SAN ANTONIO — Disney's The Lion King comes to life on stage in San Antonio this month. The Academy Award-winning movie adaptation runs through November 7 at the Majestic Theatre.
It's a classic story known to most people. Young Simba has a peaceful life frolicking in the savanna grasslands until the unthinkable tragedy of his dad's death, orchestrated by Simba's wicked uncle. Simba flees the Pride Lands and teams up with two new hilarious friends. Eventually, an old friend comes to him with a desperate plea to return to the Pride Lands and fulfill his destiny to be king.
The tour was shut down in March of 2020 when COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellations of theater productions.
"We were on tour the moment the pandemic shut the world down. We were in South Bend, Indiana," Ameenah Kaplan, Resident Director for Lion King, said in an interview with KENS 5 over Zoom.
Kaplan has choreographed more than two-dozen shows for stage and TV, including The Grammys and Dancing with the Stars. She has directed many others, including . She has received NAACP, LA Weekly, Gregory, and Ovation Awards for choreography. In her many years of being in show business, she had never seen anything like the grinding halt of the theater industry.
"Suddenly, the whole city cleared out and there was one Burger King that was serving like round the clock and the whole hotel cleared out. It was crazy," Kaplan said. "People don't often realize how quickly and totally the theater side of the entertainment industry was shut down because we are a gathering space of people."
"It's not only the actors that you see on stage is the stagehands, it's the theater workers. It's the concessions, the merchandise, you know. So it was an entire industry that was completely shut down by the pandemic," Geoff Myers said.
Myers is the Resident Dance Supervisor for the Lion King and has been on Broadway or on tour with The Lion King since 2003. He has performed as a male ensemble dancer as well as served as Resident Dance Supervisor for the show. Before joining The Lion King, Geoff had a long and successful career as a concert dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He has also worked with some of the dance world’s most renown choreographers including Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, David Parsons, and Danny Ezralow, among others.
Myers spoke about the huge influence the stage version of the Lion King has had around the world.
"Come this fall, and we're going to have 10 Lion Kings around the world. So it's not just an American story, it's a universal story that people relate to. Not to mention just the size of the show. I mean, it's one of the largest touring shows in the world," Myers said.
"Someone said to me recently that Lion King was like the new Christmas Carol and 23-24 years later, I was like, 'I think they might be right about that,'" Kaplan said. "And Lion King, it's a heart play. It really has a strong human thread running through it that many people relate to."
As far as returning to the stage after the pandemic shut down, both Kaplan and Myers say the company did everything they could to keep cast and crew safe.
"You know, the vaccine was a huge thing that allowed us to come back," Myers said. He says the company required the cast and crew to be vaccinated.
"We tested every day. Everyone in the theater who worked with us, who comes in contact with us also has to be tested," Myers also said.
"Disney did a very good job of taking care of us, I think they did, and keeping us sort of focused and inside of the web and letting us know that the show was a priority. So we were kind of a little bit on call. I felt like the tether to Disney was never really broken throughout the pandemic," Kaplan said.
Click here for a full schedule and tickets for the Lion King tour at the Majestic Theatre.