‘Phantom’ paved path for ‘Lion’

Elia Powers

Earlier this week, Disney crews unloaded 22 trucks and 130,000 pounds

of props in preparation for “The Lion King,” which plays through

April 24 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Robbie Foreman, the center’s technical director and head

carpenter, remembers a similar undertaking for an equally grandiose

Broadway show more than a decade ago.

In 1994, 10 years before it became a major motion picture, Andrew

Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” came to Segerstrom Hall for

a six-week run from late July through early September. An additional

week of performances was added to accommodate the ticket demand.

According to then center Executive Director Tom Tomlinson, the

seven-week engagement was the longest of any Broadway musical in the

theater’s history. “The Lion King” is also scheduled for a seven-week

run.

“It was on par with ‘The Lion King’ in terms of magnitude,”

Foreman said of the amount of behind-the-scenes preparation required.

“You’re moving massive amounts of things.”

Pride Rock, a 7,000-pound prop with a 15-foot walkway, is the most

challenging object to navigate on stage, according to Mike Nye,

Disney’s head carpenter for “The Lion King” National Tour.

For the 1994 showing of “The Phantom of the Opera,” Foreman said

figuring out how to support the 10-foot-high, half-ton chandelier

that hung above the orchestra and eventually crashed to the stage

floor was the biggest challenge.

Foreman said there was a great deal of welding necessary to get

the chandelier into its proper place near the ceiling. The prop was

controlled entirely by a computer that monitored its safety and

controlled the web of safety cables that supported it.

Many of those cables are still in place, Foreman said.

While bright colors and costumes are “The Lion King” calling

cards, darkness was the prevailing theme for “The Phantom of the

Opera.” The show required 141 candles that rose from under the stage.

More than 450 lighting instruments were used in the show, about 250

fewer than are used for “The Lion King.”

To promote “The Phantom of the Opera,” a seven-time Tony

Award-winning production, the center held an outdoor party that

summer that included a private performance and appearances by the

show’s main cast members. Candles and a fog machine greeted attendees

at the benefit event, which raised $90,000 for the center’s annual

campaign. Tickets to that event ran from $165 to $1,000.

“The Phantom of the Opera,” directed then by Harold Prince, had a

36-member cast, including a member of the Broadway company who played

the Phantom. “The Lion King” has a 48-person cast.

Just as a collection of “The Lion King” costume designs is on

display through today at South Coast Plaza’s Jewel Court, a two-story

photographic exhibit of past performances, including photos, was on

display in the weeks leading up to the opening of “The Phantom of the

Opera.”

And proof that we live in more expensive times: Ticket prices for

“The Phantom of the Opera” performances maxed out at $61.25. The top

price for “The Lion King” is more than twice that amount.