Hey all. Our newspaper here in Phoenix has really been putting a lot in
the paper about Lk the past few weeks. Here's some from yesterday. It's
really long so I'm doing it in installments. Also, anyone else see the
segment on Entertainment Tonight last night on lk? I missed about half
of it unfortunately. I was in my room and my mom told me they were
showing lk. I had my roaring Mufasa slippers on so I couldn't really run
out to see it. But what I saw was cool. They showed lots of scenes from
it and also were talking to Max Cassella (TImon)
Anyways, the article

A ROARING SUCCESS
Theatrical 'Lion King' is best of a show to pull off
by Michael Riedel
New York Daily News

	An erie silence hangs over the vast, empty stage of the New Amsterdam
Tehater in New York. Then...
	Whoosh! An 8-food column of smoke blasts from the floor.
	Whoosh! A second column erupts of the opposite end of the stage.
	Noe the entire playing area is minefield of smoke.
	"OK, the geysers are working!" says a voice from the wings.
	Suddenly, the stage is swarming with stagehands and technicians,
dressers and dancers.Large pieces of scenery are flying overhead.
Spotlights are blinking onand off. And in a dark corner of the stage, a
young woman, dressed as a lioness, is praticing her roar.
	Welcome to the behind-the-scenes jungle that is 'the Lion King.'
	A $20 million musical extravaganze from Disney, 'the Lion King' opened
on Broadway in November to spectacular reviews. NOt since the chandelier
descended on the first night audience at 'The Phantom of the Opera' has
a show so captivated the Great White Way. The lavish stage spectacle
seems destined to reign over Broadway for years to come. (side note here
from me! On ET last night, they said lk would run indefinitely on
broadway)
	It takes a small army of cast and craftsmen to make this 'Lion' roar.
The show employs more than 40 actors, 50 staghands and 24 musicians. It
features hundreds of puppets, props and costumes, pulus thousands of
pounds of scenery - all crammed into an area no wider than your average
suburban living room.
	Standing backstage duringa performance, a careless visitor could easily
get squashed by a life-size elephant puppet, gored by an actor wearing a
warthog costume or run over a herd of dancers dressed as wildebeests.
	But what at first glance appears to be chaos is actually a painstaking
choreographed beind-the-scenes routine designed to keep everyone
involved with 'the Lion King' out of harm's way.
	For the actors, memorizing the backstage choreography is just as
crucial as learning the dance routines they do in front of the audience.
"Back here,you've got to know where you're supposed to be at all times,"
says stage manager Steve "Doc" Zorthian. "Because if you're an inch out
of place, your'e going to be in trouble."

I'll continue this either tonight or tomorrow!