Sharon Vanorny
The trucks rolled in from Richmond, Va., at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9 — huge semis, loaded down with the costumes, props and set pieces needed to mount Disney’s The Lion King at the Overture Center. The Richmond show ended the day before at 4 p.m. It took a little more than a day to break down the massive production and move it 945 miles.
“It’s a well-oiled machine,” says Matt Shiner, production stage manager for the tour. “But at some point, it becomes controlled chaos.”
By Wednesday, technicians and stagehands are busy setting lights, hanging backdrops and riding up and down on hydraulic Genie lifts, all to the tune of a high-powered vacuum whine. Costumes fill long corridors of wardrobe racks. Puppets line the stage. They were designed under the command of Julie Taymor, the show’s original director, and were meant to evoke “the double event” as she called it: the perception of the actors as both animals and humans at the same time. In the shadowy half-light of the wings, there lay the great scowling mask of Scar and the noble head of Mufasa, destined to bite the dust before the second act.
Shiner shouts over his crew as they raise a flat of grass headdresses into the fly, hoisting them temporarily out of the way. The show, which includes 49 performers in an almost constant state of costume change, uses these types of space-saving maneuvers finessed for every theater it visits.
A team of four stage managers heads up a crew of 85, about half of which are hired locally in each city.
“Our last week in [a theater] we split up. My advance stage manager will meet the crew in the next city,” says Shiner. “It takes a week for set-up, from the deck to the lights to the autofly system to our offices and power. Then we have to learn how to perform it in the new space.”
Eighteen trucks move the enormous set, while most of the cast and crew either fly or drive from city to city. Some bring their spouses and children. Shiner’s assistant has been with Lion King 11 years. She and the production’s master electrician have two kids. “She homeschools during the day, does one rehearsal and then comes in and does the show,” Shiner says.
The crew includes 19 wardrobe staff, 18 musicians, 11 carpenters, 10 electricians, a physical therapist and a child guardian. Because the company stays in each city for a month, the group naturally falls into rhythms and cliques once settled, Shiner says.
“There’s the group that says we’re going to go out tonight and have a drink. We’ve been hanging out at the piano bar,” he says, referring to the Ivory Room across from the Overture Center. “Then there are the people that get up early and go to the lake or go hiking. Everyone sort of breaks off.”
Many are excited by Madison’s Central Library, one of the “most amazing ones” they’ve seen. “We have a group of budding filmmakers that make 24-hour film festivals. They’re excited to take advantage of the classes over there.”
But most of the time, they’re hard at work on the show. For as good as it looks onstage, backstage is where the real action is. It’s so exciting, says Shiner, they could sell tickets.
How long artists and director Julie Taymor worked creating the original puppets for the show: More than 17,000 hours
Weight of Mufasa’s mask: 11 ounces
Heaviest costume: Pumba, 45 pounds
Tallest animals in the show: Four 18-foot giraffes (actors climb six-foot ladders to get inside)
Number of African languages spoken in the show: 6
Number of people employed worldwide on the show: 1,100
