Elton John
Music
The monumental career of international singer/songwriter and performer Elton John has spanned more than four decades. Since launching his first tour in 1970, Elton has over 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries. He is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 35 gold and 25 platinum albums and more than 300 million records sold worldwide. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has awarded Elton multiple GRAMMY® Awards, including the GRAMMY® Legend Award. In the early 1990s, Elton collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on the soundtrack for The Lion King, winning him an Academy Award®. The album produced two top-selling, award-winning singles: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life.” The Tony® Award-winning Broadway productions of The Lion King and Aida both awarded Elton with GRAMMY® Awards for Best Musical Show Album. Billy Elliot was nominated for a record-tying 15 Tony® Awards and won 10 including Best Musical. In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which today is one of the leading nonprofit HIV/AIDS organisations. In 1998, the Queen of England knighted him Sir Elton John, CBE. In 2004, Elton received the Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contributions to American culture and excellence through the performing arts. In 2013, Elton was honored as the first recipient of the prestigious BRITs Icon Award.
Tim Rice
Lyrics
The monumental career of international singer/songwriter and performer Elton John has spanned more than four decades. Since launching his first tour in 1970, Elton has over 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries. He is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 35 gold and 25 platinum albums and more than 300 million records sold worldwide. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has awarded Elton multiple GRAMMY® Awards, including the GRAMMY® Legend Award. In the early 1990s, Elton collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on the soundtrack for The Lion King, winning him an Academy Award®. The album produced two top-selling, award-winning singles: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life.” The Tony® Award-winning Broadway productions of The Lion King and Aida both awarded Elton with GRAMMY® Awards for Best Musical Show Album. Billy Elliot was nominated for a record-tying 15 Tony® Awards and won 10 including Best Musical. In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which today is one of the leading nonprofit HIV/AIDS organisations. In 1998, the Queen of England knighted him Sir Elton John, CBE. In 2004, Elton received the Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contributions to American culture and excellence through the performing arts. In 2013, Elton was honored as the first recipient of the prestigious BRITs Icon Award.
Roger Allers
Book
Roger Allers made his Broadway debut with co-author Irene Mecchi, with this Tony®-nominated book, adapted from the animated feature, which he co-directed. Mr. Allers has been instrumental in shaping the structure and dialogue for many Disney animated features since 1988, including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company, The Rescuers Down Under, and the first CGI movie, Tron. He directed the Academy Award® nominated short The Little Matchgirl for Disney and co-directed the 2006 animated feature Open Season for Sony Studios. Prior to working with Disney, he created animation on children’s programs and features for studios in Boston, Toronto and Tokyo. Mr. Allers wrote and directed the 2015 animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, a book of philosophical poetry. Currently, he is writing an original musical for the stage.
Irene Mecchi
Book
Irene began her association with Disney in March 1992, when she wrote Recycle Rex, the 1994 Environmental Media Award-winning animated short. Irene shares a screenplay credit on Disney’s animated features The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules. Along with co-author Roger Allers, she received a 1998 Tony® nomination for writing the book for The Lion King. Irene wrote the teleplay for ABC’s Annie. She shares a writing credit on Disney Pixar’s Brave, which won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2013. Irene wrote the teleplay for NBC’s Peter Pan Live!, and recently developed television projects with NBC Universal and Netflix. She is currently working on a stage musical for Universal Stage Productions. Irene would like to thank the cast, crew, creative team and executives who keep The Lion King roaring ‘round the world.
Julie Taymor
Director, Costume Design, Mask/Puppet Co-Design, Additional Lyrics
Julie Taymor won the 1998 Tony® Award for Best Direction of a Musical and for Best Costumes for The Lion King. It also garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards for Taymor’s direction; three Molière Awards, including Best Musical and Best Costumes; and myriad awards for her original costume, mask and puppet designs. Taymor made her Broadway debut in 1996 with Juan Darien: A Carnival Mask (Lincoln Center), nominated for five Tony® Awards.Other theatre work includes The Green Bird (New Victory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, the Cort Theater on Broadway); Titus Andronicus; The Tempest; The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre for a New Audience); The Transposed Heads (Lincoln Center and American Music Theatre Festival); Liberty’s Taken (Castle Hill Festival); and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (Hilton Theatre on Broadway). Her opera productions include the Pulitzer finalist, Grendel, composed by Elliot Goldenthal (Los Angeles Opera and the Lincoln Center Festival); Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, in repertory at the Metropolitan Opera since 2004 and Oedipus Rex with Jessye Norman, conducted by Seiji Ozawa, for which she earned the International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production and an Emmy® for a subsequent film version. Her first film Fool’s Fire, an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe short story, aired on PBS in 1992. Her feature films include Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange; Frida, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina (six 2002 Academy Award® nominations, winning two); Across the Universe (2008 Golden Globe® nomination for Best Musical/Comedy) and The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren. She recently directed the play Grounded, starring Anne Hathaway at the Public Theater and completed a cinematic version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed during her stage production that ran at Theatre for a New Audience’s new home in Brooklyn. Taymor has received a MacArthur “genius” grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obie Awards and the first annual Dorothy B. Chandler Award in Theater, among many others. A book spanning her career, Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire, is available from Abrams. She most recently directed M Butterfly on Broadway starring Clive Owen in 2017.
Garth Fagan
Choreographer
Garth Fagan is the recipient of the 1998 Tony Award®, the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award (London, UK) and the 2004 Helpmann Award® (Australia) for Best Choreography in a Musical as well as the Drama Desk Award, the Astaire Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his work in The Lion King. Mr. Fagan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where he received the Prime Minister’s Award, a Special Gold Musgrave Medal for his “Contribution to the World of Dance and Dance Theater” and in 2001, he received the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander. For more than 47 years he has toured the world with Garth Fagan Dance. On television the company has appeared on Great Performances, The Tonight Show and the Academy Awards®. Mr. Fagan forged his own dance language and technique from Afro-Caribbean, ballet and post-modern dance, and has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Jose Limon Company, the New York City Ballet and others. In addition, he choreographed Joseph Papp’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and directed & choreographed the Duke Ellington street opera, Queenie Pie at the Kennedy Center. A Chancellor’s Award-winning Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York, his awards include the 2001 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, a Bessie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright 50th Anniversary Distinguished Fellow. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award and inducted into the American Academy of Achievement. He was selected in 2012 as an “Irreplaceable Dance Treasure” by The Dance Heritage Coalition. In 2017, Mr. Fagan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Dance Guild.
Lebo M
Additional Music & Lyrics, Vocal Score, Choral Director
Lebo M. is known as the “voice and spirit of The Lion King.” Once a teenage singer in Soweto, the GRAMMY® Award winner and Tony® nominee’s music brings audiences to tears with hauntingly inspiring African rhythms and melodies. Lebo’s talents have been hailed by the worldwide press in superlatives that might describe the most delightfully poetic of musical deities. Since his arrival in America, Lebo has attracted music industry giants such as Quincy Jones, Jimmy Cliff and Hans Zimmer as mentors, allies and collaborators. Lebo has performed and produced four albums, Rhythm of the Pride Lands (Disney), Deeper Meaning (Gallo) and The Lion King (Japanese and Hamburg cast recordings). Other credits include The Power of One, Back on the Block and Listen Up with Quincy Jones; the feature films Outbreak (Warner Bros.), Congo (Warner Bros.) and Born to Be Wild (Paramount); he is the composer and co-producer of The Legend of Tarzan theme song, “Opar”; and the Disney television special People. He has performed on the Academy Awards® and the Essence Awards Show, with Vanessa Redgrave at Kthimi – The Return in Kosovo, and been honored by Artists for a Free South Africa.
Mark Mancina
Additional Music & Lyrics, Music Produced for the Stage, Additional Score
A Tony® nominee and multi-platinum, three-time GRAMMY Award®-winning composer, Mr. Mancina produced songs for Disney’s blockbuster animated feature film, and proved a uniquely qualified choice to produce the music for the stage production of The Lion King. The 1994 film’s critical and box office success spawned the hit album Rhythm of the Pride Lands, for which he co-wrote and produced multiple tracks, including “He Lives in You” and “Shadowland”, songs featured in the stage production. In addition to his songwriting and producing achievements, he is a seasoned film score composer. Mr. Mancina’s credits include mega-hits Moana, Training Day, Speed, Twister, Bad Boys, Tarzan® and August Rush among many others.
Hans Zimmer
Additional Music & Lyrics
Hans Zimmer received the Oscar®, Golden Globe® and two Grammy® awards for his original film score for the film version of THE LION KING. He started his film scoring career with My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985, and his other credits include six Oscar-nominated film scores, among them Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets and Rain Man. Additional credits include the Grammy-winning score for Crimson Tide, Driving Miss Daisy, Thelma and Louise, Black Hawk Down and The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise. Mr. Zimmer also heads the film music division for DreamWorks SKG studios.
Jay Rifkin
Additional Music & Lyrics
The Grammy Award®-winning producer, together with producing and composing partner Hans Zimmer, created Media Ventures, a multifaceted entertainment group that includes music, new media, film and television. Their partnership has earned them numerous awards and nominations, including Academy Award® nominations, for the film scores of Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man and THE LION KING. Following the success of THE LION KING, Jay conceived and produced the gold-selling follow-up album Rhythm of the Pride Lands. He is also chairman of Media Revolution and a founder of the film production company Media Ventures Pictures.
Richard Hudson
Scenic Design
Richard Hudson was born in Zimbabwe and educated in Zimbabwe and England. In 1988 he won a Laurence Olivier Award for designing a season of seven plays at the Old Vic Theatre, London. His set designs for The Lion King have won numerous awards, including a Tony® in 1998. He is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). In 2003 he won the Gold Medal for Set Design at the Prague Quadriennale, and in 2005 he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Surrey. He has designed sets and costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Young Vic and the Gate, London. In opera he has worked at the Royal Opera, English National Opera, La Scala Milan, Metropolitan Opera New York, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera Chicago, Staatsoper, Vienna, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and in Zurich, Munich, Amsterdam, Venice, Florence, Turin, Bregenz, Houston and Washington. He designed American Ballet Theatre’s current productions of The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet for National Ballet of Canada, and La Bayadère and Le Coq D’or for Royal Danish Ballet.
Donald Holder
Lighting Design
Donald Holder received the 1998 Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for The Lion King (Broadway) and the Molière Award for The Lion King (Paris). Broadway: Over fifty productions, including: Anastasia; She Loves Me (2016 Revival); The King and I (2015 Revival); The Bridges of Madison County; Golden Boy; South Pacific (2008 Tony® Award); Oslo, Ragtime, Les Liaisons Dangereuses; A Streetcar Named Desire; Gem of the Ocean; Movin’ Out; Juan Darien: A Carnival Mask (all Tony® nominated); On The Twentieth Century; You Can’t Take It With You; Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; Promises, Promises; Annie (2012 revival); Arcadia; Come Fly Away; Cyrano de Bergerac; The Little Dog Laughed; Thoroughly Modern Millie; The Boy from Oz; and many others. Television: Smash seasons one and two for NBC/DreamWorks. Education: Yale School Of Drama, Head of Lighting Design, Rutgers University.
Michael Curry
Mask & Puppet Design
Over 25 years Michael has worked widely as a visual and concept designer for numerous companies, such as Disney Theme Parks and Theatrical Productions, Cirque du Soleil, The Metropolitan Opera, seven Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Universal Studios Theme Parks, and many others. He collaborates regularly with visionary directors and producers. Mr. Curry has received many prestigious awards, including several for his work on Broadway, Olympic ceremonies, and his continued innovations in the fields of scenic visual effects, and puppetry design. In the music industry Michael is known for his innovative designs for Michael Jackson, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and countless others. Michael Curry Design, Inc. is comprised of 50 innovative designers and fabricators who conceive and produce state of the art creations for live entertainment. His studio is located in Portland, Oregon.
Michael Ward
Hair & Makeup Design
Michael Ward designs for opera and theatre. For Disney: THE LION KING (Broadway and others) and Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (Berlin). Other work has been seen in Britain, the United States, Holland, France, Japan, Israel and Portugal. Along with his design work in theatre, he works as a garden and landscape designer.
Steve Canyon Kennedy
Sound Design
Steve Canyon Kennedy was the production engineer on such Broadway shows as Cats, Starlight Express, Song & Dance, The Phantom of the Opera, Carrie and Aspects of Love. Broadway sound design credits include, On Your Feet, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Tony Award®), Hands On A Hardbody (Drama Desk Award), Jesus Christ Superstar, Catch Me If You Can, Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, THE LION KING, Jersey Boys (Drama Desk Award), Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Hairspray, The Producers, Aida, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carousel and The Who’s Tommy (Drama Desk Award).
Robert Elhai
Associate Music Producer, Orchestrator
Tony® and Drama Desk nominee Robert Elhai has orchestrated many concert, theatre and film scores for composers Elliot Goldenthal (Juan Darien, Final Fantasy) and Michael Kamen (Don Juan de Marco, X-Men), among others. His arrangements for Metallica’s GRAMMY® Award-winning “S&M” made good use of his doctorate in composition from Yale University.
David Metzger
Orchestrator
David Metzger has orchestrated many films, including the Disney animated film Tarzan, Training Day, Domestic Disturbance, Bait and Return to Paradise. His television work includes composing episodes of “The Magnificent Seven” and Disney’s “The Legend of Tarzan” and five years as an arranger/composer for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” David was nominated for Tony® and Drama Desk awards for THE LION KING.
Bruce Fowler
Orchestrator
Bruce Fowler is an accomplished trombonist who has played with such notables as Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Frank Zappa, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Don Van Vliet. He performs with his family’s band, The Fowler Brothers (there are five Fowlers); his own band, The Enormous Bones; and Banned from Utopia. Bruce was the supervising orchestrator for Pearl Harbor (he also composed the big band numbers), Shrek, As Good as It Gets, Black Hawk Down and Hans Zimmer’s Academy Award®-winning THE LION KING movie score.
Anthony Lyn
Associate Director
Anthony Lyn was born in South Wales in the United Kingdom and trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. London theatre incudes Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Anything Goes, Oklahoma!, Damn Yankees, Disney’s The Lion King and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. On Broadway, Anthony has also been the associate director of Les Misérables, Mary Poppins and Disney’s The Lion King. He has also staged a multitude of theatre productions regionally in both the UK and the US, as well as productions internationally in many countries including China, Australia, Germany, México and Austria. His television work includes the Tony® Awards (2007 & 2014), America Celebrates, a gala performance for the US President and First Lady, four Royal Variety Performances and the 2013 Academy Awards®. Anthony is proud to have represented Julie Taymor’s work on Disney’s The Lion King since 1999.
David Kreppel
Music Supervisor
David is proud to continue his association with Disney’s The Lion King since 2003. Broadway conducting credits include Aladdin, Disney’s The Lion King, Sister Act, Rock of Ages, A Chorus Line (revival) and playing those as well as Motown, Tarzan®, The Little Mermaid and Saturday Night Fever and others. Additional credits include vocal arranger for Bandstand (Broadway), music supervisor/arranger for the US Tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the international touring group The Broadway Dolls, and composer of 1st and Ten, A Host of Sparrows and The Velveteen Rabbit. He is a graduate of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music.
Marey Griffith
Associate Choreographer
A native New Yorker, Marey has toured worldwide with the acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a featured dancer/soloist. Other guest appearances include Déjà vu Dance Theatre and the Spoleto festival in Italy. Marey has worked as co-choreographer on the star-studded production of The Wizard of Oz in concert at Avery Fisher Hall with Nathan Lane, Joel Grey, Jewel and Natalie Cole. She has also appeared in numerous soap operas, commercials and voice-overs. Since joining the creative team of Disney’s The Lion King in August of 2000, Marey has been mounting and maintaining numerous productions worldwide. She feels incredibly honoured to be working with award winning choreographer Garth Fagan.
Duma Ndlovu
South African Casting Director
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