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Broadway’s Award-Winning Best Musical
Coming to Your City
(New York, NY) – Disney’s The Lion King continues to reign across North America with its record-breaking tour. To find information about tour cities, dates, cast, and more, visit lionking.com/tour
Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions (under the direction of Thomas Schumacher), The Lion King premiered on Broadway on November 13, 1997, and has been experienced by more than 112 million people around the world. This landmark musical event brings together one of the most imaginative creative teams on Broadway. Tony Award®-winning director Julie Taymor brings to life a story filled with hope and adventure set against an amazing backdrop of stunning visuals. The Lion King also features some of Broadway’s most recognizable music, crafted by Tony Award-winning artists Elton John and Tim Rice. There is simply nothing else like The Lion King.
For more than 20 years, the North American touring productions of The Lion King have been seen by over 21 million theatergoers and played more than 9,000 performances in over 90 cities across North America.
Performed over its lifetime in nine different languages (English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Dutch, Spanish, Mandarin, and Portuguese), productions of The Lion King have played on every continent except Antarctica. The Lion King’s worldwide gross exceeds that of any film, Broadway show, or other entertainment title in box office history.
The Lion King won six 1998 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Scenic Design (Richard Hudson), Best Costume Design (Julie Taymor), Best Lighting Design (Donald Holder), Best Choreography (Garth Fagan) and Best Direction of a Musical.
The show’s director, costume designer, and mask co-designer Julie Taymor continues to play an integral part in the show’s ongoing success. The first woman to win a Tony Award for Direction of a Musical, Taymor supervises new productions of the show around the world.
The Broadway score features Elton John and Tim Rice’s songs from the Lion King animated film along with three new songs by John and Rice; additional musical material by South African Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer; and music from “Rhythm of the Pride Lands,” an album inspired by the original music in the film, written by Lebo M, Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer. The resulting sound of The Lion King is a fusion of Western popular music and the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Africa, ranging from the Academy Award®-winning song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” to Lebo M’s rich choral numbers.
Elton John, Lebo M, and Hans Zimmer all collaborated on the 2019 version of the film, executive produced by Julie Taymor and Thomas Schumacher, which has gone on to extraordinary worldwide success.
The book has been adapted by Roger Allers, who co-directed the animated The Lion King feature, and Irene Mecchi, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay. Other members of the creative team include Michael Curry, who designed the masks and puppets with Taymor, Steve Canyon Kennedy (sound design), Michael Ward (hair and makeup design), Anthony Lyn (associate director), Marey Griffith (associate choreographer), Clement Ishmael (music supervisor), Lisa Dawn Cave (production supervisor), Thomas Schlenk (general manager) and Binder Casting/Mark Brandon, CSA (casting). Anne Quart serves as co-producer.
For more information worldwide, visit LionKing.com, www.facebook.com/thelionkingusa and www.instagram.com/thelionking.
