THE LION KING North American Tour Opens Tonight in Austin

The return of Disney's THE LION KING opens tonight, Friday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m. at Bass Concert Hall for a limited engagement of four weeks through Sunday, February 10. "To date, sales for The Lion King have exceeded our expectations but with a four week run in Austin, there are still outstanding seats available in every price range," said Kathy Panoff, Director and Associate Dean of Texas Performing Arts.

THE LION KING began as a 1994 animated feature-length film developed and produced by the Walt Disney Company. The story, a coming of age parable set among animals indigenous to its setting, the African savanna, tells the tale of Simba, the lion cub who rises to be the King of the jungle.

The production features Derek Smith as "Scar", Dionne Randolph as "Mufasa", Buyi Zama as "Rafiki", Mark David Kaplan as "Zazu", Ben Lipitz as "Pumbaa", Nick Cordileone as "Timon", Jelani Remy as "Simba", Syndee Winters as "Nala", Keith Bennett as "Banzai", Rashada Dawan as "Shenzi" and Robbie Swift as "Ed."

The role of "Young Simba" is alternated between Zavion J. Hill and Adante Power and the role of "Young Nala" is alternated between Sade Phillip-Demorcy and Kailah McFadden.

The North American touring productions of THE LION KING have been seen by more than 14 million theatergoers and grossed over $983 million to date. Having already played more than 70 cities across North America, THE LION KING now proudly makes its Austin return at Bass Concert Hall.