Lion King Origin Story by Riedel in Vanity Fair

[BJR]

Posted: 10/19/20 at 11:35am

Interesting story on the making of the Lion King, both the film and eventual Bway musical, that I presume is from his upcoming book on the resurgence of Bway/Times Square in the 90s.

How The Lion King Became a $9 Billion Bway Smash

But one part jumped out at me:

"Disney executives liked the song, but Schneider and others realized the show had to have an authentic African sound. Somebody—nobody’s sure who anymore—thought of film composer Hans Zimmer, who had used an African choir and instruments in his score for a movie set in South Africa called The Power of One. Zimmer listened to “Circle of Life” and decided to “play around with it” for a couple of days. In his studio, he teamed up with Lebo M., a singer and songwriter from South Africa who once worked as a parking attendant in Los Angeles. The vocalist added some Zulu intonations and phrases, including, “Nants ingoyama bagithi Baba. The minute we heard it,” said Schneider, “we all knew it was perfect.”"

In the entire article, Lebo M is the only person who is described by an odd job they once held while coming up. The effect seems intentional: "How lucky they are to have landed in that room!" But Rice, John, Eisner, Schumacher, no one else has a random early job mentioned. And it happens to be the one African person in the story.

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 10/19/20 at 11:51am

Only knowing what I just read on Lebo M.'s Wikipedia entry, I can see how that would be considered demeaning since he had a long history working in the music industry going back to at least age 9 before arriving in L.A. for school. He sang in nightclubs from a very young age, recorded a single at 13, went to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts here in D.C., all before going to L.A., so it does seem like a weird detail to land on in telling that story. That said, that was around the time Zimmer met him, so maybe that is Zimmer's perspective on Lebo M.'s trajectory?

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Posted: 10/19/20 at 1:19pm

Weird detail about Lebo M, but it's probably Riedel adding some snark. Otherwise, that was a really interesting read! I enjoyed "Razzle Dazzle" and am excited to read his next book.