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And these giant puppets would be coming into our rooms.Īnd I think that we kind of knew then that this was something really special before an audience, just we, the people creating it, were very excited. You'd be gasping at Garth Fagan's choreography or the gorgeous choral singing from the - all the South Africans. And we all would be doing our work, but people would just start traveling and visiting between the rooms, and their mouths would be gasping. And we had four or five rooms - a room with the main acting room, then choreographic room and then a coral room and then a puppet room. TAYMOR: Well, I mean, we all rehearsed two doors down at 890 Broadway. I started our conversation by asking Julie Taymor when she first knew that "The Lion King" would be what she had hoped - something different, something special. Butterfly." We spoke with Julie Taymor a couple of days ago at her Manhattan apartment along with actress Lindiwe Dlamini, who's been a member of the ensemble cast for the entire run. It's been performed in 19 countries around the world.Īs "The Lion King" celebrates its 20th anniversary, we thought this was a good time to check in with Julie Taymor, who's also in the middle of directing the first revival of another groundbreaking play, "M. At more than $1 billion in ticket sales, it remains the most successful show in Broadway history. Twenty years later, "The Lion King" still holds its place atop the Broadway throne. Julie Taymor took home the first Tony Award given to a woman for directing a musical. When the musical opened three years later, what had seemed a risky experiment quickly earned critical praise an even bigger box office success. MARTIN: She decided to draw on theatrical and puppetry traditions she'd studied from around the world. And I saw it, and I saw it as a fun, interesting, giant challenge to bring into the stage. JULIE TAYMOR: I said I hadn't seen the animated film, and he laughed. MARTIN: When director Julie Taymor was approached by Disney producer Thomas Schumacher to adapt the 1994 Disney film "The Lion King" for the Broadway stage, she'd never actually seen it. UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) Sithi uhhmm ingonyama. UNIDENTIFIED SINGER #1: (Singing) Nants ingonyama bagithi baba. Finally today, a bold theatrical experiment turns 20.