CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, January 07, 2020

Lighting Designer Don Holder Updates The Lion King Tour With LEDs

www.livedesignonline.com: After 21 years on Broadway and 20 years in London, Disney’s The Lion King is still roaring as one of the most popular musicals of all time. Since its Broadway premiere on November 13, 1997, The Lion King has had 25 global productions seen by more than 100 million people, and made theatrical history with six productions worldwide running 15 or more years.

1 comment:

Elliot Queale said...

It is really neat to see how long-running productions keep up with the pace of technology. It is a testament to the story and the artwork of "The Lion King" that it achieved (and continues to achieve) such spectacle without all the thrills of modern lighting and automation technology. When it comes to stage lighting, it seems as though we are finally at a point where LED technology has approached the color profile of classic tungsten fixtures, although as Don Holder points out, with a few small differences. I completely understand his feeling that "the pale blue tones feel colder", since I ran into this exact problem this past summer with the LED fixtures we were using. Nevertheless, to hear that he was happy with the end result shows that we may finally be able to unlock the ball-and-chain of tungsten fixtures and their inefficient electrical properties. They will, of course, continue to be seen in smaller markets where a full LED architecture would cost an astronomical amount, especially when you factor in networking and data-distribution, but in the touring and broadway world this is a step towards full LED systems.