The Lion King

The longest-running show on Broadway plays in Montreal!

Photo by Joan Marcus

The Lion King was a tour de force for Walt Disney Pictures. Released in 1994, it was one of the last animated films to be hand-drawn (save for a couple of scenes, like a wildebeest stampede, which were done on computer). At the time it was the biggest animated film of all time, and is still the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film, that is, in the wake of the CGI (Computer-generated imagery) animation.

Many films translated quite well to the Broadway stage. The challenge was how to take the African landscape and the anthropomorphised animals from the screen to the stage effectively, while retaining the films epic grandeur.

Enter Julie Taymor who, thanks to the success of her Broadway version of The Lion King, is now on record as the first woman in history to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Taymor brought The Lion King to life on the stage using a combination of elaborately designed, and beautifully colourful, puppets, along with actors in costume. The play, with all of those great songs written by Elton John and Tim Rice, such as Hakuna Matata and The Circle of Life, was a huge hit in Minneapolis first, but exploded once it hit the Broadway stage in 1997. It is still running in New York as one of the longest-running shows on Broadway. And there are versions all over the world in several different languages, with one currently running in Montreal.

Nick Cordileone as Timon & Ben Lipitz as Pumbaa

The Lion King opened just a couple of weeks ago at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Montreal’s Place Des Arts. It’s somewhat scaled down to allow for easy travel. Still, the theatre did have to be altered a bit to accommodate the puppets and the actors, and by all accounts the show is a hit.

One cast member, Ben Lipitz, took some time out after his arrival in Montreal, to talk about the show on CJAD Radio. He plays Pumbaa, the warthog who, along with Timon the meerkat, befriend Simba, and sings Hakuna Matata. Between Broadway and the North American tour, Lipitz has been working on The Lion King for 9 years. As Pumbaa, Lipitz puts his talents to the test. Aside from acting the role, singing and dancing, he has to control the puppet which he wears, effectively, like a costume. And at 46 pounds, his is the single heaviest costume in the show, “46 pounds of Hakuna Matata,” he says with a chuckle.

The The Lion King runs until September 4. That’s a solid 4-week run. It’s presented in English with French subtitles. Tickets range from $28.21 to $133.55.