The monumental career of international singer/songwriter and performer, Elton John, has spanned more than three decades. Since launching his first tour in 1970, Elton has delivered over 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries. He is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 1 diamond, 40 platinum or multi-platinum, and 23 gold albums and more than 300 million records sold worldwide. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences had awarded Elton multiple Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Legend Award. In the early 1990s, Elton collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on the soundtrack for The Lion King, winning him an Academy Award. The album produced two top-selling, award-winning singles: “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life.” The Tony Award-winning Broadway productions of The Lion King and Aida both awarded Elton with Grammy Awards for Best Musical Show Album. Billy Elliot was nominated for a record-tying 15 Tony Awards and won 10, including Best Musical. In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which today is one of the leading nonprofit HIV/AIDS organizations. In 1998, the Queen of England knighted him Sir Elton John, CBE. In 2004, Elton received the Kennedy Center Honor for his lifetime contributions to American culture and excellence through the performing arts. In 2003, Elton was honored as the first recipient of the prestigious BRITs Icon Award. Elton announced the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour at New York’s Gotham Hall in January 2018. Encompassing 5 continents, and over 350 dates, this 3-year-long tour started in September 2018 and marks his retirement from touring after more than 50 years on the road. In May 2019 it was named Billboard’s Top Rock Tour. 2019 also saw the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Rocketman’ and global bestselling autobiography, ‘Me’. An epic fantasy musical motion picture of Elton’s life ‘Rocketman’ has been a box office smash, taking close to $200m at the box office, receiving a GRAMMY and four BAFTA Award nominations and winning an Oscar, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Original Song.
Tim Rice has worked in music, theatre and films since 1965 when he met Andrew Lloyd Webber, a fellow struggling songwriter. Rather than pursue Tim’s ambitions to write rock or pop songs they turned their attention to Andrew’s obsession – musical theatre. Their first collaboration (lyrics by Tim, music by Andrew) was an unsuccessful show based on the life of Dr. Barnardo, the Victorian philanthropist, The Likes of Us. Their next three works together were much more successful – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita. Tim has also worked with other distinguished popular composers such as Elton John (the Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Chess) and Stuart Brayson (From Here to Eternity). He has won several awards (Oscars, Tonys etc.) mainly for the wrong thing or for simply turning up.
Roger Allers directed the 1994 animated feature The Lion King with codirector Rob Minkoff. He then, along with co-author Irene Mecchi, wrote the book for The Lion King Broadway musical based on his film, receiving the 1998 Tony nomination. Mr. Allers has been instrumental in shaping the structure and dialogue for many Disney animated features since 1986, including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Oliver and Company, Rescuers Down Under and the first CGI movie, Tron. He directed the Academy Awardnominated short The Little Matchgirl for Disney and co-directed the 2006 animated feature Open Season for Sony Studios. Mr. Allers wrote and directed the 2015 animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, a book of philosophical poetry. Currently, he is preparing his original musical “The Grasshopper” with composer Genaro Pereira for the Broadway stage.
IRENE MECCHI (Book) began her association with Disney, 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 also adapted Annie for ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney. She shares a writing credit on Disney Pixar’s Brave. Irene adapted Peter Pan for NBC’s live production and is currently developing several projects for the stage and screen.
Julie Taymor won the 1998 Tony Award® for Best Direction of a Musical and for Best Costumes for The Lion King. It also garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards for Taymor’s direction; three Moliere Awards, including Best Musical and Best Costumes; and myriad awards for her original costume, mask and puppet designs. Taymor made her Broadway debut in 1996 with Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass (Lincoln Center), nominated for five Tony Awards.
Other theatre work includes M. Butterfly starring Clive Owen (Cort Theatre), Grounded (Public Theatre),The Green Bird (New Victory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, the Cort Theatre on Broadway); Titus Andronicus; The Tempest; The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre for a New Audience); The Transposed Heads (Lincoln Center and American Music Theatre Festival); Liberty’s Taken (Castle Hill Festival); and Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark (Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway). Her opera productions include the Pulitzer finalist, Grendel, composed by Elliot Goldenthal (Los Angeles Opera and the Lincoln Center Festival); Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, in repertory at the Metropolitan Opera since 2004; and Oedipus Rex with Jessye Norman, conducted by Seiji Ozawa, for which she earned the International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production and an Emmy® for a subsequent film version. Her first film, “Fool’s Fire,” an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe short story, aired on PBS in 1992.
Her feature films include Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange; Frida, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina (six 2002 Academy Award® nominations, winning two); Across the Universe (2008 Golden Globe®– nomination for Best Musical/Comedy); and The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand and Ben Whishaw. She recently directed The Glorias, starring Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Bette Midler and Janelle Monae based on the life of Gloria Steinem, and completed a cinematic version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed during her stage production that ran at Theatre for a New Audience’s new home in Brooklyn. Taymor has received a MacArthur “genius” Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obie Awards, the first annual Dorothy B. Chandler Award in Theatre, 2015 Inductee to the Theatre Hall of Fame, among many others. A book spanning her career, Julie Taymor: Playing With Fire, is available from Abrams.
GARTH FAGAN (Choreographer). From Kingston, Jamaica, Mr. Fagan is the recipient of the 1998 Tony Award®, the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award and the 2004 Helpmann Award for Best Choreography in a Musical for his work on The Lion King. Regarded as “one of the great reformers of modern dance,” Fagan has toured the world with Garth Fagan Dance for over five decades, earning international recognition and numerous accolades, including a New York Bessie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright 50th Anniversary Distinguished Fellowship.
Lebo M. is known as the “voice and spirit of The Lion King.” Once a teenage singer in Soweto, the GRAMMY® Award winner and Tony® nominee’s music brings audiences to tears with hauntingly inspiring African rhythms and melodies. Lebo’s talents have been hailed by the worldwide press in superlatives that might describe the most delightfully poetic of musical deities. Since his arrival in America, Lebo has attracted music industry giants such as Quincy Jones, Jimmy Cliff and Hans Zimmer as mentors, allies and collaborators. Lebo has performed and produced four albums, Rhythm of the Pride Lands (Disney), Deeper Meaning (Gallo) and The Lion King (Japanese and Hamburg cast recordings). Other credits include The Power of One, Back on the Block and Listen Up with Quincy Jones; the feature films Outbreak (Warner Bros.), Congo (Warner Bros.) and Born to Be Wild (Paramount); he is the composer and co-producer of the Legend of Tarzan theme song, “Opar;” and the Disney television special “People.” He has performed on the Academy Awards® and the Essence Awards Show, with Vanessa Redgrave at Kthimi-The Return in Kosovo, and been honored by Artists for a Free South Africa.
A Tony® nominee and multi-platinum, three-time Grammy Award®-winning composer, Mr. Mancina produced songs for Disney’s blockbuster animated feature film, and proved a uniquely qualified choice to produce the music for the stage production of The Lion King. The 1994 film’s critical and box office success spawned the hit album Rhythm of the Pride Lands, for which he co-wrote and produced multiple tracks, including “He Lives in You” and “Shadowland,” songs featured in the stage production. In addition to his songwriting and producing achievements, he is a seasoned film score composer. Mr. Mancina’s credits include mega-hits Moana, Training Day, Speed, Twister, Bad Boys, Tarzan, and August Rush among many others.
Hans Zimmer has scored more than 200 projects across all mediums, which, combined, have grossed more than 28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Zimmer has been honored with an Academy Award®, two Golden Globes®, three Grammys®, an American Music Award, and a Tony® Award. His work highlights include Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years A Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-scored w/ Benjamin Wallfisch) and Dunkirk, as well as recent film scores including Wonder Woman 1984, Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. In 2019, Zimmer scored the live-action remake of The Lion King, for which he received a Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Zimmer’s films for 2021 include the James Bond film No Time to Die, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, Top Gun: Maverick and The Boss Baby: Family Business. Zimmer has completed highly successful Hans Zimmer Live tour stops around the globe and will continue to perform in an upcoming European tour beginning in February 2022.
The Grammy Award®-winning producer, together with producing and composing partner Hans Zimmer, created Media Ventures, a multifaceted entertainment group that includes music, new media, film and television. Their partnership has earned them numerous awards and nominations, including Academy Award® nominations, for the film scores of Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man and The Lion King. Following the success of The Lion King, Jay conceived and produced the gold-selling follow-up album Rhythm of the Pride Lands. He is also chairman of Media Revolution and a founder of the film production company Media Ventures Pictures.
RICHARD HUDSON (Scenic Design). Born in Zimbabwe, Richard Hudson trained at Wimbledon School of Art. He has designed operas for Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, Teatro alla Scala, Maggio Musicale Florence, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Kent Opera, Opera North, Wiener Staatsoper, Munich, Chicago, Copenhagen, Athens, Bregenz, Amsterdam, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid, Brussels, Houston, Washington, Venice, Pesaro and Rome. He has also designed for the Aldeburgh Festival, The Royal Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Royal Court, Almeida and the Young Vic. In 1988, Mr. Hudson won an Olivier Award for the Jonathan Miller season at the Old Vic. His set designs for The Lion King have won numerous awards including a Tony® in 1998. Mr. Hudson is a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). In 2003 he won The Gold Medal for Set Design at the Prague Quadrennial and in 2005 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Surrey.
Recent work includes Leopoldstadt (West End and Broadway); La Boheme; Gianni Schicchi (Greek National Opera); The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty (American Ballet Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Bolshoi Ballet); Four Seasons, La Bayadère Le Coq D’or and Raymonda (The Royal Danish Ballet); Das Rhinegold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (Teatro Massimo, Palermo); Versailles (Donmar Warehouse); La Bohème (Bologna); Peter Gynt (National Theatre); Morgen und Abend (Royal Opera, Covent Garden and Deutsche Oper, Berlin) and Ballo in Maschera (Verdi Festival, Parma).
DONALD HOLDER (Lighting Design) received the 1998 Tony®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for The Lion King (Broadway) and the Moliere Award for The Lion King (Paris). Broadway: 14 Tony® nominations, 61 productions, including McNeal; The Pirates of Penzance (2025); Paradise Square; Tootsie; Kiss Me Kate (2019 revival); Oslo; Anastasia; She Loves Me (2016 revival); The King and I (2015 revival); The Bridges of Madison County; Golden Boy; South Pacific (2008 Tony Award); Oslo; Ragtime; Les Liaisons Dangereuses; A Streetcar Named Desire; Gem of the Ocean; Movin’ Out; Juan Darien; On the Twentieth Century; You Can’t Take It With You; Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark; Promises, Promises; Annie (2012 revival); Arcadia; Cyrano de Bergerac; The Little Dog Laughed; Thoroughly Modern Millie; The Boy From Oz; and many others. Television: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel– Seasons 4 and 5 (Amazon Studios); Gossip Girl (HBO); Smash– Seasons one and two (NBC/ DreamWorks). Film: Spirited (Apple Studios), Oceans 8 (Warner Bros. Pictures). Education: Yale School of Drama, Head of lighting design at Rutgers University.
MICHAEL CURRY (Mask & Puppet Co-Design) is an award-winning visual artist and concept designer, known for his broad work in theater and live entertainment. He is sought out by the world’s top entertainment organizations, such as The Metropolitan Opera, Universal Studios, Cirque du Soleil and the International Olympic Committee to create large-scale spectacles. He has brought his vision to countless shows for Disney, including Frozen on Broadway. Curry’s concepts can be seen in theme parks, resorts, stadium tours, and productions worldwide. Michael works closely with his long-term team in Portland, Oregon where they develop innovative solutions for future projects, as well as support multiple on-going theatrical productions around the world.
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.
ARC (Casting). 150+ productions across the globe & 13 Artios Awards for Casting. Broadway/NY Past & Current Productions include: Othello, Gatsby, Life of Pi, Chicago the Musical, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Hadestown, Lost in Yonkers, Great Comet of 1812, Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, 39 Steps, Pippin, La Cage aux Folles. TV/Film: Netflix, 20th Century Fox, NBC, Lionsgate, Disney Channel. West End/U.K.: Hadestown, Sister Act, Menier Chocolate Factory. Tours: 1776, Hairspray, Waitress, Urinetown, Girl From The North Country, Finding Neverland, Into the Woods, We Will Rock You. Regional: A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, Bay Street, Goodspeed, Ogunquit Playhouse, Hollywood Bowl, McCarter, Signature. ARC, Part of RWS Global. www.castingbyarc.com IG: castingbyarc
This Tony® and Drama Desk nominee has arranged and orchestrated Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy-winning music for composers Elliot Goldenthal (Juan Darien, Frida), Alan Menken (Galavant), Brian Tyler (Iron Man 3, Fast and Furious series) and many others. His compositions have graced theater and concert stages around the world. www.robertelhai.com
DAVID METZGER (Orchestrator) has composed the scores for films including Mufasa: The Lion King, Wish, and Once Upon a Studio. Along with his Tony® and Drama Desk nominated work on The Lion King, he also orchestrated the Broadway version of Frozen. He is an in demand arranger, orchestrator and producer of songs for film, with a body of work that includes Frozen, Frozen II, Moana, Tarzan, Spirited and the upcoming Snow White, with a list of songwriters he’s worked that includes Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Alan Menken, Elton John, Tim Rice, Glenn Slater, Stephen Schwartz, Phil Collins and Julia Michaels. He has also orchestrated over 70 films. davemetzgermusic.com
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.
Clement is a conductor, composer and arranger. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music, where he specialised in composition and conducting as well as singing with Joyce Britten. Conducting credits include Abbey Players Opera Company, Ad Astra Chorus, Addison Jazz Ensemble and West London Gospel Choir. He also conducted the new ballet Awakening at Sadlers Wells. West End credits include: Five Guys Named Moe, Ain’t Misbehavin’ Smokey Joe’s Café, and Soul Train. He has also directed and arranged the music for numerous shows which include: Sweet Lorraine, Up Against the Wall, The Amen Corner, The Grape Vine, The Cavalcaders and most recently Gem of the Ocean at the Tricycle Theatre. His classical compositions and arrangements have been performed worldwide as well as being broadcast by BBC Television and Radio. His opera Grazyna was performed at the Royal Opera House’s Lindbury Studio and his most recent commission, for the London Piano Trio was performed at Cardogan Hall in 2008.
Anthony was born in Swansea South Wales and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Has worked as an actor, director, teacher and associate director. London theatre credits include Anything Goes, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Damn Yankees and Disney’s The Lion King. Broadway production credits include Disney’s The Lion King, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins and Les Miserables. Touring and global production credits include Mary Poppins (US National tours, Vienna, Mexico City), Les Miserables (US National tour, Toronto). Anthony is currently the Associate Director for global productions of The Lion King, on which he has worked since 1999, and Saturday Night Fever & Masquerade for Jean Ann Ryan Productions globally. TV credits include the Tony Awards, An American Celebration, Dancing with the Stars, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, the Royal Variety Performance and the 2013 Oscars. Has taught at the Royal Academy of Music London, The Actors’ Centre and Duke University in the US and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College in July 2018.
A native New Yorker, Miss Griffith toured worldwide with the acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a featured dancer/soloist for 8 years. She is most known for her performances in the works of the late, world renowned choreographer Ulysses Dove. Other guest appearances include Déjà vu Dance Theatre, and the Spoleto festival in Italy. She worked as co-choreographer on the star studded production of The Wizard of Oz in concert at Avery Fisher Hall with Nathan Lane, Joel Grey, Jewel and Natalie Cole. Miss Griffith has appeared in numerous commercials and voice-overs. Her soap opera credits include As the World Turns and Another World. She has also performed with Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster, PA. Miss Griffith joined the creative team of THE LION KING in August of 2000. She feels privileged to work with choreographer Garth Fagan.
THE LION KING orchestra is one of the three largest orchestras currently on Broadway. Its 23 members play 132 different instruments, 87 of which are played by the four percussionists. For more information on Broadway orchestras and the members of THE LION KING orchestra, visit www.broadwaymusicians.com.
Steve Canyon Kennedy was the production engineer on such Broadway shows as Cats, Starlight Express, Song & Dance, The Phantom of the Opera, Carrie, and Aspects of Love. Broadway sound design credits include On Your Feet, 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, Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Jersey Boys (Drama Desk Award), Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Hairspray, The Producers, Aida, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carousel, and The Who’s Tommy (Drama Desk Award).