Ok, here's the other part of the article.Also, I'm working on a song
parady to the Verve Pipe's "the Freshman." I was listening to this at
work and suddenly all the lk related lyrics starting popping into my
head!I appoligize in advance for any typos. I do date entry and I worked
tonight so my keying ain't gonna be too great.

	Preparatians for every peformance of "the Lion King' begin 90 minutes
before the curtain goes up. During the "pre-set," a platoon of
stagehands runs a safety check of the musical's numerous special
effects. Cast members begin applying complicated makeup to transform
themselves into lions, baboons and hyenas.Dancers, dressed as various
jungle animals, limber up in the wings.
	Zorthian oversses the backstage activity. If a piece of the set is
malfunctioning, he sese that it gets fixed. If an actor is suffering
froma pulled muscle, he make sure the performer visits on of three
physical therapists employed by the production.
	A half-hour before curtain, cast and crew begin to take their places.
In a booth high above the stage at he back of the balcony sits Jeff Lee,
the production stage manager. Lee runs "the Lion King," calling out via
radio every light, sound and set cue. Five television monitors above his
desk give him different views of the stage. He is in constant radio
contact wtih the people who operate the backstage computer systems that
make the set move.
	During the show, he say things like "up to the half and stnad by to
drop the knife. And ...drop the knife." The result: A big piceo f the
set comes down from the wings, the lighting shifts and a new scene
begins.
	The set for "the Lion King" is extremely complicated - and
dangerous.Its main feature is a turntable set atop an elevator that
rises up from beneath the stage. In the wings, hanging perilously above
the heads of the cast and crew, are two 3,000 pound hydraulic units used
in the wildebeest stampede, one of the show's many pulse-racing scenes.
	Because there is always the possibility of a malfunction, bright red
emergency buttons are scattered throughout the backstage area. Press
one, and the entire show comes to a standstill.
	We are now just moments away from the start of the show. aT the back of
the theater, curtained off from the audience, is "the corral."It is
stocked with life-size animal puppets - including an elephant, a
rhinocerous, birds and gazelles - that are opperated by the performers.
As the music swells, the actors, now inside their puppets, march down
the aisles to the stage. It's one of several show-stopping moments.
"Think of it as the African navity," a stagehand whispers.

	"Kids go abosolutely crazy," says Sam McKelton, one of two actors who
operate the rhino puppet. "They try to reach out and touch us."
	Of course, some of the younger kids in teh audience can be a bit
spooked by the parade of animals that opens the show.In fact, even
adults are startled by the sight of a giant elephant, ears flapping,
walking down the aisle of a broadway theater. But young and old recover
quickly, and are soon staring in wonderment at the mythical jungle
kingdom created by the show's director, Julie Taymor.
	A blackout ends the opening number. As the actors rush backstage, they
are set upon by dressers. Holding tiny flashlights in their mouths, the
dressers rip off old costumes and slap on new ones. Costume changes take
no more than 15 seconds: the discarded clothes are stored in a long,
narrow room beneath the stage called "the bunker." Here there are rows
and rows of wildebeest masks, hyena skins and lion heads.The bunker
sometimes feels like a locker room, with sweaty performers of both sexes
in various stages of dress.
	The next scene is one of Taymor's most inventive.In it, the vast
AFrican savanna is suggested by a row of actors wearing long, flat
headboards out of which sprout stalks of grass. There are more than 20
"grassheads," as the company calls them. When the scene ends, the actors
file off stage and hand their grass heads to a dresser, who places each
board in a large hat rack. When the rack is full, it is hoisted high
above the stage for storage.
	By now, the "Lion King" is up and runinng, purring along like a finely
tuned engine. There's no goofing off backstage, although the company is
relaxed enough to crack jokes and exchange the latest gossip. An actor
dressed as a hyena reads the sports pages of a newspaper. A stagehand
pulling a rope that supports two dancers suspended in midair during the
song "Can you feel the love tonight?" groans and jokes, "They must have
had pasta for lunch."
	"The Lion King" ends with a reprise of "The Circle of Life." As it has
done very night since the show played its first preview performance,
more than a month ago, the audience leaps to its feet, cheering.
	Standing in the wings, prop man Victor Amerling smiles and says "I
worked on "Phantom of the Opera" after it first opened. And even with
Michael Crawford in the lead, that show never got the kind of reaction
"the Lion King" does. It is just amazing."