Speaking at a press conference in Sydney a short time ago, the Hon. George Souris (NSW Minister for Tourism, Major Events and the Arts) alongside the President of Disney Theatrical Group, Thomas Schumacher, on satellite from New York (along with a few performers from the Broadway production), announced the return of The Lion King to Sydney’s Captiol Theatre from December 2013, for a minimum eight month run.
The show last closed its curtains on Sydney a decade ago, after attracting more than 1.35 million people and playing for close to two years. They anticipate this to be a smaller run (no doubt considering the amount of people who saw it the first time around), though Mr. Souris expects the 2013 production to attract 50,000 visitors from interstate and overseas, generating $36 million in new money for NSW.
As to whether or not the show would move to other cities, Schumacher stated, “There’s no specific plan in terms of how that rolls out… It’s logical that once I have something as gigantic as The Lion King all the way in Australia that it would be seen in other cities, but the plan is not fixed yet, no.”
Why The Lion King, and not a new production? To that Schumacher had this to say: “…there’s such a demand for it… a huge response to it and a huge desire for it. So we just did Mary Poppins (in Sydney), and though you mightn’t perceive The Lion King as ‘new’, it will be to audiences who are seeing it for the first time. And then of course there’s always the people that want to come back to it… In fact we get many more requests around the world for productions of The Lion King that we can accommodate.”
Mr. Shumacher also referenced the show’s ability to bring people to the theatre for the first time, saying that in a recent survey, 40% of adults who attended The Lion King were attending the theatre for the first time.
Julie Taymor will be returning to Australia to direct the production, though no other details are available on cast or crew. Schumacher referenced the previous production in Sydney which had a combination of Maori and South African performers – combining local with international talent – and the 2013 production is expected to undergo a similar treatment.
