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“Unbelievable...Unbelievable…”
I’ll never forget, as soon
as this show ended and I stood up from the piano to congratulate the cast,
I saw Kenny Etra, camera in hand, milling about the front of the theatre
repeating that one word over and over. This was the show that put the
theatre program on the proverbial map for good, a performance that worked
on so many different levels that it still comes up in conversation as the
benchmark by which subsequent shows have been judged.
Along with Rocky Horror, The Lion King was a show I thought
we absolutely had to do in 1998. It was universally known and loved,
relatively recent, had a score by one of my favorite musicians, Elton John,
and as far as I knew had never been done on stage anywhere, let alone in
camp (the Julie Taymor stage version debuted at about the same time; it
opened on Broadway in the spring of 1998, months after I completed the
adaptation for camp using only the film and its soundtrack). Andrea and I
were in full agreement that The Lion King would be an ideal show for
the lower camp.
The challenge, obviously, was to
create a show which would take a vast and complex cartoon world and make it
work on a small stage, not to mention an adaptation that would tell the
story with as little dialogue as possible yet maintain the tale’s
narrative integrity. This is always a challenge and has been on just about
every show, but fortunately The Lion King gave me an advantage by
having multiple versions of some songs available on the soundtrack album
(one from the film and one performed by Elton John with different lyrics),
so I figured I could find a way to use all of them. Even using both lyric
versions of “Circle of Life,” “I Just Can’t Wait to
Be King” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”
wasn’t enough to fill out the show, so I came up with the idea to
write new lyrics to the existing music, and use those additional songs to
flesh out the plot. The new lyrics included two additional refrains of
“Be Prepared,” one to introduce Scar at the beginning and another
to provide the climactic Simba-Scar confrontation at the end; and a reprise
of “Hakuna Matata” for the Simba-Nala argument in the jungle.
We had more than 60 campers
audition for The Lion King, and casting was difficult. We divided
the role of Simba among three boys: Matthew Hasday, who was only 5 years
old, would be “Baby Simba;” Michael Virga would play Simba as a
young child and Brian Tannenbaum would play him as an adult. The
film’s most interesting comic-relief roles went to Eric Mogil, who
absolutely stole the show as Timon, and Justin Forman who played Pumbaa in
his only summer at Pontiac. The adaptation placed the baboon Rafiki in the
role of narrator; Eric’s brother Josh was cast as Rafiki, whom we
used as the narrator in our adaptation, but we added three girls (Alexis
Galfas, Annick Brand and Brittany Dallal) as narrators as well. Perry
Livingston was cast as Zazu. Michael, Brian, Eric, Josh and Perry would all
go on to form the core of the Pontiac theatre program for years to come,
each appearing in no fewer than four shows between 1998 and 2002.
Another young actor performing
in his first show, who would become an integral part of the theatre program
for years to come, was Corey Elan, whom we cast as Simba’s evil uncle
Scar. Corey was a sophomore that year, and his task was even more difficult
because he had to learn and sing two of the songs for which I had
written new lyrics (see above) and were therefore not on the tape. But he
plunged himself into the role and worked tirelessly to learn it; we often saw
him wandering about the theatre by himself during rehearsals, reciting his
lyrics over and over. In the end, his performance was remarkable; no one
will ever forget his admonition, “Be prepared!” By 2003, Corey had performed in more
shows (seven) than any other camper.
Like most of the other shows
we’ve done, and most musicals in general, The Lion King had a
paucity of female roles, but we got some strong performances here. Lori
Davidson, in her first of many roles on the Pontiac stage, played the child
Nala and Jana Katz, who would also go on to play several important roles in
future shows, was the adult Nala. Alyssa Paer played Sarabi, Simba’s
mother.
The greatest casting coup of all
was entirely Andrea’s idea: “Wacky Wally,” a.k.a.
Athletic Director Walter Bachman, as Mufasa. I don’t know how she
talked him into it, as I was not involved, but having Wally on stage just
added another layer of appeal to the show for the audience, and he was
perfect for the role. He only had a couple of one-word lines of dialogue
and one abbreviated song to sing, but he was really nervous about
remembering all the words, particularly the song (a reprise of
“Circle of Life”).
Fortunately, we found a
solution. About three nights before the show, I was sitting Head O.D. down
in the boys’ HC; I brought my piano, mixer, microphone and tape
recorder so Wally and I could record the song on tape and he could lip-sync
himself on stage. This way he could sing with the lyrics in front of him
and me singing with him to guide his voice, and not worry about what it
would sound like on stage. This was the only time I’ve done that for
a show, and I think it worked well; not many people realized it was a
recording.
With the principals cast, we had
to figure out a way to deal with the forty-odd other children who had
auditioned. These were divided into: Creatures of the Pride Lands, hyenas
and wildebeests, and the six littlest girls were cast as “bugs”
for “Hakuna Matata.” Any way you slice it, this was a huge
cast, one of the biggest we’ve ever had; only this, Beauty and the
Beast, Chicago and The Simpsons had over 50 campers in
the final cast (Les Miserables had a cast of about 50, but half were
staff members).
We can’t discuss and
remember The Lion King without giving credit to Howard Scoffield and
his intrepid crew, who created simply magnificent sets for this show,
working tirelessly for two weeks and at all hours. Not only were the
painted backdrops startlingly beautiful to look at, but the set itself was
an ingenious system of reversible and replaceable panels, rope-and-pulley
systems, hidden steps and platforms, and lighting design, maximizing the
limited space on stage to create the world of the Disney film in a very
effective way. I sometimes think that, as great as the performances were,
they may have been upstaged by the incredible scenery, which is not
necessarily a bad thing. The sets were just another element that made The
Lion King stand above anything anyone had seen on the Pontiac stage up
to that time. As Howard and company only did the sets for one more show (Beauty
and the Beast the following year), and I with my extremely limited
visual-arts skills did most of the rest, The Lion King remains the
best stage set we ever had.
All in all, the summer of 1998
was certainly a renaissance for the Pontiac theatre program, culminating in
the monumental performance of The Lion King. Andrea and I looked
forward to 1999 with great optimism, and plans to put on Tommy, H.M.S.
Pinafore and Aladdin. Of course, it didn’t quite work out that
way…
____
Pontiac Players present
THE LION KING
Music by ELTON JOHN Lyrics by TIM RICE
Additional lyrics by JAY BRAIMAN
Principal Cast
WALTER BACHMAN as Mufasa
MICHAEL VIRGA as Simba (child)
BRIAN TANNENBAUM as Simba (adult)
COREY ELAN as Scar
ERIC MOGIL as Timon
JUSTIN FORMAN as Pumbaa
LORI DAVIDSON as Nala (child)
JANA KATZ as Nala (adult)
ALYSSA PAER as Sarabi
PERRY LIVINGSTON as Zazu
JOSH MOGIL as Rafiki
ALEXIS GALFAS, ANNICK BRAND,
BRITTANY DALLAL as Narrators
Directed by ANDREA LEVINE, JAY BRAIMAN and KIRSTY
LANGSDALE
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