30 Roaringly Outstanding Enjoyable Details about Nat Geo’s LION and The Lion King on Broadway

By the D23 Team

National Geographic’s LION, now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, tells the outstanding real-life story—filmed over three years—of Kio, a tiny lion cub on the Maasai Mara as he turns into a king. Executive produced by Disney Legend and The Lion King live-action director Jon Favreau and BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s inventive director Mike Gunton, LION goes past conventional wildlife documentaries to ship a gripping true story all about energy, politics, and personalities…

Meanwhile, Disney Theatrical Group’s The Lion King on Broadway is about to rejoice its unimaginable thirtieth anniversary in 2027! The third longest-running musical in Broadway historical past, it’s been thrilling audiences each in New York City and all over the world with its distinctive, Tony^® Award-winning retelling of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ hit 1994 movie, as initially helmed by Julie Taymor—the primary lady to win the Tony^® for Best Direction of a Musical.

To rejoice LION and The Lion King on Broadway, we’re having a look at 30 roaringly outstanding enjoyable details about each. Whether in an actual savanna or on a theatrical stage, the “circle of life” really does transfer us all… (Note: There are some spoilers forward for LION, so—as Scar would possibly say—“Be prepared…”)

• There have been 32 whole productions of Disney Theatrical Group’s The Lion King up to now.
• LION is narrated by British actor O.J. Lynch—who performed Mufasa in each the West End and German productions of The Lion King.
• Total variety of The Lion King stage musical guests worldwide: over 130 million!
• LION is the primary pure historical past sequence to observe a lion all through their full journey from a tiny cub to a king.
• There are 9 present productions of The Lion King worldwide: Broadway, London, Paris, Hamburg, Madrid, Tokyo, Mexico City, and on tour throughout North America and Australia.
• In LION, Kio’s path to the throne is filled with drama. He loses his aunt, his mom, and even his house. But over time, Kio proves himself an equal amongst his older brothers, changing into robust sufficient to combat rival males. Together he and his brotherhood take over a brand new delight of females, lastly taking management over a brand new kingdom.

• The Lion King has generated two productions worldwide operating 20 or extra years—and three others operating 25 or extra years!
• The LION crew grew to become specialists and will establish as much as 50 lions from completely different prides throughout the Mara by title and household relationships.
• The Lion King has been translated into 9 languages for the stage: English, Dutch, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Mandarin.
• LION’s filmmaking group gathered an estimated 1,000 hours of footage, and each shot of a lion was fastidiously logged.
• Disney Theatrical Group’s The Lion King has performed over 100 cities, in 38 international locations, on each continent besides Antarctica.
• With 52 shoots and a number of edits operating alongside filming, managing the LION manufacturing was an enormous process for Jane Atkins (sequence producer), Alison Shouls (line producer), and the entire BBC Studios Natural History Unit group again in Bristol, England.
• In New York City, The Lion King has set 33 Minskoff Theatre information since transferring there in 2006.

• Through elements of the moist season within the Maasai Mara, Kio the cub couldn’t be adopted by the LION crew because the plains grew to become impassable.
• Cumulatively, productions of Disney Theatrical Group’s The Lion King have run over 125 years!
• The LION crew was the primary to movie with drones at their location, with particular entry to observe the prides wherever they went.
• The Lion King is the winner of 72 main worldwide awards.
• LION’s filmmaking group relied on a community of fantastic native subject guides to assist them observe the lions—who may very well be surprisingly laborious to seek out when hidden in bushes or mile after mile of lengthy grass.
• Since The Lion King’s Broadway premiere, practically 250 South Africans have been employed in a number of of the worldwide productions as lead actors, ensemble dancers/singers, musicians, or members of the crew.
• The LION manufacturing group lived in a camp with out fences—so sometimes the lions would go to… and had been even discovered sleeping on the porches of the crew’s tents!

• The yearly repairs and upkeep of the 25 “Grasslands” headdresses per The Lion King manufacturing requires over 3,000 stalks of grass (roughly 60 kilos).
• Legendary Academy Award^®-winning composer Hans Zimmer leads the LION rating, alongside Emmy-winning and GRAMMY^®– and BAFTA-nominated Bleeding Fingers Music’s Niccolò Pacella and George Hutson Warren, with extra vocals from the Nairobi Chamber Chorus.
• The tallest animals in The Lion King musical are the 4, 18-foot unique giraffes from “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”—and the 2 giraffes seen in “Circle of Life” are every 14 ft excessive! Two actors educated in stilt-walking climb 5-foot ladders to suit contained in the puppets; to “become” the giraffes, they mount their stilts and enter stage left to cross the stage.
• In the LION modifying course of, the group dialed in refined echoes of the unique Lion King animated movie, highlighting comparable plot factors with echoes within the music, narration, and tone. There are even some unique music cues from The Lion King which have been licensed, rerecorded, and subtly used within the sequence alongside the primary rating.
• The largest and longest animal in The Lion King is the elephant—nicknamed “Bertha” by the backstage crew when the present premiered in 1997. At 13 ft lengthy and 9 ft broad, the puppet requires 4 actors to fastidiously stroll her down the orchestra aisle. When not occupied by the actors, the puppet can collapse down flat for handy backstage storage.
• To create a extra authentically native sound and really feel for LION, the composers had been invited to the Mara to work and report with Maasai singers and instrumentalists, and make sound recordings of lion roars, to create completely unique layers within the music rating.
• The smallest animal in The Lion King is the trick mouse on the finish of Scar’s cane—at simply 5 inches!

• The LION movie crew logged practically 1400 filming days throughout 52 shoots—probably the most time ever spent within the subject solely filming one group of lions.
• The Timon meerkat worn in The Lion King puppet weighs 15 kilos.
• Through Kio’s story, the LION group additionally reveals the dynamics of male lions. There is never one single king, however moderately there’s a close-knit brotherhood of males that work collectively to rule. Power comes from unity, however on this case, Kio’s success additionally got here right down to the dedication of his outstanding mom.

Don’t miss National Geographic’s LION, now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu! And go to LionKing.com for tickets and extra data on The Lion King on Broadway, in addition to its excursions and plenty of productions worldwide.