Study Chinese - Lion King roars at last in South Africa

ENTERTAINMENT / Theater & Arts






Lion King roars at last in South Africa

(AFP)
Updated: 2007-06-22 08:36



JOHANNESBURG - "The Lion King," the award-winning Disney musical set in
the African bush, is marking its 10th anniversary with a first-ever run
on the continent that inspired its storyline.


Buyisile Zama, 29, performs 05 June 2007 as Rafiki, the sangoma
(traditional healer) monkey in The Lion King, the award-winning rites of
passage musical based in the heart of the African bush. [AFP]

The rites of passage tale of Simba the Lion, already seen by 35 million
spectators worldwide since its Broadway debut in 1997, has been playing
to packed houses since it opened in Johannesburg on June 6 -- for the
first time with an all South African cast.

"I am so excited. My people and family are going to see me on stage
finally," said Buyisile Zama, a 29-year-old Zulu who has played the role
of the wise old baboon Rafiki on stages from Sydney to Shanghai.

"People loved the show everywhere but here they can understand everything
-- each and every word. It is our culture," said the Durban native during
rehearsals at the city's new state-of-the-art 1,900-seat Teatro de
Montecasino.

Prohibitive costs had long hampered efforts to bring the quintessentially
South African show to South Africa, but it was finally made possible with
large sponsorship deals and the willingness of old hands to get involved.

One is South African-born composer Lebo M, who wrote the theme music to
the 1994 Oscar-winning movie from which the play was adapted and who runs
a charity to train singers in his homeland.

"It has been my dream for 10 years to bring the show to South Africa,"
said the composer who hails from Soweto township on the outskirts of
Johannesburg.

"We are not here to just do a show like in London or Paris" but to
showcase local talent, he said, adding he hoped "The Lion King" will act
as "a stepping stone in our theatre business. We must build on its
success to create new productions."

Though about half of the score was written by Elton John and Tim Rice,
the production also marks a special homecoming for the celebrated,
haunting ballad, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," whose South African composer
Solomon Linda died destitute in 1962 without ever earning royalties.

For the first time, the song will be staged with help from an all-Zulu
choir -- one of many touches along with traditional masks, costumes made
with local beadwork and fabrics and 18-feet (5.4-metre) giraffes that
tower over the audience to drive home the play's African roots.

"The difference is that in other productions we have four or five South
Africans, but here the entire cast is South African," said show's
creative director Aubrey Linch, who said it was magical, "as an
African-American, born in Michigan," to bring the show here after playing
to audiences around the world.

"We adapted each character to the South African reality. It had to be
authentic," she said.

Reviews have been largely positive and the Variety trade magazine said on
its website this week advance sales were so good the season has been
extended from mid August to early October.

With tickets ranging from 150 to 450 rand (21 to 63 dollars, 16 to 47
euros), the price will be out of range for many South Africans but the
phone company Telkom has bought 40,000 tickets to dole out to students
and residents in the townships around Johannesburg.

For Zama, performing in her homeland carries its own pressure, notably
coping with the different dialects featured in the songs.

"The challenge here is that I don't know the 11 languages of this
country, so I am nervous about pronouncing the words properly. The people
know the culture, so we must be sure that everything is spot on."

The play -- winner of six Tony awards on Broadway where it is still
running -- is arguably one of the most lavish to be staged on the
continent, and the star-studded premiere included such big names as chat
show queen Oprah Winfrey, accompanied by students from a talent school
she funds near Johannesburg.

The family of Solomon Linda has also been invited, and his children plan
to take up the offer at some stage during the run after striking a
financial deal with Disney only last year for an undisclosed sum.

"They are very, very happy about the show to be acted in South Africa and
they are ecstatic about the fact that recognition had been given to their
father, at last," their lawyer Hanro Fiedrich.







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