South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
‘Festival of the Lion King’ returning to Disney World
By Dewayne Bevil and Gabrielle Russon
“Festival of the Lion King” is returning to Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, Walt Disney World announced Thursday.
The production’s comeback is “expected this summer” at the park’s Harambe Theatre, according to a post on the official Disney Parks Blog.
The show, featuring singers, dancers, acrobats, stilt walkers, animated floats, colorful costumes, characters and music from “The Lion King” film, has been not been produced since the resort went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March. When the parks reopened in mid-July, the show did not return.
It will be a modified production, Disney says, to reflect the health and safety needs associated with the pandemic. There will be adjustments on stage, backstage and in how the audience is seated.
The choreography will be updated to allow for physical distancing, Disney says.
Still shuttered at Animal Kingdom is “Finding Nemo: The Musical,” a stage show with an emphasis on puppetry.
“We are now turning our attention to bringing back even more entertainment with a responsible and thoughtful approach,” the blog post says.
Since the parks’ reopening, Disney had reinstated four shows that put 56 fulltime Equity performers back to work, according to the Actors’ Equity Association, which represented around 780 full-time, parttime and seasonal employees at Disney before the pandemic.
The return of the “Lion King,” a fifth show, means presumably more Equity members will come back to the stage.
News of the show returning was “an important ray of hope while the vast majority of our members who work at Walt Disney World remain laid off because of the pandemic,” said Brandon Lorenz, a spokesman for the Actors’ Equity Association.
“Equity is pleased that Walt Disney World continues to find safe ways to bring live entertainment back to the parks, in particular this celebration of the ‘Festival of the Lion King,’ ” Lorenz said in a statement calling the show “a favorite for cast members and guests alike.”
Neither Disney or the Equity union could immediately say how many performers will get recalled for the show.
The four Equity shows currently running at Disney World are the lightsaber-building Savi’s Workshop and Frozen Sing-Along Celebration at Hollywood Studios; the barbershop quartet Dapper Dans at Magic Kingdom; and The Voices of Liberty, an a cappella singing group at Epcot.
“Festival of the Lion King” is a longtime fan favorite. It debuted with the opening of Animal Kingdom in 1998.