‘Lion King’ musical: The ‘awful idea’ that turned into Disney gold

Michael Eisner had an idea.

And it wasn’t a very popular one at first.

The visionary Disney leader, who served of CEO of the house built by Mickey Mouse from 1984 to 2005, was interested in turning the 1994 animated “Lion King” movie into a stage musical.

So, he took the idea to the film’s creative team.

“He first asked everybody’s opinion — ‘What do you guys think about putting this on the stage?’” remembers Roger Allers, who co-directed the blockbuster film with Rob Minkoff. “And all of us around the table went, ‘We think that’s an awful idea.’”

Turns out some members of the creative team had actually already discussed the possibility of a musical, but, Allers says, “All we could picture were, like, people in great big fuzzy animal costumes and we thought, ‘That will be ridiculous. It won’t have any impact at all.’”

But despite all the negative feedback Eisner got, the CEO decided to green-light the project anyway.

“He asked everybody’s opinion and then he said, ‘Well, we’re going to do it.’” Allers says with a laugh.

Of course, Eisner turned out to be right. Yet again. “The Lion King” musical would turn out to be one of the most successful stage productions of all time.

Twenty-five years after it opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Nov. 13, 1997, “The Lion King” is still going strong in 2022.

It’s been seen by some 100 million fans across the globe, with legions of new fans still falling for its ample charms — including the evocative, not-very-fuzzy costumes and distinctive headpieces — each year.

Expect even more converts — as well as thousands of repeat customers — when “Disney’s the Lion King” returns to the Bay Area for a three-week engagement.

The Tony Award-winning musical — which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary as a touring production — runs Aug. 3-21 at the Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose.

The show is such an international juggernaut these days — with multi-year residencies in New York, London, Paris and other cities as well as several different global touring productions — that it’s amazing to hear just how difficult it originally was to take “The Lion King” from the cinema to the theater stage.

Yet, the innovative staging and costume design needed to bring the animal characters to life — especially in the legendary “Circle of Life” opening scene — was still very much a work in progress by the time the musical made its pre-Broadway debut in July 1997 at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.

“The show never made it through like the first act without something going wrong,” Irene Mecchi remembers of that initial run. “Especially the big elephant — there’s one individual in each of the legs and it would always get stuck on the little stairs that went up to the stage, because it parades down the aisle.

“Or one of the giraffes would fall over. And if they fell, it was kind of like a nature movie — they had to kind of drag the actor off the stage.”

Mecchi, a Bay Area native who splits her time between San Francisco and Los Angeles these days, co-wrote the book for the musical with Allers.

The two also worked together on the original movie version, which experienced its fair share of challenges as well.

“When I joined in 1992, I was hired to do what was called ‘a production polish,’” says UC Berkley graduate Mecchi, who ended up getting screenplay credit with Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton on the movie. “So, I showed up for work on the first day and said, ‘Where’s the script to polish?’ And the producer Don Hahn says, ‘Well, there is no script.’”

Instead, the producers just had some basic plot points in a storyline that had apparently morphed quite a bit over the years.

“It went through a lot of changes,” says Allers, who also has strong Bay Area connections and once owned a home in Mill Valley. “I think even actually at one point it was about howling monkeys. These things take long journeys sometimes.”

Yet, the flexibility — and patience — would pay off as the creative team definitely clicked and the now-legendary story of Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Zazu, Scar, Shenzi and other residents of the Pride Lands came to life.

“When you talk about people doing improvisation, the rule is ‘yes, and …’ as opposed to ‘no,’” Mecchi says. “There were no bad ideas, because any bad idea can be built upon to make it a good idea.”

Having gone through that roller-coaster ride in making the movie, Mecchi and Allers were in a position to help take Eisner’s idea — which, please remember, was originally branded by the creative team as “awful” – and turn it into something really good.

And theatergoers would definitely applaud their efforts when the musical made its debut in Minneapolis. Despite the occasional fallen giraffe or imperiled elephant, “The Lion King” was a hit from the start.

“You could feel the energy in the room,” Allers says. “The roof of the theater practically blew off. We all came from that first public preview practically floating.”

‘DISNEY’S THE LION KING’

Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, presented by Broadway San Jose

When: Aug. 3-21

Where: San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 S. Almaden Blvd.

Health & safety: Vaccination and facemasks not required but strongly recommended, children under 5 not permitted in theater

Run time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, 1 intermission

Tickets: $25-$148 (subject to change); broadwaysanjose.com