The Lion King - Broadway Creative Team

Mr. Allers has been instrumental in shaping the structure and dialogue of many Disney animated features since 1988, including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Oliver and Company, Rescuers Down Under, Prince and the Pauper and the computer-animated movie Tron. Prior to working with Disney, he created animation on children's programs and features for studios in Boston, Toronto and Tokyo. He is currently developing an animated feature for Sony and a new stage musical with Irene Mecchi. ... read more Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, is one of the most highly acclaimed and successful solo artists of all time. Elton has achieved 26 gold, 38 platinum or multi-platinum and 1 diamond, 40 platinum or multi-platinum, and 23 gold albums, over 50 Top 40 hits, and he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. He holds the record for the biggest selling single of all time, Candle In The Wind 1997, which sold over 33 million copies. Since launching his first tour in 1970, Elton has over 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries to his credit. Elton is the most successful ... read more ... read more ... read more A Tony® nominee and multi-platinum, three-time Grammy Award®-winning composer, he was an obvious choice to produce the music for the stage production of The Lion King, having arranged and produced songs for the blockbuster animated feature film, for which he received both Grammy and American Music awards in 1994. The film also spawned the hit album Rhythm of the Pride Lands, for which Mr. Mancina co-wrote, arranged and produced three tracks, including "He Lives in You" and "Shadowland," which are featured in the stage production. Ranked among the upper echelons of film composers, his credits include mega-hits Training Day, Speed, ... read more Irene Mecci began her association with Disney in March 1992, when she wrote Recycle Rex, an animated short, which won the 1994 Environmental Media Award. Irene is a co-writer of Disney’s animated features The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules. Along with co-author Roger Allers, she received a 1998 Tony® nomination for writing the book for The Lion King. Irene wrote the teleplay for “Annie,” which aired on ABC. Irene is developing an animated film at Pixar, a television adaptation of Broadway’s classic musical, Peter Pan and has a production company which is acquiring literary material written ... read more Sir Tim Rice is an author and Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Emmy Award, Tony Award, and Grammy Award-winning lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita; with Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, with whom he wrote Chess; for additional songs for the 2011 West End revival of The Wizard of Oz; and for his work with Alan Menken on Disney's Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and the musical King David. He also worked with Elton John on Disney's ... read more Jay Rifkin is an American record and film producer. Rifkin co-founded the company Media Ventures with Hans Zimmer, a childhood friend. As CEO of the company from 1988, Rifkin partnered with Zimmer to produce and to compose. Media Ventures is a diverse entertainment group that includes music, new media, film and television. The partnership earned them numerous awards and nominations, including Academy Award nominations, for the film scores of Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man and The Lion King. After the success of The Lion King, Rifkin conceived and produced the platinum-selling follow-up album Rhythm of the Pride Lands. Rifkin was also chairman ... read more Jonathan Roberts (born Jonathan Robert Stubenrauch; April 20, 1974) is an American professional ballroom dancer. He decided to take up dancing after he received a free trial at a local dance studio and enjoyed it. He currently resides in California. He competed in seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 of the U.S. version of Dancing with the Stars. ... read more Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997, and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer. Her film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the jukebox musical Across the Universe. ... read more ... read more Bender joins Paper Mill Playhouse directly from her role as a member of the musical theater faculty at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Previously, Bender was Senior Vice President of Production and Development at The Araca Group in New York City. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Programming and Artist Services for the New York Musical Festival (NYMF), and as Resident Director for the Broadway productions of The Lion King and Avenue Q. She was the Assistant Artistic Director for Cirque du Soleil's Ovo for productions in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, ... read more Broadway: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Come Fly Away, The Little Mermaid, The Seafarer, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, The History Boys, The Woman in White, Democracy, The Boy From Oz, Jumpers. Tours: Dreamgirls, Mary Poppins, The Lion King. Las Vegas: The Lion King, Phantom Las Vegas. ... read more Terry Berliner (she/her) Broadway: The Lion King, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Sound of Music and The Red Shoes. Off Broadway: Time and Again, Captains Courageous, Violet, and Merrily We Roll Along. Other NYC: Promising, Hereafter, Next Thing You Know, Cloaked (2011 Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning new musical), The Maiden’s Prayer, By Proxy, One Thing I Like To Say, Emma, The Mercy Seat, Spine, and Allegro at Encores! Terry received the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for her production of Bingo. Her work in regional theaters has been seen at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, ... read more Jay Binder has cast over 70 Broadway productions, including the Tony Award winning productions of The Lion King, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Dames At Sea, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Gypsy, The King and I, Lost in Yonkers and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. In addition, he was fortunate enough to cast every Neil Simon play from 1990 through 2009. Mr. Binder was one of the founders and continues to be a driving force behind the highly-acclaimed Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert series at City Center in New York City. His work casting this series led ... read more Michael's approach is unique, as he chooses to design and fabricate with a long-term team in his Oregon studio. The scenic designs, puppetry and performance effects from Michael Curry Design have been the cornerstone of shows for the past 30 years. Michael is best known for his work with The Lion King on Broadway, the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, Met Opera, Cirque du Soleil and other worldwide spectacles. ... read more Garland Days, originally from Washington D.C., is a graduate of James Madison University. His credits include The Lion King (Broadway, Chicago, Hamburg), Starlight Express (Las Vegas, Bochum), Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Stuttgart) and Dreamgirls (Berlin). ... read more Tony® and Drama Desk nominee Robert Elhai has orchestrated many concert, theatre and film scores for composers Elliot Goldenthal (Juan Darien, Final Fantasy) and Michael Kamen (Don Juan de Marco, X-Men), among others. His arrangements for Metallica's GRAMMY® Award-winning "S&M" made good use of his doctorate in composition from Yale University. ... read more Garth Fagan is the recipient of the 1998 Tony® Award for Best Choreography and the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer (London, UK) as well as the Drama Desk Award, the Astaire Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his work with The Lion King. Mr. Fagan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and for more than 33 years has toured the world with Garth Fagan Dance. On television the company has appeared on "Great Performances," "The Tonight Show" and the Academy Awards®. Mr. Fagan forged his own dance language and technique, drawing from modern dance, Afro-Caribbean and ... read more Multi-instrumentalist, composer-arranger, producer and conductor, Ralph Farris is a connecting force on the frontlines of new music. An award-winning graduate of The Juilliard School, and 3-time Tanglewood Fellow, Ralph is a founding member and Artistic Director of the genre-bending string quartet ETHEL. The onetime Music Director and Solo Fiddle of the Roger Daltrey Band, Ralph was an original company member of Disney's "The Lion King" on Broadway. He has performed in concert with such luminaries as Paul Simon, Pete Townsend, Leonard Bernstein, Alice Cooper, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road project, Sinead O’Conner, Joe Jackson and Lou Reed.  His composition commissions include the Jerome Foundation; ... read more Bruce Fowler is an accomplished trombonist who has played with such notables as Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Frank Zappa, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Don Van Vliet. He performs with his family's band, The Fowler Brothers (there are five Fowlers); his own band, The Enormous Bones; and Banned from Utopia. Bruce was the supervising orchestrator for Pearl Harbor (he also composed the big band numbers), Shrek, As Good as It Gets, Black Hawk Down and Hans Zimmer's Academy Award®-winning The Lion King movie score. ... read more Broadway: Amelie; Sunday in the Park With George; Allegiance; Gigi; Fun Home; On the Town; First Date; Follies (Tony Award & Drama Desk Nominations); and Million Dollar Quartet. Other: A Legendary Romance; Poster Boy (Williamstown); Beaches (Drury Lane); Brooklynite (Vineyard); Little Dancer and First You Dream (Kennedy Center); Zorro (Moscow; Atlanta); Hinterm Horizont (Berlin); Sweeney Todd and Man of La Mancha (Portland Opera); and She Loves Me (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Audio Consultant for the revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Education: Yale University. ... read more Brian is an award-winning book writer and director, represented by Jonathan Lomma at William Morris Endeavor. For more information, go to www.bartramandhill.com. ... read more Donald Holder has worked extensively in Theatre, Opera, Dance, Architectural and Television lighting in the US and abroad for over 30 years. He has designed 58 Broadway productions and has been nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning the Tony for Best Lighting Design for The Lion King in 1998, and for the 2008 revival of South Pacific. Recent Broadway productions include: Tootsie, Kiss Me Kate, Anastasia, Oslo, Straight White Men, She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, On the Twentieth Century, The Bridges of Madison County, Bullets Over Broadway and many others. Projects at the NY ... read more Richard Hudson was born in Zimbabwe and educated in Zimbabwe and England. In 1988 he won a Laurence Olivier Award for designing a season of seven plays at the Old Vic Theatre, London. His set designs for The Lion King have won numerous awards, including a Tony® in 1998. He is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). In 2003 he won the Gold Medal for Set Design at the Prague Quadriennale, and in 2005 he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Surrey. He has designed sets and costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the ... read more Music Coordination for Broadway: The Book of Mormon, American Idiot, The Addams Family, Million Dollar Quartet, Memphis, Billy Elliot, Wicked, Mamma Mia, The Lion King; National Tour coordination: Les Misérables, Next To Normal, 9 to 5, Billy Elliot, In The Heights, Shrek, The Lion King, West Side Story, Wicked. Barbra Streisand Concerts (1994-2007). ... read more Kennedy's Broadway sound design credits include On Your Feet, Doctor Zhivago, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Tony Award), Hands on a Hardbody (Drama Desk Award), Jesus Christ Superstar, Catch Me If You Can (Tony nomination), Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Jersey Boys (Drama Desk Award), Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Rent, Hairspray, The Producers, Aida, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carousel, and The Who’s Tommy (Drama Desk Award). In addition, he was the production engineer on such Broadway shows as Cats, Starlight Express, Song & Dance, The Phantom of the Opera, Carrie, ... read more Broadway: Original companies of Monty Python's Spamalot, Man of La Mancha (revival), Oklahoma! (revival), The Lion King, Barbara Cook's Broadway, Barbara Cook's Mostly Sondheim and Miss Saigon. Other Broadway credits include Avenue Q, Mamma Mia, A Thousand Clowns, Aida, numerous concerts, benefits, readings and one-offs. National Tours: Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera. International: served as Production Supervisor for original productions of Spamalot in Las Vegas, London and the national tour, as well as the Stuttgart, Manila and Asia tour companies of Miss Saigon. ... read more . ... read more A Tony® nominee and multi-platinum, three-time Grammy Award®-winning composer, he was an obvious choice to produce the music for the stage production of The Lion King, having arranged and produced songs for the blockbuster animated feature film, for which he received both Grammy and American Music awards in 1994. The film also spawned the hit album Rhythm of the Pride Lands, for which Mr. Mancina co-wrote, arranged and produced three tracks, including "He Lives in You" and "Shadowland," which are featured in the stage production. Ranked among the upper echelons of film composers, his credits include mega-hits Training Day, Speed, ... read more Broadway: Lysistrata Jones (associate producer as well as sound design); …Drood (Drama Desk Award); First Date (associate producer); Pal Joey; The Ritz; Laugh Whore; Man of La Mancha; Sweet Smell of Success; Copenhagen; Kiss Me, Kate; Footloose; The Lion King (Drama Desk Award); The Sound of Music; A Christmas Carol (MSG); Steel Pier; Forum; The King and I; Moon Over Buffalo; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; Guys and Dolls; Five Guys Named Moe; She Loves Me; The Red Shoes; Anything Goes. London: Kiss Me, Kate; The Lion King; Smokey Joe’s Cafe; and Anything Goes. National and international: The Lion King, Les Miserables, ... read more David Metzger has orchestrated many films, including the Disney animated film Tarzan, Training Day, Domestic Disturbance, Bait and Return to Paradise. His television work includes composing episodes of "The Magnificent Seven" and Disney's "The Legend of Tarzan" and five years as an arranger/composer for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." David was nominated for Tony® and Drama Desk awards for The Lion King. ... read more Professional credits include The Lion King (Broadway), Philadanco, Movin’ Out tour (original cast) and The Lion King Cheetah Tour. ... read more With 15 productions currently running worldwide, a Disney musical is being performed professionally somewhere on the planet virtually every hour of the day. Their Broadway productions - King David; Beauty and the Beast; The Lion King; Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida; Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh; Tarzan and The Little Mermaid – have won a combined 12 Tony Awards. ... read more Experience Producer Geoff Puckett began his career designing laser effect systems for the Ice Capades, evolving into laser light shows within planetariums, music concerts and into night skies for special events. Substantially self-taught, Geoff also attended San Diego State University and Art Center College of Design - from which joined Walt Disney Imagineering - creating theme park special effects for Disneyland Paris, Tokyo DisneySea and Orlando's EPCOT across a decade. In New York City he collaborated with Tony® Award-winning director Julie Taymor, designing projections for Broadway’s original 'Lion King', then wrote and creatively produced the 24-hour long 'Times Square 2000' millennium celebration. Puckett’s ... read more Kellen is excited to be reunited with his Lion King Family. Credits: The Lion King (Broadway, Las Vegas, and National Tour), Franco Dragone's Le Reve, and Cirque Du Soleil's Viva Elvis. Mahalo to my family and friends for all the love and support! ... read more Leonora Stapleton, who is originally from Leeds, has been a professional dancer for over thirty years. Most of her career as a performing artist took place in America. This was due to Leonora's great fortune of meeting Alvin Ailey while studying at London Contemporary Dance School. With the help of Mara Ya Pili, a community dance group, she raised enough money to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre. ... read more Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997, and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer. Her film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the jukebox musical Across the Universe. ... read more Michael Ward designs for opera and theatre. For Disney: The Lion King (Broadway and others) and Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (Berlin). Other work has been seen in Britain, the United States, Holland, France, Japan, Israel and Portugal. Along with his design work in theatre, he works as a garden and landscape designer. ... read more