After an 18-month hiatus due to Covid-19, the Lion King stage production’s coming back to life in New Zealand.
Preparations are well on the way at Auckland's Spark Arena ahed of opeing night next week.
“We all are really happy and grateful.. being in the safest and best city in the world, officially," resident director Omar Rodriguez told 1 News.
“It’s a challenge cause we need to remember everything after one year and a half," he said.
Rodriguez, alongside the show’s head of masks and puppets Tim Lucas, showed 1 NEWS the headpieces for the main characters.
“The designs haven't changed since it appeared on Broadway in '97,” Lucas said.
“Still the same make, same materials - turkey feathers, horsehair, peacock feathers."
Since 1997, the musical has been seen by over 100 million people worldwide.
“The design stays the same but once in a while something new comes up in terms of material or technology and we try to incorporate that to try and improve the performance as well as the puppets’ mechanisms," Lucas said.
The costumes and masks have been carefully designed to represent the essence of characters.
For example, Mufasa, the king of the pride lands, represents the concept portrayed in the opening song The Circle of Life.
“Mufasa is kinda the good guy of the show shall we say. He makes sure everything is running harmoniously, and parts of that even reflect in his costume," head of wardrobe Suz Hogg said.
Hogg, demonstrating how Mufasa has a “big circular collar, his mask is circular as well and he has these sort of circular hip shapes on his trousers”.
“In contrast his brother, Scar, who’s the bad guy of the show, the evil one, the one who doesn’t live in the circle… his costume is really angular, not symmetrical," Hogg said.
The masks for the two brothers follow those same themes.
Rodriguez adding that Simba’s mask is circular too but, “not a full circle cause he needs to achieve a lot of things to become a king, to become [Mufasa’s] perfection of balance”.
That mask’s set to be worn by Auckland born actor Nick Afoa, who’s returned home to play the lead.
It’s a role he also had in Sydney and London.
He’s among over 100 crew and cast members that have come into the country from overseas.
That was met with criticism earlier this year due to the demand for MIQ spots and lack of work for Kiwis in the industry.
But the production team says the show has existed since before Covid-19 and most of its staff have been involved since this season of the production began in 2018.
Hogg said she’s got lots of funny stories from her time with the show, and could “write a book” on wardrobe malfunctions.
“We did have a moment in one of the venues where someone set the costume upside down.”
“It looked ridiculous,” she said. “The cast were noticing it, trying not to laugh."
Wardrobe is the biggest backstage technical team, and it also has the most local hires, with 21 of 27 staff from New Zealand.
For the first time ever, the hugely popular stage production of The Lion King has landed in Aotearoa and rehearsals are now underway. (Source: Other)
All up, around 30 Kiwis have been employed for the production, including five children.
Hogg says in a new place, there’s usually just a couple of days to get locals trained, but here, they’ve had two weeks.
There’s just one New Zealander on the hair and makeup team.
“We usually take on two, but here in Auckland we've only got one just cause we're here for quite a short run," said head of department, Heather Ross.
“There are so many parts to the show, it would be crazy to try and teach a whole new team in every city," she said.
Ross told 1 NEWS there’s about 20 different makeup designs to learn, and there’re several tools they use to ensure they can make people up quickly.
“We use these brushes that we actually had 3D printed to make it a bit easier to help us in quick changes," she said.
There will be minor adaptations to the show for a New Zealand audience.
“We have a Māori kid, so we like to incorporate a little bit of the physicality," Rodriguez said, not giving specifics away.
“Really subtle, cause we can't change the show, but we like to add a little bit of the local culture.”
He said people can expect the show to be just like they’d see on Broadway, or the West End.
Opening night is next Thursday, with the show running until July 18.
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