Thursday 10 July 1997
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

LION KING ROARS ONTO THE STAGE

Following in the footsteps of the popular "Beauty and the Beast", Disney's stage version of "The Lion King," destined to reach Broadway on Oct. 10, opened for preview performances in Minneapolis Tuesday night, receiving an ecstatic audience response, according to today's (Wednesday) New York Post. "This changes anything I ever thought about theater," an audience member told the Post's Ward Morehouse III. And Tony Adams, a long-time collaborator with Blake Edwards -- and who co-produced both the screen and stage versions of Victor/Victoria with him -- remarked, "It's so different, so unusual and such a departure for Disney that even the most critical skeptics ... can hardly believe their eyes and ears. ... "The Lion King" is going to set new Broadway theatrical standards." The Post said that "Lion King," with a budget now estimated at $15 million, may already have become the costliest stage show ever produced.

I wonder if the Baptists are going to stage their boycotts over this, too?