Interview: Vernon Brooks III Comes Full Circle With THE LION KING in New Orleans

For New Orleans native Vernon Brooks III, bringing Disney’s THE LION KING to the Saenger Theatre is more than another stop on the national tour. It’s a homecoming that represents years of dedication, sacrifice and a lifelong passion for dance.

A graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), Brooks performs in the musical’s ensemble, taking on multiple roles that help bring the African savana to life through movement, dance and puppetry. This engagement marks his first time performing at the Saenger Theatre and the first opportunity for his grandmother to see him perform professionally.

As THE LION KING returns to New Orleans for a three-week engagement, BroadwayWorld.com spoke with Brooks about his journey into the production, the important role of the ensemble and what it means to return home with one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals.

BroadwayWorld.com: How did you first become involved with THE LION KING, and what was your reaction when you learned you would be part of such an iconic production?

Brooks: I was living in New York at the time, and my mom called and was like, “Vernon, do you know The Lion King on Broadway?” And I was like, “Yes.” She was like, “They’re having an audition. I think you should do it.”

And I am not the best singer. I think I sound great in the shower, but I don’t think that translates to the stage quite well. But it being my mom, I was like, “Well, let me just go out on a limb and do it.”

And when I walked in the audition, I actually wound up getting booked, and I got a call from Mark Brandon, and he told me I had two weeks to pack up my life and get on the road.

It was an amazing experience. It was a rush. I didn’t expect it at all because this is the first professional gig that I’ve had that was on this grand scale.

BWW: Most of us grew up with THE LION KING in some form. Did you have a personal connection to the story or even the musical before joining?

Brooks: Well, I actually lost my father at a very young age, so I think just having that connection with Simba from his loss and then trying to figure out his place in the world and his identity and everything…I didn’t realize I had that connection with him until I got on the tour and started doing the show and learning the show from the inside out.

But growing up, I loved the movie. I thought it was a fantastic film. I still do, but I think as I got older and once I got hired into the show, that’s when I grew a deeper understanding of it and understood that there were things that connected with me, very, very personally.

BWW: For people who might not be familiar with how a Broadway ensemble works, can you tell us about the different roles you take on through the show?

Brooks: Yeah, so this show is very special in terms of the ensemble work because I think with this show, it calls so much for the ensemble that we basically are the storytellers of this show.

So within the show, I am a gazelle. I’m a hyena. I’m grass. I’m part of Mufasa’s face when we recreate him at the very end. I’m his left forehead.

I’m blanking out on one of the animals that I am, but I’m part of the stampede. I’m part of the animal that actually kills Mufasa at the end. And then I actually come back as my gazelle at the very end.

So we all make a little joke that I do the circle of life because in the show, my gazelle gets ripped apart limb from limb. So I kind of die, and I come right back.

But just to basically sum it up, an ensemble is a group of people that just make sure that the story is told, to where if Simba’s not onstage, the story still can follow along, and if the main characters are not onstage, there’s still a story that you can follow, and you don’t have to look at a character to know what’s going on.

BWW: One of the things that THE LION KING so special is how the performers themselves become part of the scenery and the animal kingdom. What was it like learning to bring that world to life through your movement and performance?

Brooks: Well, coming from a concert dance world, this was right in my element. I love making beautiful shapes with my body, and I love being asked to kind of step out of that and step into a more artistic side of it all.

The show is so bare-bones onstage that you, being called as a performer…actually get to rely on the skills and the talents and the inspirations that you pulled from throughout your training, to where then you’re asked to be a part of that with this Disney magic that they apply with the costumes and the imagination that you also have to step into to become these things.

BWW: Speaking of costumes, the mask and puppetry are so important to the production. Was there an adjustment period for you learning how to perform with these elements?

Brooks: Oh, 100 percent, because I never danced with puppets, especially heavy puppets like how I have.

I’m part of the gazelles. I’m the lead gazelle. So I have one gazelle on my forehead and I have two gazelles on my arms. Trying to do the movement while operating with those was a bit of a task.

So as I learned the show, my dance captain at the time was very, very helpful in giving me tricks and tips on how to do that.

And also in the rehearsal process, they really made sure that I had the puppets in my hand because, again, with the show being so barebones, you are called on to really step into this imagination of becoming this animal or these animals in particular.

So in the rehearsal process, they really stress the idea of understanding who these animals are, and they actually gave me clips to look at to watch how a gazelle leaps, how it holds its body.

They even gave us clips to look at to pull from for inspiration because, yes, you are a dancer, but you have to conform yourself into this animal, which is not an everyday thing.

So the rehearsal process was very much pulling from inspirations, watching actual videos of these animals and how they do their day-to-day life, how they eat, how they prey, things like that.

BWW: What’s something about the ensemble’s work that people might be surprised to learn about?

Brooks: I think the duality of an ensemble because this show can be so unpredictable that you might be doing the show as an ensemble and then maybe after intermission you’re stepping into a character role because a main character had to call out.

So to understand that, your brain is kind of understanding that there might be a chance that I could be on, and I still have to have the knowledge of what the character that I’m stepping into is doing at the time, to where it doesn’t look like there was a transfer of power. Does that make sense?

I think as ensemble dancers in this show, too, we do take that very seriously because this show, there are a lot of things that can happen. There’s a lot of unpredictable things that can happen. So with that, we are all on 10 toes to make sure that the show still runs smoothly.

BWW: From the opening moments of “Circle of Life” to the finale, there are so many visually spectacular scenes in this show. Is there a particular moment that you especially love performing?

Brooks: My favorite dance, I love doing, “She’s Gonna Eat Me,” which is right as Pumbaa is running out and Nala is trying to get him to eat, and that’s when we get back into the connection of Nala and Simba, and Simba introduces Nala.

But there’s a moment where the four male dancers who were grass in the previous scene come out and do this beautiful African-inspired dance.

The music is fantastic, and I say it literally every show when it’s performed right, and you can feel the music and the beats come from underneath the stage. It truly does something to me.

I kind of step out of my body and give this out-of-body experience. I call myself an entertainment surrogate, to where I am the middleman in terms of what you see onstage, to what the energy from the stage is, what is given to us. I’m now the middleman to give that to the audience.

So that is one dance that I think is a very good example of that.

BWW: How do you keep your performance fresh and exciting night after night?

Brooks: If I can be truly honest with you, there was a time in my life where dance was really all I had, and it truly was a saving grace for me because I grew up in a single-family home, and my mom always instilled in me that if you want something really bad, you have to go for it every single day with your most unapologetic and authentic self.

So I think with that knowledge and that responsibility that I give to myself every day is what gets me to do the show in a new form every single day.

Because I owe myself that, and I think I owe that to the past Vernons who have worked so hard to get here. Because I knew what it was like when I didn’t have anything.

So to now be at a place where I kind of do, quote-unquote, have it all, I owe it to myself to make sure that every single day that the show is new, not necessarily for the audience, but mostly for me.

 

BWW: What is it like knowing you can help inspire the next generation of theatre lovers, especially young children who may be experiencing live theatre for the first time?

Brooks: My favorite story, actually, we were in Lubbock, Texas, and Lubbock, Texas is a very conservative Republican city.

So I do remember that there was a young Black kid in the crowd, and he was actually sitting in the row that I was walking by. We do a dance, “One by One.” It’s when we come into the audience. We have birds and we’re singing, and it’s the beginning of Act II.

We basically are seen as ancestors coming back in…to get Simba riled up to take back the kingdom that was rightfully his.

That moment that I was in the crowd, the young boy was like, “Mom, he looks like me.”

And I think it actually brought tears to my eyes because I remember saying that to my mom…and that was the first time that I realized that I could do something like that.

So it never really hits you that you are making an impact or you are kind of doing the change until you’re on the phone with somebody and you’re having this conversation with them.

It never really crosses my mind that I’m making an impact or I’m inspiring the next group of people. But it is something that when I talk about it, it gives me goosebumps because I never would have thought that I’d be somebody who would inspire a group of people, or just even one person, if I’m being honest.

BWW: Tell us about your New Orleans connection.

Brooks: So I grew up in New Orleans, born and raised.

My mom is from Metairie, which is maybe 10 minutes outside of New Orleans. But my dad, he was from the Lower Ninth Ward. From there, I went to school for the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. I actually went to school for drama and dance, but with NOCCA, you have to decide which discipline you want to go through fully and get your certificate. So I decided to do dance instead of drama.

BWW: How does it feel to come and perform for your hometown?

Brooks: This is actually the first time I'm performing at the Saenger, so it’s a very surreal moment, and this is also going to be the very first time that my grandmother gets to see me do anything professional.

But I was saying this to a friend the other day. I probably will cry during ‘Circle of Life” just to where it will be a moment, a pinching moment, to be like, everything that I have worked for, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the late nights at my dance studio, to going to a dance competition at 8 a.m. to sacrificing homecoming and school things because I had a dance gig, it all made sense because I’m here.

And I honestly cannot wait to see everyone’s face who has backed me up and has supported me to get here now, so where we can all kind of finally exhale and be like, “Okay, I did it.”

BWW: When the curtain falls and the audience goes home, what do you hope they take away from their experience with THE LION KING?

Brooks: I hope that it continues to be a conversation that people talk about because I know that the show is closing soon, and I think people still need to have a conversation of the impact that this show is, and just the beauty of it.

I hope that when they get in their cars, they talk to each other about what they witnessed and how they felt genuinely, and have those conversations with their young ones to let them know that that is possible, and you can make an impact with a quote-unquote hobby, because at the end of the day, that's really what we all did. We made a career out of a hobby.

So I would love for parents to just encourage kids to be like, "You can do it too because they did it."

And I hope that this show, when the curtain falls and they get in their car, even if they are a bit tired, because a two-hour-and-30-minute show is not for the faint of heart, I do hope that when that moment does come, that they can all just be appreciative of what they got to see.

And the parents can let their kids know, "Hun, you can do it too. You can do it too."

BWW: For audiences who are coming to see THE LION KING, especially those who have never experienced it live, is there anything you would tell them to pay attention to beyond the characters they know and the songs?

Brooks: I would actually ask them to find one ensemble dancer in the show and watch them do the show, to where you can get a different look because we all know the movie. Everyone knows the movie, and basically the show is a very good carbon copy of the movie.

But I think if you want to be inspired and want to feel, I guess, the Disney magic that we all exuberate when we're on that stage, I do challenge people to find one ensemble dancer who is not, I keep saying ensemble dancer because that's me, but an ensemble member in the show, to just find that one person and basically track them throughout the show because you'll witness little things that they do that give nuances to the show that makes the show so unique.

That night it might be something that I did that I didn't do two nights ago, and that changed the whole outlook of your show.

So I think I would say that to somebody, to just find someone who's not a character, find someone that might be in the background and watch their show.

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Disney's THE LION KING plays the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans for three weeks, October 21 through November 8, 2026