city's theater climate, and particularly in the Hollywood theater district that has long languished as Hollywood Boulevard and its environs have struggled to come back after decades in decline.
"The work the Nederlanders have done to restore theater is gorgeous, to begin with," says Schumacher. "And there's a lot going on now in the area. Aside from our own El Capitan Theater, there's the big Academy theater (under construction) across the street, which will host the Oscars.
"We've done this before," Schumacher adds, "with 42nd Street, and it's exciting. It's about being part of something larger than us, and it's an honor for us."
Taymor and Disney have plans to continue the international rollout of the show by producing a version that will travel to places where $ 90 top tickets are not an option, and Taymor adds that part of the pleasure of bringing this particular show to Los Angeles is the chance that it will tap into and serve as an inspiration for the city's multicultural audiences.
"What I love about this show is that it crosses cultural boundaries and speaks to a wide variety of audiences," she says. "It employs an 80% non-white cast; it's not about race, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support and celebrate race. You realize this when you meet many African-Americans who've never gone to a show and seen African-Americans playing kings and princes. That's gratifying."
For his part, Schumacher is taking particular pleasure in the show's arrival on Hollywood Boulevard.
"I'm from California, and I used to sell ladies' shoes in a shop kitty-corner from the theater," he says, pun possibly intended. "The pleasure of bringing something I care so much about to my hometown is lovely."