There was no real journey for Simba or Nala, and I felt the authentic African elements weren’t used nearly enough.”Īll of that would come in time, but first Taymor had to solve the problem of where and how to stage the show. “But I thought that elements of the story were lacking. I was very taken with the song ‘Circle of Life’ and I loved the beauty of the stampede sequence. “I was surprised to get the call and Tom (Schumacher) was equally surprised I hadn’t seen it.”Īfter viewing it, Taymor says, “I thought it was a very good animated film. “At the very beginning, when I got the call, I was one of the very few people who hadn’t seen the film,” she recalls. Thomas Schumacher, then president of Disney and now head of its theatrical division, saw the show as having a future on the stage and made the bold but brilliant choice of offering the director’s job to Taymor, known exclusively for her avant-garde work with shows like Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass. The strange mixture of pop music, African tribal imagery and a plot that could trace its roots back to Shakespeare’s Hamlet struck chords with critics and audiences alike, scoring a tremendous success at the box office. It told the story of Simba, a lion cub obligated to go through numerous rites of passage before he can succeed his father, Mufasa, who has been murdered by his own brother, Scar. In the beginning, however, was the 1994 animated film of The Lion King, with its score by Elton John and Tim Rice.
But Taymor also experienced the other side of the coin when her 2010 attempt to turn Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark into a modern mythic fable brought public scrutiny and media mockery that culminated in her being fired from the ill-starred show late during its extended previews.įor this exclusive interview with the Star, Taymor’s major focus was on her work with The Lion King, but she couldn’t resist a visit to the dark side of her own show business moon.
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