After seeing the crowds on Tuesday night, it's going to be a busy week for the Grand Sierra Resort Theater. For the first time in Reno's history, Disney's The Lion King will be performing there. There are so many unique and creative elements that go into this show, it's no wonder why this musical has won more than 70 global theatrical awards over the years.
"In each company of The Lion King we do have a certain number of people who are from South Africa, who sing some of the specialties that are in the show, and we've always wanted to maintain that to keep the authenticity of the show alive," said the show's production stage manager, Brian Westmoreland.
There are five indigenous African languages spoken in The Lion King, and so far, this play has been performed in nine languages.
The set set takes a lot of work, too.
"We are an enormous show and that's just show to show," Westmoreland said. "We also have an advanced trucks that come so we have over twenty once you count all those trucks, so we have a lot moving around."
The tour requires four days to set up the entire production in each new city. Over 17,000 hours were spent creating the masks, puppets, and costumes in the original Broadway production.
"The costumes are amazing, the designs are amazing," Westmoreland told us. "These are the original Tony winning designs."
There are 200 puppets used in this production. Some of the tallest being four 18-foot giraffes that requires actors to be trained with stilts and a 6-foot ladder to climb inside.
And the production team says that this is like no musical you've seen before.
"The Lion King is so incredibly original, and the artistic vision is so original that I think it actually elevates the art form and really transports you to a different time and place and takes you on a journey that people never forget."
The Lion King will be performing at the GSR Theatre every day this week until Sunday.
Showtimes and tickets can be found on the Grand Sierra Resort website here.
