Articles
Over the past year or so I noticed that the Evening Standard - the newspaper my parents regularly buy - seems to 'love' The Lion King, because there have been soo many articles singing praise about the musical. I decided to cut them out, and now have typed up some of them for your pleasure. I also began getting snippets from wherever possible - tour guide books, magazines and such... so here we have some of my collection of articles I own. Please do not put then on any other webpage... they took me quite a long time to type up (im not a very fast typer!). Thanks.
If anyone has an article they would like to give me, please email it, and you will get full credit and thanks!
See what I found about TLK in the Microsoft Cinemania '97 disk!
Firstly, there are the remains of my old articles page, which was frankly rubbish! Click to see a larger version of them!
Next there are all the typed articles... click on the title which sounds the most appealing to you :).
Lion King digs in at Lyceum - from the Evening Standard
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Fear and Loathing: Disney's secret weapons
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Official New York City Guide; Issue from 4th November.
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Touch Network information
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Ringing down the curtain -
(Highlights of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 1999)
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Tourist cheifs take on touts who fleece theatregoers
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Don't Miss Theatre: The Lion King
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Lion King digs in at Lyceum
Bizarre masks, two big holes and a grenade - it's all part of putting on the show...
In a suite of rooms above the Lyceum Theatre, a young Englishwoman is putting the finishing touches to the 140 magical masks, models and puppets that give Disney's The Lion king its dazzling distinctive look.
"My deadline is today", says 32 year old Anne Salt, who studied textile design in Walsall never thinking that in a dozen or so years time she would be responsible for the look of such a £6.5 million theatrical phenomenon.
She talked as she fitted one of the lioness masks to the head of Imelda de los Reyes, who is now appearing in Miss Saigon, but starts rehearsing for The Lion King next week in preparation for the September opening. The masks and puppets must be ready for the start of rehearsals of this highly choreographed piece so that Imelda and the rest of the cast can learn to wear them as if they were extensions of themselves.
That cast of 46 has now been chosen - and it's mostly British, richly multi-racial and largely unknown. One of the few recognisable names is West End musical star Paulette Ivory, who plays Nala, the lion princess. Another is Josette Bushell-Mingo, who as Shaman, Rafiki, is both the scene-setter and so-called sprit guide throughout the show.
As with the Broadway show, some South Africans have been imported to lend authentic voices to the African chants and rhythms that fuse with the songs of Elton John and Tim Rice. But none of the cast is borrowed from the New York show, which continues to play to capacity houses on Broadway, 20 months after it opened. However, the production team under director-designer Julie Taymor has been borrowed and so will ensure British audiences see the show that has captivated Americans of all ages.
Anne Salt was a member of that original production team, though in a more modest way. She had worked with Julie Taymor before on another of her shows and was hired in January 1997 as one of the many model makers. Now, because of her knowledge of the show, Disney has put her in charge of co-ordinating the making and the fitting of all the masks and puppets in the show. "This is a big step up for me," she acknowledges.
Ninety percent of the work, she reckons, has gone to British firms and the room on the top of the Lyceum are lined with rows of massive wildebeest heads, brilliantly coloured kite birds and characterful models of the rather strident bird Zazu.
On stage, the evocation of the African plains and the rites-of-passage drama as the young lion cub Simba learns to assume his kingly responsibilities, requires a highly mechanised delivery system. Its installation is the responsibility of another Disney team.
Key tasks have been to dig a couple of big holes to house the sweeping rise of Pride Rock in the middle of the stage and the grasslands. There was a momentary hiccup when a labourer unearthed a Second World War incendiary device. "It turned out to be an English hand grenade with the clip in place," said production manager Simon Marlow.
"The Bomb Squad sent a guy round. He picked it up, shook it, put it on the front seat of his Range Rover and drove off."
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Fear and Loathing: Disney's secret weapons
The secret of Walt Disney's success is playing on children's fears of being alone, film critics claim today.
As the Disney studios prepare their latest release, Tarzan, for Britain, a leading Hollywood film magazine has re-examined the plots of classic Disney films to delve into the psychological tricks used by the world's leading animator.
In film after film, including Tarzan, the Disney Corporation uses stories that have an orphan at the centre of the plot. Movies such as Bambi, The Lion King and Cinderella, be they classic fairy tales or original scripts, share the same formula.
In its current issue Premier magazine claims "From Snow White to Cinderella, Pocahontas to Peter Pan, parentless protagonists are ubiquitous in Disney's animated cartoons than marketing tie-ins. With the new Tarzan, the family-friendly studio again displays its penchant for parricide."
The theory receives endorsement from the co-director of Tarzan, Chris Buck. He says "There is some sort of universal connection with the orphan. Even if you're not physically orphaned by your parents, there are times in your life when you feel alone."
Making a psychological examination of Disney Films, Premiere identifies Bambi as suffering from "fear of abandonment and wide open spaces", Simba in The Lion King has "acute self-loathing, a Peter Pan complex", The Hunchback of Notre Dame has "chronic low self esteem", while Tod, the fox cub in The Fox and The Hound, suffers from "separation anxiety".
A number of characters blame themselves for the death of a parent. Simba in The Lion King says: "It's because of me, it's all my fault."
The movie therapist Bernie Wooder uses films, including Disney films, as part of his consultations with clients at his Harley Street practice in London. He said yesterday: "Disney is very much appealing to abandonment. There is no doubt that one of the big secrets of his success is addressing the issue and seeing that it all turns out right in the end.
"His films comfort and help children and adults through identifying with this sense of abandonment. It is often the case that you will feel vaguely discomforted, but you don't know why. But if you're watching a film and you can say 'yes that's what it is, it helps you to tackle the problem. That is why Disney's films can certainly be therapeutic."
Tarzan, which has already opened in America, is an adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and features the voices of Tony Goldwyn, Glenn Close, Minnie Driver and Rosie O'Donnell. The songs are supplied by Phill Collins.
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Official New York City Guide; Issue from 4th November.
NY Theatre -The Lion King
1998 Tony, Best Musical. (2 hrs., 45 mins.) (Opened 11/13/97)(New Amsterdam Theatre 214 W. 42nd St., 307-4100) The stage version of Disney's animated mega-hit follows the adventures of Simba as he struggles to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and his destined role of king of the jungle. Filled with colourful characters and Grammy-winning numbers by Elton John and Tim Rice, this is a family-friendly show you won't want to miss. Wed-Sat., 8; Sat., 2; Sun., 3.
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Touch Network information
(This particular machine was situated in The Days Hotel, New York)
The Lion King
The Stage Version of the hit Disney animated movie has songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, as Well as additional songs by Hans Zimmer and Jay Rifkin.
Inventive director Julie Taymore has created hundreds of masks, puppets and costumes for the heart-stopping spectacle.
Wed-Sat 8pm
Wed & Sat 2pm
Sun 1pm & 6.30pm
New Amsterdam Theatre
42nd St. at 7th Ave.
(212) 307-4100
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Ringing down the curtain
(Highlights of the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 1999)
Award for Best Director
...Several judges put the case forward for Julie Taymor's direction of The Lion King. Jane Edwards praised the way its puppetry and extraordinary effects "beat the audience into submission, so that it felt invited in". Paul Taylor felt the whole production worked because of Taymor's contribution, and Nicholas de Jongh was elated by her "imaginative, metaphoric and witty ways of suggesting the jungle".
But the person who most impressed the judges, for The Merchant of Venice and Summerfolk, was Trevor Nunn...
The Evening Standard/Carlton Television Award for Best Musical
...The stage was now set for an impassioned battle between Spend Spend Spend and The Lion King...
...The Lion King was, said Nicholas de Jongh "the best experience in terms of a show". Susannah Clapp spoke highly of its "glorious pageantry, beauty, the bringing of puppets to the theatre" but disliked its story. Jane Edwards criticised its dialogue and music but praised Julie Taymor's contribution and Richard Hudson's designs. Benedict Nightingale considered it the most exciting call on the imagination for years; "It's the most enthralling, imaginatively provocative musical I've ever had occasion to review."
The result was a dead heat. After another round of voting Spend Spend Spend was the winner.
Theatrical Event of the Year
The judges agreed that The Lion King was the most striking production in London. It used high theatrical techniques to attract a public who wouldn't normally step into a theatre. It's staging was more inherently theatrical than most musicals, and its gorgeous costumes and special effects had turned its opening into a major event and got the theatre talked about more than any other production. It was indisputedly the Theatrical Event of the Year.
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Tourist cheifs take on touts who fleece theatregoers
"...Among the victims reported to trading standards recently was a young women from Hong Kong, who paid £110 for tickets to see the Lion King at the Lyceum, having booked them over the phone a month in advance.
She was told the seats were towards the front of the middle of the Grand Circle, only to find on arrival that they were £15 tickets for the very last row, where she could hardly see..."
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Don't Miss
Theatre: The Lion King
So far its been well-nigh impossible to get tickets for Julie Taymor's exhilarating reworking of the Disney film, but booking is now open for a new block of performances from October. The story of a young lion, Simba, avenging his father's death and the songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, remain the same, but Taymore has drawn on her background in avant-garde theatre to create a mega musical with roots in ritualistic and physical theatre. Gawp and gasp as she fills the stage with dazzling costumes, animals on stilts, fabulous puppets, vibrant wigwams topped with skulls, swooping wooden birds and chanted choruses that bring the African jungle to thrilling life.
Lyceum Theatre, WC2, £15-30. 0870 243 9000
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