‘The Lion King’ Celebrates its 20th Anniversary On Stage

Gus went on to reveal a fortuitous mistake during the song’s recording. “There’s an excellent example of a magic moment from the Madman sessions. It was when Barry Morgan, the drummer on Levon played the drum fill in the wrong place, and it was fabulous. It was during take three or four, and he misread the chart. Barry accidentally jumped down a complete line and carried on playing even though he realized what he’d done. He played a written drum fill in the wrong place. When Barry came up to the control room to listen to the playback, I was grinning my head off. I said, “Barry, that was a … brilliant drum fill. What on earth made you put it there?” He said, “Oh man, I’m really sorry. I screwed up.” I said, “Barry, it was a moment of genius.” He said, “No. No. We’ll have to do another take.” I said, “No way, you’ve got to hear it.” So we played it back, and everybody thought it was brilliant. And he was like, “Are we going to do another take?” I’m going, “No.” And he’s going, “Come on, guys. We have to do another take.” And we’re going, “No.” The only reason it bothered him was that he knew he’d made a mistake, but it was a … brilliant mistake. That doesn’t happen if you are programming music. Then it is all coming from one person’s point of view and not from a dozen or more people. There are no surprises. There are no happy accidents.”

The show, which had debuted at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, MN in July, was an immediate hit, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and eight Drama Desk Awards. It has become Broadway’s third longest-running show in history with over 8,310 performances and grosses of over $1 billion, making it the highest-grossing stage show or film release in the world.

The Lion King, now at the Minskoff Theatre where it has given over 6,700 performances, is directed and co-designed by Julie Taymor, who brought a vast array of disciplines to the production, drawing on her wide experience of various theatrical styles and cultures to tell the compelling tale of Simba, the young lion cub.

Much of the success of the theatre production lies in the use of African masks and puppets created by Julie Taymor and designer Micheal Curry. In the production, the masks are worn traditionally above the actors’ faces which clearly represent the characters, yet allow the actors to make full use of their human emotions and expressions.

The production also incorporates Bunraku puppetry, where a puppeteer visible to the audience controls a life-sized puppet on the stage. By leaving the puppeteers visible, much in the same way the actor’s faces are left visible, audiences can concentrate on the character as well as the skill of the puppeteer, allowing them a complete appreciation of the theatrical event.

Since its debut 20 years ago, 24 global productions of The Lion King have been seen by more than 90 million people in over 100 cities across 19 countries, on every continent except Antarctica. It has been translated into eight different languages.

In the UK The Lion King debuted in the Lyceum Theatre in the West End on October 19, 1999, and is still running as one of the most popular West End musicals with over 7,500 performances to date. On September 13, 2011, the show celebrated its 5,000th performance by donating the sales of 5,000 tickets to charity.

Besides its original productions in New York and London, The Lion King has been staged in Tokyo, Toronto, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Sapporo, Sydney, The Hague, Melbourne, Seoul, Paris, Honolulu, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Taipei, Las Vegas, Madrid, Singapore, São Paulo, and Sydney. The Lion King is due to premiere in Manila in March 2018 with additional engagements in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and South Africa.

Two decades after those tentative first shows in Minneapolis, The Lion King, featuring Elton John and Tim Rice’s glorious and magical songs, continues to enthrall audiences all over the world.

For the first time ever, the official videos for ‘Circle of Life’ and ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’ (from the ‘The Lion King’ film) are on Elton John’s official Vevo page.

Watch them below.