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"Nants 'ngonyama bakithi baba. Sithi hu..."
In Disney's THE LION KING, the hit musical with music by Elton John and Tim Rice,
the shaman Rafiki tells the fascinating story of the little lion Simba and his journey into the world of adulthood.
Since its premiere on Broadway in 1997, millions of people worldwide have been enchanted by the hit musical.
Since its premiere in December 2001 in Germany, the show has sold out every single evening.
More than five million people attended the show at Hamburg's Harbor Theater.
American stage director Julie Taymor created the musical.
In 1998, she won the prestigious Tony Award for best direction and for her extravagant costumes, masks and puppets.
Performing with the larger-than-life puppets is especially challenging for the actors.
You need a lot of talent and a strong desire to succeed.
As an actor here, you need to be able to lose yourself in the role. You need to be able to let your personality speak through the puppets.
This method of performance is very Asian and quite uncommon for Europeans.
You need to be able to let go of the character and put all of your energy and talent into an animated object to bring it to life.
Often at the beginning of rehearsals the actor's performance is focused on himself and the puppet is just a prop.
But when the magical transfer occurs the actor loses himself, without losing himself completely; it is a balancing act.
This moment is incredibly magical.
This is exactly how Oliver Grice feels about it. He played the comedic character Timon in the premiere.
Timon [the puppet] cannot do anything without me. But then again... here's what's dangerous about it.
If I just let go and don't do anything, he'll quickly turn into a piece of plastic.
He will become lifeless. So you have to move him the whole time.
If I don't do anything, it is just a puppet which is nice to look at, but I have to do something with it.
- Without me, he's just not doing much. - That's what you'd like to think.
- No, I mean it. Really. - Nice set of teeth, right?
Director Jeff Lee also knows that at the beginning it is extremely hard for a lot of the actors to handle the puppets.
I think, at times it is frustrating for the actors. We don't cast puppeteers, we cast people who are experienced in handling masks.
We ask them to play along, and all of them are trained dancers, singers and actors.
Then we ask them to learn a fourth discipline in a very short time. I believe that sometimes they are impatient with themselves.
But this is exactly what is unique about "The Lion King". If you didn't have that, the musical would be like any other show.
Part of the special magic of the musical is certainly created by its international team.
The actors have so many different cultural backgrounds and thus convey a very special atmosphere.
In this group, we work with people of 15 different nationalities from all over the world. I have never done that before and it is great.
It is really great to do a show with so many different people from all over the world. It is hard to describe; I think you have to see it.
And if you see it, you will feel it too.
He's right, you cannot describe the effect this exceptional musical has. You have to experience it for yourself.