The lion king tour is downsizing

[Call_me_jorge]

Im curious how much different/smaller the production will be. http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/THE-LION-KING-North-American-Tour-to-Expand-to-New-Cities-with-Re-Configured-Production-20160930

[bwayphreak234]

I wonder how much they are going to redesign.

[Jakeevan942]

I just looked at the current season in the cities mentioned that will be getting the new Lion King tour. These are bus and truck 1 and 2 nighter cites, but a few have a 2 week run of the new Phantom Tour, just as big as the current Lion King. So these theaters can accommodate the size of the current show. The issue is that Lion King currently takes a full week to load the jump set into a venue, and then runs for 3-6 weeks. Most of these venues can't support even the biggest show (Phantom, Wicked) for more than 2 weeks.

 

I'm thinking they are redesigning the tour to work like Wicked and Phantom-Close in one city on Sunday, load in the advance set on Monday, and open in the next city on Wednesday, for just 2 weeks of shows, closing 13 days later, to start over again. Cutting out the advance week, and the 3rd week of shows can make this work in the smaller markets.

[trpguyy]

Call_me_jorge said: "Im curious how much different/smaller the production will be. http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/THE-LION-KING-North-American-Tour-to-Expand-to-New-Cities-with-Re-Configured-Production-20160930"

"Downsizing" and "smaller" are misleading. "Convertible" is a more accurate term. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Doesn't the tour currently use two sets? While they have one city closing up shop they are putting in the other set in another city? I wonder if this will continue to happen.

[Jakeevan942]

Call_me_jorge said: "Doesn't the tour currently use two sets? While they have one city closing up shop they are putting in the other set in another city? I wonder if this will continue to happen.

 

"

Yes, The Lion King has 2 complete sets-14 trucks each. One is playing in City A, the second starts loading in to City B on the Monday of the last week in City A.-40 hours of load in time. Show closes on Sunday in City B-3 trucks of costumes, work boxes, etc load out Sunday and drive to City B to open there on Tuesday. City A set loads out for 3 days while company travels and opens in City B. Set from City A sits in storage until it is time to load in to City C, and the cycle continues.

 

Wicked and Phantom each have only about 4 trucks duplicated, which loads in to City B on Monday, and then the other 12 trucks come from City A to load in on Tuesday/Wednesday to open in City B on Wednesday night. This is, presumably, the model that Disney is moving toward with Lion King.

 

[Call_me_jorge]

I also wonder if they will continue on the production contract or go down a teir. 

[Tag]

^Clearly you didn't even bother to read the link you posted yourself.  They are staying on a full production contract.

[asmith0307]

I, for one, think this is great. As they said, technology has changed since the show went on the road, so a refresh would be nice. I have heard horror stories from some of these long-running tours where the automation is so old, the companies no longer make the parts. 

 

And let's be clear. They aren't exactly downsizing and trpguyy mentioned. Downsizing the bulkiness of the older technology maybe, but the size of what the audience sees is supposedly the same, so in theory audiences should not even notice the change.

[ageorges3]

If anyone can pull of downsizing a tour without losing anything of artistic value, it's Disney.  It seems the trend over recent years has been to strip down touring companies of a show and send it out non-equity, and consequently, tour audiences suffer (not going to name any of the touring productions that fall into this category based on pics I've seen over the years).  Lion King's already been on the road for years, it's part of Disney theatrical and I doubt they'd ever go non-eq.  But the same concern - having a company on the road giving tour audiences (possibly without the means to make it to New York to see a Broadway production) a lesser version of what's playing in NYC - applies to redesigns and downsizing.  But I think Disney will just take advantage of newer technology (always been interested in how sound design works on these tours too - and it looks like they got the Broadway designer, Steve Canyon Kennedy, to do the set up for the road - curious to see if any changes are made there in the downsize), make it a bit more cost effective, without night and day differences in what audiences actually see on stage!

[RippedMan]

What is there even to downsize? Maybe Pride rock? But the puppets and stuff can't be changed too drastically? I remember seeing the tour, and it was gorgeous, but don't remember any major bulky pieces?

[CATSNYrevival]

I'm also a little confused about what they'll change. Aside from Pride Rock and the elephant graveyard staircases there really isn't a ton of bulky scenery and both of those pieces are already designed a bit differently or smaller than what is seen on Broadway. Hopefully it's mostly just a lot of backstage machinery that's being updated? I can't imagine the costumes or scenery being scaled back any more than they already are.

[Tag]

Hopefully they don't go the way of Mamma Mia, which bastardized their design towards the end.  Or the way of projections!!! ahhh

[trpguyy]

Don't miss the forest through the trees. What you see on the stage (Pride Rock, puppets, etc) is only a small fraction of what gets crammed into the theater.

Technology has changed a LOT in the last 10+ years. An overhaul of the lighting package could mean cutting many conventional fixtures and dimmers in favor of moving lights and newer, smaller moving light distro racks. 

Same with automation, what used to take up 4'x8' of space somewhere can now fit in a small rack. 

A shift to self-powered ("active" speakers means eliminating a LOT of amplifiers backstage.

A refresh in the scenic design (note: not a visual change, but structural) could shave hours off of a loadin and make the production more flexible for smaller venues. 

 

Then in of course there all the cable that nobody ever thinks about. Bringing all of the aforementioned things up to 2016 standards would mean much less cable is necessary, which of course means less time to move the show. 

 

EDIT: all of that to say... if your IT department at work said "hey we're going to replace your 14 year old desktop computer with a brand new laptop," you wouldn't think "oh sh*t, they're downsizing my computer."

[bwayphreak234]

The current tour and Broadway production leave a lot to be desired in my opinion.

[Call_me_jorge]

^random

[bwayphreak234]

Call_me_jorge said: "^random"

 

How is that random? This is a discussion about the physical productions of The Lion King... Which I simply commented on.

 

[RippedMan]

But what do you mean? I'd think the Broadway production is the pinnacle?

[CATSNYrevival]

Maybe before they moved it to the Minskoff? Does anyone know if there were changes made to the physical production when the show moved from the New Amsterdam to the Minskoff? Is it now similar to how Beauty and the Beast was downsized when it moved from the Palace to the Lunt-Fontanne?

[Islander_fan]

There were no physical difference in terms of set between The Lion King being at both the Minskoff and New Amsterdam. As for Beauty and the Beast, the sets that were used when the show moved to the Lunt were the first national touring sets rather than the ones that were used at The Palace. I had always been under the impression that the reason for this was that the Palace sets were much bigger and wouldn't fit into the Lunt.

[Call_me_jorge]

The gazelle tour closed yesterday. Did anyone see it in its final months? I wonder if we'll start hearing about how the tour will be redesigned as we get closer to the reopening.

[RippedMan]

I think it's great it's reaching new audiences and they aren't paying the actor's less. Do they reconfigure the seats for every venue? I wonder how that will change for the start of the show?