When "The Lion King" film was in production in the early 1990s, it was being animated around the same time as "Pocahontas."
Rob Minkoff, the director of "The Lion King," said in an interview on blu-ray.com that "Pocahontas" was considered the "home run" while "The Lion King" was "the risk," so a lot of the top animators wanted to work on "Pocahontas."
Those working on the film weren't really sure how a new, nonfairy tale, nonhistorical story like "The Lion King" would do. One of their first indicators was when they had some test screenings before the film was released.
Roger Allers, co-director of the film and co-writer of the musical, said in an interview with the Deseret News that one part they had added into the film not long before the screening was the hula gag with Timon and Pumbaa. One of their higher-ups wasn't sold on it and wanted to replace it with Pumbaa dancing to "Stayin' Alive" by the BeeGees.
Then, the day of the screening, the scene where Timon danced in a hula skirt while Pumbaa pretended to be a roasted pig got a huge laugh, Allers said. The audience was laughing and crying throughout the screening, and he came away with an inkling of how popular this movie might actually be.
Allers later went on to write the musical theater adaptation of "The Lion King" with Irene Mecchi, who was also a writer for the film's screenplay. The North American touring production of the musical will be coming to Salt Lake City's Eccles Theater March 23-April 16.
Making the story of "The Lion King" into what it is today was a long process for Allers, Mecchi and the others they worked with. Mecchi can recall the exact number of times they rewrote an argument scene between Simba and Nala: 60.
One of the joys of later adapting the film into the musical, Allers said, was they were able to dig up some things they had to change or cut out and add them to the theater version.
Allers and Mecchi were originally assigned as the "brain trust" for Julie Taymor, who was the director and creator of the theater adaptation. So, at first they were only consulting, but then they were too good at it.
"We were pretty intimate with ('The Lion King') by that time," Allers said. "We could sort of just jump into the characters. Irene and I could improv a scene between two of them and Julie remarked on it. She said, 'Wow, these characters are still in your heads. Why am I looking for a writer? You guys should write this thing.'"
And so Allers and Mecchi began the project of turning an animated film into a play.
The original animated feature is only 85 minutes, while most theatrical pieces run close to three hours, so they had to almost double the length to bring "The Lion King" to the stage, Allers said.
A lot of music was added, some that Elton John and Tim Rice wrote and some that Mark Mancina, who worked with Hans Zimmer and Lebo M on the film's score, took from the film's underscore and added lyrics to, Allers said.
They were also able to expand some characters and add depth that they hadn't been able to before.
"We were able to go back and explore some moments that we wanted to," Mecchi said, "and see (for example) what was going on with the lionesses when Simba moved in with Timon and Pumbaa."
They also had to deal with things like set changes. Setting up the stampede scene required a lot of complicated set pieces, and the transition took so long that they wrote in an "apron scene" with Zazu and Mufasa talking in front of the curtain to fill time while the stage was prepared.
"I think it's a really nice little scene between them, and the whole motivation for that, in the beginning was, 'We need more time,'" Allers said.
They also added in some traditional South African chants that Rafiki sings at Mufasa's death that worked so well that when Allers' co-director for the film, Minkoff, saw it, he said, "Why didn't we do that?"
Mecchi and Allers said that more than 20 years later, "The Lion King" is still popular all over the world because it touches on basic human themes that everyone can relate to, such as the relationship between a parent and child, and family loss.
"That whole idea of the circle of life and how everything is connected," Allers said. "The passage through the events of birth and death and all of that that comes in between, and that somehow that has dignity and it has reason. I think that search for reason is what audiences connect with."
"It's also … in a way reassuring," Mecchi added. "It's that sense of resolve that Simba finally gets with the appearance of his father. You never get a chance to say anything like that (in real life), and he does. He gets closure and a renewed sense of purpose. No matter what language the play is in or what culture, I think it's a very basic, relatable human emotion."
Coming to the Salt Lake City production is Buyi Zama, who has played Rafiki for the last 14 years. She participated in the auditions that are held in South Africa every year and since then has performed in London, Australia, Shanghai and many other places all over the world. This will be her third time on the North American tour and her first time performing in Salt Lake City.
Zama said that when she first joined "The Lion King," she was in her early 20s and she sometimes got feedback that she seemed too young to be Rafiki. A few years later, someone asked her why she made her voice so deep when she performed, and she said it was so she could sound older. She was told, "You don't need to do that anymore, you're old now."
"I've grown into the role," Zama said with a laugh.
In her opinion, "The Lion King" is popular all over the world in part because of how widely it was distributed and translated. She said seeing "The Lion King" was the first time she had ever seen an animated movie in her native language, Zulu.
She also added that being able to perform in Zulu makes her feel "like I'm at home on stage," and she's looking forward to bringing this show to Salt Lake.
If you go …
What: Disney's "The Lion King"
When: March 23-April 16,
Where: Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main, Salt Lake City
How much: $35-$115
Phone: 801-355-2787
Web: artsaltlake.org