Like a giant, saffron sun emerging from the Saharan savannah, “The Lion King” was the dawn of a new day for live theater in 1997. Its opening procession of life-sized animal puppets not only changed awed theatergoers. It changed the generation of theatrical storytellers to follow.
Even if director Julie Taymor was drawing from centuries-old presentational styles from around the globe, her fusion of African rhythms, movement and masks with Western popular music in the telling of an old-school Disney tale was startlingly new to mainstream Broadway theatergoers.
She didn’t so much create a new theatrical form as propel the circle of theatrical life.
“When the show was created, a lot of people felt Julie had reinvented musical theater, but I think really what she has done is rediscovered it,” said associate director John Stefaniuk. “She has taken all of these aspects of storytelling from Africa, Asia, the Philippines and all these other parts of the world she has traveled upon, and she incorporated them in a new way.
“What you wind up with is this melting pot of a show, and it’s very awe-inspiring.”
As the host city of the first national touring production in 2002, Denver holds an important place in the timeline of a pop-culture phenomenon that has now been seen by more than 55 million people and grossed more than $4.3 billion in 18 global productions.
More than 200,000 saw that first touring production in Denver, and many of them remember it like some might recall the wedding of Charles and Diana. Perhaps it was the flock of birds filling the Buell Theater’s airspace like roaring kites. Or the 11-foot-tall elephant that passed with by four visible bodies inside.
“I actually cried when that elephant walked right in front of me, literally inches away,” said Kate Hart of Westminster. She says it reminded her of an Edgar Allen Poe quote: “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”
For area theater director Edith Weiss, the clincher was seeing the grassland rise up and morph into human beings.
“That whole processional gave me goose bumps,” said Weiss, who was in turn inspired to depict animals evolving into other objects when she staged Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories” for the Arvada Center.
And that, said Stefaniuk, who just opened the latest international “Lion King” production in Madrid, may be Taymor’s greatest influence.
“If Julie opened the door to anything, it was allowing an artist to tell a story not just the way somebody has told it before, but to really push the envelope as to how they can tell a story through their own kaleidoscope,” he said. “And ‘The Lion King’ is the most beautiful kaleidoscope example you could ever have.”
Just as Taymor was surely inspired by groundbreaking productions such as “Equus,” with its wire-framed horse heads, and Stephen Schwartz’s “Children of Eden,” which introduced a similar menagerie of animal puppets five years before, you’d be hard-pressed to find a director who hasn’t had his or her mind somehow expanded by, say, the wildebeest stampede in “The Lion King.”
It was that daunting task — showing the boy Simba being chased through a canyon by a rumbling herd that, through Taymor’s use of forced perspective, begins with tiny wildebeests across the back of the stage and has them grow progressively bigger, without the use of fancy multimedia tricks.
“It wasn’t until Julie had figured out how she was going to do the stampede that she actually agreed to do the production in the first place,” Stefaniuk said. “What she managed to capture was the panic and the danger of being hunted. It’s very primal.”
What’s most impressive, Stefaniuk said, is that Taymor’s methods are really so exquisitely simple. So much so that they can be — and often are — replicated by theater companies operating on very small budgets. Her use of simple shadows and light to tinker with audience perspective isn’t so different from children projecting shadows onto sheets in their bedrooms.
It’s all the more ironic today, given that Taymor just helmed the most troubled and most expensive musical in Broadway history, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” But Taymor’s influence was just as evident across Times Square at the Lincoln Center, where the most the magical and breathtaking production of the season was a thrilling import from Britain called “War Horse,” featuring life-size equine puppets similarly operated by visible, human puppeteers. It’s difficult to imagine “The War Horse” in quite the same way without “The Lion King.”
“I actually saw ‘War Horse’ with Julie in London, and she sat there gasping and loving what she saw,” Stefaniuk said. “As an artist, she is incredibly excited whenever she sees artists bringing out something of themselves.
“If anything, Julie’s legacy is that she pushes actors to breathe life into the story using their own voice, with clarity and with heart and with truth. In essence, she pushes storytelling up a notch. It’s not just children’s theater. It’s live theater. ‘The Lion King’ is a story not for kids, but for everyone.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“The Lion King” ticket information
Broadway musical. National touring production at the Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Through Dec. 4. 2 hours, 45 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Fridays; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; also 6:30 p.m. Nov. 27. Limited tickes remaining, up to $140. 303-893-4100 or
It’s Arts Week: Here are two recommendations
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Curious Theatre Company’s “Collapse: Most every local theater company with a currently running production is hooking up with Denver Arts Week by offering special performances and discounts, including the Arvada Center ($2 off “Flat Stanley” and 2-for-1 tickets to “The Road to Mecca,” 720-898-7200), the Denver Center Theatre Company ($52.80 for two tickets to “American Night,” 303-893-4100) and many others such as Bovine Metropolis, The Bug, Byers-Evans, Dangerous, Ignite and Shadow theaters. One of the most intriguing options is Curious Theatre’s heartfelt new comedy, “Collapse.” Though it’s inspired by the 2007 Minneapolis bridge disaster, artistic director Chip Walton swears, “It’s one of the funniest plays we’ve ever produced.” In Allison Moore’s story, Hannah is trying to hold her perfect life together after being laid off, her husband calls in sick for days on end, and, when Hannah’s flaky sister blows in from Los Angeles unannounced, the family sets off on an odyssey full of comic surprises and moving turns. It’s about picking up the pieces and moving on when our lives fall apart. The Nov. 10-12 performances are discounted for Arts Week. 1080 Acoma St., 303-623-0524 or Pictured: Lawrence Curry and Rebecca Remaly. Photo by Michael Ensminger.
MCA’s Black Sheep Friday: The Museum of Contemporary Art is teaming with Buntport Theater for a silly evening of voyeuristic performance-art fun called “Black Sheep Friday” on Nov. 11. You can win a date with Denver’s theatrical collective — yes, all six members — by competing in a “Dating Game”-style game show. The date will take place right away after the contest: An evening at the museum, which will have just opened a new exhibit, “West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America 1965-77.” If you don’t get picked, or just want to tag along, you can stay and watch the entire date play out on closed-circuit TV. $5 after 5 p.m.; museum stays open until 10 p.m. Call for sign-up info: 303-298-7554. Hosted by
Best bet: “Frost/Nixon”
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The venerable Longmont Theater Company has landed an unusual coup: the first Colorado staging of the recent acclaimed Broadway hit, “Frost/Nixon.” British talk-show host David Frost has become a lowbrow laughingstock and Richard M. Nixon has just resigned the presidency in disgrace over the Watergate scandal. Determined to resurrect his career, Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews in the hope of extracting an apology from Nixon. The cagey president, however, is equally bent on redeeming himself in his nation’s eyes. The result is the interview that sealed a journalist’s career — and a president’s legacy. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; also 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at 513 Main St., 303-772-5200 or . Pictured: Robert Mess, left, as David Frost, and Stuart O’Steen as Richard Nixon.
This weekend’s other theater openings
“Accomplice” In this comic mystery thriller by Rupert Holmes, Janet and her lover plan to murder her husband, Derek. She and the lover act out how they will poison Derek’s cocktail. However, the intended victim has a tape recorder hidden in the room and is aware of what is going on. Through Nov. 19. Presented by Devil’s Thumb Productions at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-506-5868 or
“Billy the Poet” In this new play by Bill Thompson, Billy is a vagrant poet who lives in a shelter with his three disturbed wives. In this dark journey to the twilight world of society’s dispossessed, he is preparing his “family” for the upcoming Helter Skelter that will bring the end of the world. Through Nov. 20. 73rd Avenue Theatre Company, 7287 Lowell Blvd., Westminster, 720-276-6936 or
“Night of the Assassins” In their dingy basement, three siblings re-enact a violent assassination in this new play by exiled Cuban playwright José Triana. But we do not know if they are imitating a heinous crime they may have previously committed, or if they are planning a murder they will commit in the future, or simply playing around. Triana was exiled after writing this play. Through Nov. 16. Presented by the 11 Minutes Theatre Company at the Arvada Festival Playhouse, 5665 Olde Wadsworth Blvd., 720-333-3499 or email jak.11minutes@yahoo.com
“Pieces of Eight” Red Rocks Community College’s annual fall presentation of eight original, short plays by local writers including Richard Dresser, William Missouri Downs, Jean Egdorf, Rebecca Gorman, Brenda Hoskins, Pamela Jamruszka Mencher and Jason Karuza. Through Nov. 13. 13300 W. Sixth Ave., Lakewood, 303-914-6458
“South Pacific” “South Pacific” is best-known for its extraordinary 1949 score, including “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Bali Ha’i” and “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame.” But it also a deeply felt drama about Americans stationed in an alien culture in wartime. This national touring production plays at 7:30 p.m. today and Sunday; and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Fort Collins’ Lincoln Center, 417 W. Magnolia St., 970-221-6730 or
“A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennessee Williams’ 1947 Pulitzer winner is about the violent culture clash that results when Blanche DuBois, a pretentious, fading relic of the Old South, moves in with her sister and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, urban immigrant class. This is the play that makes beer-drinkers around the country order in a scream, “Stella!!!!” Through Dec. 11. Germinal Stage-Denver, 2450 W. 44th Ave., 303-455-7108 or
“Trinidad: Our Stories, Vol. One”The Southern Colorado Repertory Theatre presents an original play based on the inspiring and humorous stories of those who make up the former mining town of Trinidad, 200 miles south of Denver. Through Nov. 13 at the Mount Carmel Community Center, 911 Robinson St., 719-846-4765 or
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