A First For ‘The Lion King’

The performance was attended by a number of notable persons from China and abroad, including Disney CEO Robert Iger, former NBA star Yao Ming, Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the director of the original Broadway production of the musical, Julie Taymor, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The musical was “close in content” to the original New York production, but was augmented with “an assortment of distinctly Chinese elements, including a Peking Opera musical number and shadow puppet lions and giraffes,” the Times reported.

American-style musical theater remains relatively rare in China, despite state-of-the-art theaters being built everywhere. A Broadway producer interviewed by the Times said there is great interest by the government to “support entertainment” in China and to import entertainment from outside, as long as it’s approved first.

The main problem, however, isn’t censorship so much as a paucity of markets that would make theater productions profitable. The producer estimated that there are only “four, maybe five markets in China” that would be able to put on a full-scale musical production.

DreamWorks Animation plans to open a complex in Shanghai in 2018 that will include 16 theaters for live performances.