Brilliance of 'The Lion King' to shine at Tennessee Performing Arts Center in January

Back in the early '90s, Disney’s CEO Michael Eisner asked a room full of creatives what they thought about bringing the animated film “The Lion King” to the stage as a Broadway musical.

“We all said we thought it was a terrible idea,” said Roger Allers, co-director of the 1994 animated feature and co-writer of the book for the Broadway stage adaptation of “The Lion King.”

He said they even made jokes about it becoming a musical.

“In our minds, all we could visualize was people in fuzzy costumes dancing around,” Allers remembers. “It seemed a little too inelegant. We felt like it would be impossible to express the dynamics of the film where you can actually make a four-legged creature walk around and gesture.”

It was the brilliant mind of director Julie Taymor that ultimately changed their minds. She was the genius behind the way the animals and characters would be depicted on stage. What she imagined was anything but dancers in fuzzy costumes.

“Julie saw beyond that. She did a lot of research looking into African costumes and reinterpreted things,” Allers said. “She came up with the idea of the masks being worn on the top of the head revealing the face of the actor. She presented several ways to do the costumes and (Michael) Eisner said, ‘Let’s go all the way and do the adventurous one.’”

Irene Mecchi, Allers’ co-writer on the book for “The Lion King” adaptation said being involved in the development process was amazing.

“Julie was very experimental with things that one could argue were not mainstream,” Mecchi said. “She was able to bring the executives along and show them some visual ideas. That’s how the puppets were brought to life. She gave them soul. That was part of the fascination of the process. Watching Julie’s mind work was fascinating.”

It was that magic combination of the heartwarming story and the method of adaptation for stage that ended up garnering the musical multiple Tony Awards in 1998 including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (which made Taymor the first woman in musical history to win this award), Best Costume Design, Best Scenic Design and more.

And although the show debuted on Broadway in 1997, it is still touring and still as beloved more than 20 years later.

“The ‘Circle of Life’ is more relevant than it’s ever been,” Macchi said. “So many people have been suffering in the last 20 months. I think people connect with the way this story goes from light comedy to darkness and back in a heartbeat. You have the stampede and the loss of Mufasa and then the next scene you have ‘Hakuna Matata.’ And Simba gets to do something few people get to do: he gets resolution of the story of father and son. That is very relatable because most people don’t have that opportunity to go back and reconnect.”

Allers adds that so many people have been isolated from parents and grandparents during this pandemic – and some never got to see them again. “This is a very strong, emotional moment for this story. You see all the species gathered together in this story and that resonates on a world level. Let’s all come together during hard times.”

If only the world could be a little more like these African creatures.

“The Lion King” opens at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Jan. 6 and runs through Jan. 23. Tickets are on sale now at www.tpac.org.

If you go

What: “The Lion King” the Broadway Musical Tour

When: Jan. 6-23

Where: Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall

Info: www.tpac.org

“The Lion King” North American Tour by the numbers

70 - global theatrical awards

6 - Tony Awards

17,000 – hours spent building the anthropomorphic animal characters for the original Broadway production

750 pounds – amount of silicone rubber used to make the masks

11 ounces – the weight of Scar’s mask

18 feet – the size of the two giraffes in the production

6 feet – how high the actors have to climb to fit inside the giraffes on stilts

45 pounds – the weight of the Pumbaa puppet costume

3,000 – stalks of grass per year to maintain the grasslands headdresses

200 – puppets in the show

25 – different animals, birds, fish and insects in the show

5 – indigenous African languages spoken in the show

134 – the number of people directly involved with the daily show production

18 – trucks used to transport sets, puppets and other materials on tour

7 – days to set up the production in each new city

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Brilliance of 'The Lion King' to shine at TPAC