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‘The Lion King’ at 25 |
After almost 10,000 performances, more people have seen “The Lion King” than any other show on Broadway. But a quarter century ago, when it premiered, that success was far from guaranteed. |
After a tepid reaction to the strait-laced stage adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast,” Disney’s executives took a gamble and collaborated with the avant-garde artist Julie Taymor. “When they mentioned her name,” the puppet designer Michael Curry said, “the first thing that went through my mind was, ‘Are you ready for her?’” |
Taymor, Curry and others spoke to The Times for an oral history. |