Nor did anyone want to weigh down the performers or hinder their movements - which pushed the limits of stagecraft and technology. ![]() "Julie didn't want to lose the look of the actors' expressions and eyes." "Nobody wanted to dress actors up in lion costumes," technical director David Benken said. Taymor aimed for more transparency and double-edged theatricality in her costume designs for The Lion King - and in the puppets and masks she designed with Michael Curry. I needed to see what the puppet's facial expressions look like and how I could use my body to mirror his expressions of pride, arrogance, shock and fear."īeauty and the Beast, the first Disney musical on Broadway, enclosed and often hid many actors inside cumbersome costumes to play enchanted teapots or furniture. "Zazu bounces back and forth between this confident, upper-crust major-domo and a skittish, panicking little bird. When he first assumed his role, he - like many of the other cast members - rehearsed daily in front of a mirror. "At first, you're completely overloaded with all the mechanics of the puppetry, all the stuff that makes him look alive," Freeman said."But the more that becomes muscle memory, the more you can think about the acting, the choreography, why you're saying these lines." At the same time, he must use a wrist and an arm to extend or retract the bird's neck and shift the angle of Zazu's head. The challenges can be complex: While singing, speaking and moving in character, Freeman uses a thumb to manipulate a lever to open Zazu's eyes, moves an index finger to control Zazu's mouth and a lever in his left hand to make the wings flap. The simplistic fable about the cycle of life and death is lifted to a higher artistic level by the way in which the actors' performances blend with their puppetry. When Simba, Mufasa's wayward son, is tricked by his uncle Scar into believing he caused his father's death, Zazu tries to help the guilty lion cub in exile on his risky journey to the crown of adulthood. He must manipulate his bird-puppet to evoke the changeable personality of his character, King Mufasa's dignified but nervous major-domo. ![]() "So I walk like a cross between a bird and a British butler." "Julie Taymor wanted to walk the line between showing the human and animal aspects of each character," Freeman said. The musical was almost sold out during its first visit in 2004. But you can see me onstage at all times," said performer Tony Freeman, a Miami University graduate who grew up in the Cincinnati area.Īfter playing the red-billed bird Zazu on Broadway for more than three years, Freeman is reprising the comic sidekick in the national tour - returning Friday to the Ohio Theatre for a five-week run. "In traditional puppet shows, the puppeteer is hidden. to life through innovative puppetry, masks and stagecraft. The 1997 adaptation by director-designer Julie Taymor of the 1994 animated Disney movie brought an African environmental fable - an animal-kingdom Hamlet Jr. If puppets in Broadway musicals aren't kid stuff anymore, The Lion King deserves a lion's share of the credit.
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