Taymor had other concerns, too, and here she prevailed. She wanted a stronger African look and sound, and found a sonic starting place on “Rhythm of the Pride Lands.” And she insisted on stronger female characters: Rafiki, in the film a male mandrill (often referred to as a baboon), became female for the stage version; Nala, a childhood friend of Simba, was made more forceful, and the strength and centrality of lionesses to the pride was emphasized.
TAYMOR There weren’t enough female characters. I knew I would strengthen Nala. This is the thing that I always had to grapple with, which is that female lions are the lion kings. Male lions don’t do the hunt. They sleep. They’re not kings of the jungle — that is a patriarchal concept. But you know, there’s just so much that you’re going to deal with. But the female character of Nala can be as strong as we need her to be. And she does shame Simba in the second act, and she helps him find his strength, and this, then, gives their relationship depth.
HEATHER HEADLEY (Nala) It came to me later that I think Nala was her little baby, like “How can I make Nala almost like the lion queen.” She wanted her strong, and she wanted her fierce, and Nala was going to change the way Simba looked at things. And Julie was very much a force for that with me. At times we would butt heads, but as I grew up in the part, and grew up as a performer, I saw that this was Julie saying, “You’re representing all these little girls. All these women.” And I’m very appreciative of that now.
TAYMOR So I’m on the phone with Thuli Dumakude, who is a South African phenomenal actress and singer, and a light bulb goes off. I was thinking, “Who is Rafiki? Is he just the butler? No, the butler is Zazu. Rafiki can stand outside the story.” And, “Who is going to sing ‘Circle of Life?’” In the movie it’s an abstract female voice. It’s not a character. So I asked her about shamans. I said, “Thuli, are there any female shamans in South Africa?” “Are you crazy? Of course!” And she goes into how they’re the most powerful; they’re called sangoma. I called Tom, and I told him the idea: That Rafiki should be female, and also that she would be the one to sing “The Circle of Life,” so it’s rooted in a character, and that she would be able to address the audience.
EISNER Seeing that it was a monkey, it didn’t matter to me.
What would “The Lion King” look like? Taymor, inspired by a four-year sojourn studying and making theater in Asia, conceived a design approach in which patrons can see both puppet and puppeteer; a sunrise as well as silk on bamboo sticks.
TAYMOR I had started doing films, so I said, “If I go back and do some big theater thing, it has to do what theater does better than films.” The power of live theater is the suspension of disbelief. That is the principle of “The Lion King”: that the soul and the spirit is in the visibility of how it’s done. There’s the story, and then there’s how the story is told, and I believe that the success of “The Lion King” is that double event.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
