The Walt Disney Company UK and Ireland has today announced that the award-winning musical The Lion King will embark on a second UK and Ireland tour. The Lion King will open in Bristol in September 2019 and move on to Edinburgh in December 2019. Further cities will be announced in due course.
Tickets for the Bristol run will go on sale in February 2019 and for the Edinburgh run in March 2019. Patrons can sign up for priority access to tickets at www.thelionking.co.uk
The tour coincides with The Lion King celebrating 20 years at London’s Lyceum Theatre. Since the UK premiere in London on Tuesday 19th October 1999, The Lion King has entertained over 15 million theatregoers and remains the West End’s best-selling stage production and the sixth longest-running West End musical of all time.
In celebration of this anniversary, the company will host a gala performance, perform at live events and on TV, and celebrate its many charity and outreach partnerships.
The previous tour of The Lion King broke attendance records across the nation. With a cast of over 50 actors, singers and dancers, the story of The Lion King is miraculously brought to life using masks, puppets and striking costumes to tell the story of young Simba’s epic adventures as he struggles to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and becoming king.
Julie Taymor’s internationally-celebrated stage adaptation opened on Broadway in 1997 and 25 global productions have now been seen by more than 95 million people. Performed in nine different languages (English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Dutch, Spanish, Mandarin and Portuguese), productions of THE LION KING can currently be seen on Broadway, London’s West End, Hamburg, Tokyo and Sapporo, Madrid, Scheveningen in Holland, Daegu in South Korea and on tour across North America – a total of nine productions running concurrently across the globe. Having played over 100 cities in 20 countries on every continent except Antarctica, THE LION KING’s worldwide gross exceeds that of any film, Broadway show or other entertainment title in box office history.
Julie Taymor, one of the world’s most innovative directors, brought a vast array of disciplines to THE LION KING, including extensive experience staging epic theatre and opera productions, exploring classic myths through ritualised puppetry, mask, and movement. The Lion King was the first musical she directed in the commercial theatre, and Taymor made Broadway history by becoming the first woman to win the Tony Award®for Best Director of a Musical.
The original score from the animated film was expanded for the stage and now features 15 musical numbers.
As well as writing completely new songs, South African composer Lebo M created an evocative blend of African rhythms and chorales, with additional material by Julie Taymor and Mark Mancina. Elton John and Tim Rice have added three new numbers to the five that they wrote for the award-winning score of the animated film. The resulting sound of THE LION KING is a fusion of Western popular music and the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Africa, including the Academy Award®-winning Can You Feel The Love Tonightand the haunting Shadowland.
The Lion King is produced by Disney Theatrical Productions.
