The Circle of Life turns again
Ticket sale records have been broken, but controversy has soured The Lion King’s New Zealand tour. The cast and crew tell Chris Schulz they’re just happy to be doing their jobs again.
Omar Rodriguez flew home to Mexico, Sue Hogg went back to London, and Kudzai Christine Kapswarah got a flight to Harare, Zimbabwe.
Heather Ross travelled back to the UK, got a job bartending in her old London suburb of Walthamstow, and ‘‘tried to enjoy lockdown as much as I could’’.
When the stage production of Disney’s mega-popular The Lion King franchise finished its Bangkok leg, it was next due in Wuhan, China in February 2020.
‘‘It’s just mental,’’ says Ross, The Lion King’s head of hair and make-up. ‘‘They obviously cancelled everything.’’
On Thursday night, the latest globe-trotting production of The Lion King returns to the stage for the first time in 18 months and begins a three-week stand at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
With Kiwi actor Nick Afoa returning to the lead role of Simba, it’s become a massively popular attraction, selling more than 100,000 tickets and breaking the record for the fastest-selling musical theatre show in New Zealand.
Organisers have added extra dates, including matinee performances, to cope with the demand.
But it’s also been controversial, with one MP alleging the show received unfair ‘‘special treatment’’ to allow its large and mostly international cast and crew exemptions to come into the country at a time when New Zealand’s borders are closed.
The cast includes 120 international cast and key technical crew. In addition, the production employs more than 300 local crew, venue staff and ancillary contractors.
For those who work behind the scenes, they’re just happy to finally be back at work.
‘‘I was like, ‘Oh my gosh – [Auckland] would be incredible,’’ says Ross. ‘‘But in the back of my mind I was like, ‘There is no way that’s happening. We’re just going to be disappointed again.’
‘‘Even till the moment we were all here, none of us believed that this would happen.’’
As Ross talks to Sunday News, she delicately adds coloured stripes and dots to the face of Kapswarah, an ensemble actor and swing singer, to transform her into a cheetah, one of up to four roles she could play on any given night.
Any hopes the show’s cast and crew had for an earlier return to action had been thwarted several times over the past 18 months, Kapswarah says.
‘‘The entertainment industry was hit hard. Our company being back on tour is such a blessing.’’ Behind Spark Arena’s main stage, The Lion King’s head of wardrobe, Sue Hogg, is standing in front of long, neat rows of costumes all numbered and labelled.
On her left are wearable contraptions that sit on shoulders and turn actors into zebras. On her right are the complicated and iconic wardrobe creations for the show’s lead roles of Mufasa and Scar.
It looks tidy now, but on Thursday night, with some cast members requiring up to 14 wardrobe changes, Hogg’s backstage area will be far more chaotic. She says it may appear dysfunctional, but it’s all under control.
‘‘There’s a routine. There’s a rhythm,’’ she says. ‘‘There’s a certain: ‘Put this here, because we use it again later. Put that in the laundry basket because we need to wash it tonight’. Or if it’s a crazy one: ‘Just throw it and get into your next bit’.
‘‘There is choreography, although it doesn’t look like it. If you see down here during the show, it looks like carnage.’’
Hogg, who spent 10 years working wardrobe for productions on London’s West End before joining The Lion King tour in 2018, is also relieved to be back doing what she loves again. ‘‘There are so many of my colleagues who just aren’t able to do their jobs,’’ she says. ‘‘I haven’t been able to do live theatre, hear an audience laugh or clap or cry or have that feeling [of seeing audiences hear] Circle of
Life for the first time.’’
But there are reservations ahead of opening night. ‘‘I was quite nervous when I came back,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s like your first day at school again. When I saw all my babies, all my boxes [of clothes], I said, ‘oh, they’re here’. I feel settled.’’
The show’s dozens of cast and crew may have been through their mandatory two-week quarantine, but they’re not stopping there, taking extra precautions over and above those suggested to curb the spread of Covid-19.
For Sunday News’ backstage visit at Spark Arena, masks and
social distancing were mandatory for nearly everyone.
Omar Rodriguez, the show’s director, says those safety precautions are for a good reason.
‘‘We are all from countries that have been hit pretty bad,’’ he explains. ‘‘We respect and appreciate and are grateful for this job. I think we’re really lucky to be here and performing, taking care, following protocols, living the dream.’’
Those extra precautions mean extra work for Tim Lucas, the show’s head of puppets and masks.
His day job is looking after the show’s impressive array of carbon
fibre masks worn by the show’s stars.
‘‘Every once in a while, someone will be a little bit careless, so accidents happen, and then we’ll have to fix it,’’ he says. Usually, glue and duct tape does the job.
Now, those masks need to be deep-cleaned after every performance.
‘‘Anything that’s perishable, foam and all that, everything’s checked, cleaned and sanitised,’’ says Lucas.
Despite the extra work, the quarantine, and the controversy, everyone the Star-Times spoke to says it’s all worth it for opening night, when the house lights will go down and Circle of Life begins the show.
It’s the moment everyone’s been waiting for.
‘‘I feel like it sets the tone for the rest of the show going forward,’’ says Kapswarah. ‘‘It’s excitement, relief ... a moment of feeling gratitude, of just feeling happiness – all the nice, fairy butterflies-in-the-stomach [feelings]. Just being together again, it’s just been great.’’
For at Spark Arena in Auckland info, visit Ticketmaster.