The musical The Lion King is celebrating because This Sunday marks 25 years since its premiere in 1997. The celebration will take place on three continents where the show is still staged, after having contributed to universal culture with characters like Simba or songs like thoughtless.

The figures achieved by this Disney musical are staggering: It was viewed by 110 million people in 100 different cities in 21 countries “from all continents except Antarctica”, as the manufacturer proclaims.

It has been translated into nine languages ​​and is currently viewed by an average of 115,000 people a week in different corners of the planet such as New York, Madrid, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hamburg.

“They are universal themes”

“It’s not just for music, what makes it universal are the themes it deals with: the value of friendship, love and family,” says Pearl Khwesi, in an interview with EFE news agency. The South African actress plays the lioness Nala in the New York version after having already triumphed in the Spanish version of her in Madrid.

Khwesi e The Argentinian Agustin Argüello -who plays Simba in the Spanish version- met in New York to record a new version of Can you feel the love tonightone of the songs that Elton John composed for the film and which they will perform during the anniversary celebrations which start today.

The audience that fills the 1,300-seat Minskoff Theater on Broadway each day, with tickets priced at $100 on weekdays and $200 on weekends, is as diverse as New York City, with a sizeable Latino audience. For this reason the version that Khwesi and Argüello will sing together will be in English and Spanish, thus underlining the global reach of the work.

For its part, the version of the musical given in Madrid has been on the bill for 10 years and has been seen by 5 million spectators, a record for the genre in its presentation at the Lope de Vega theater.

Argüello, who also staged the musical in Mexico, believes the story of The Lion King has resisted the passage of time well because “its messages never go out of style: the roots of one’s land, the struggle for justice, the value of each in the chain of life. This is why it is such a special work, regardless the place”.

History

The plot of this musical which was also a Disney animated film in 1994, Its protagonists are Mufasa, the old lion kingwho dies in a wildebeest stampede caused by his brother Scar, who seizes the throne after blaming the accident on his heir son, Simba.

The young Simba, exiled for years, is adopted by a rather irreverent meerkat and a wild boar with whom he lives a carefree life until he meets Nala, an old friend, and together they reconquer the kingdom.

Many say the authors were inspired by the story of fractionsWilliam Shakespeare’s classic, while stripping it of all its edges and transforming it into a work for all audiences, and which above all had a happy ending.

the settings

One of the results it does The Lion King unforgettable, and which has earned him as many awards as his music is choreography and costumes of the musical Multi-person Elephants, Rhinos, and Giraffes parade around the stage, moving complex wood, paper, and metal frames with enough flexibility to allow them to dance beneath these costumes.

The main characters, for their part, are dressed in cloth necklaces, bones and coins, masks, feathers and hats, as well as abundant face paint. Argüello says he needs 50 minutes every day to get ready before going on stage.

However, Khwesi says it’s not the most expensive trick, but the demanding physical and vocal training they have to demonstrate every day in a show where they don’t stop jumping and roaring as they sing. Sometimes, like on weekends, he adds two shows (two hours long) with his previous preparation.

“We are acting athletes,” Argüello sums up. “You can’t imagine how much it cost us to get this far: to overcome the singing, acting and castings of physical strength. And we can’t let our guard down because we have to give it our all.”

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