Playbill: The circle of life is getting bigger! Disney officially released Mufasa, a new Lion King prequel film digging into the origin stories of Mufasa and Scar, in movie theatres December 20.
Along with some infectious new songs from Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda, the movie from director Barry Jenkins adds an interesting new backstory for the iconic characters.
7 comments:
I unfortunately have not yet seen Mufasa, so this did have a few spoilers for me. However, I love this type of interview. Getting to hear from actors who are so connected to the show and what their interpretation of new information is/how it will affect them in their performance. I was also really impressed to hear that the current Mufasa has been there for 20 years. That is a really long time. He touched on it briefly, saying "I would not have had that longevity if it weren't for other people giving me different ideas and different takes on the character." I am sure that in the past twenty years he has grown a lot. I would love to be able to see a performance of this show from 20 years ago compared to today and see what distinct differences there are, and which subtle details are different. I love that this show has been running for so long, and I hope it continues to stay.
I have never seen the original animated Lion King, but I did watch the live action version when it came out. I wasn’t really crazy about the movie, which I know is an unpopular opinion, but there were things about the story that I liked. I think the marketing team for Mufasa did a great job, because I was hearing about the movie through ads and commercials for months before it was released in theaters. Once I heard that Lin-Manuel Miranda was writing the music for the movie my interest skyrocketed, however I wasn’t impressed when I tried listening to one of the songs on the soundtrack. What I do think is interesting about this movie is that it is impacting the broadway version of the Lion King due to the new backstory. I’m pretty sure it’s rare that this sort of thing happens, so it would be interesting to see firsthand how the actors reinterpret their characters based on this new information.
I think it was really interesting to read about the new Lion King movie versus sort of the musical and the original Lion King movie I have not seen the new movie yet I haven't seen Mufasa but I'm hopeful to see it soon because I've heard I've heard mixed reviews and I walk together an opinion of my own on this. I think what really struck me in this article with something that had nothing to do with the movie was the fact that the actor playing Mufasa has been playing Mufasa for 20 years now on Broadway which is a really long and incredible run for an actor considering the actor for scar has only been there for 8 years which is also a really long time. considering that The Lion King has been open for around 27 years in the Minskoff theater and to have an actor who's been on the show for 20 years which is a good portion of the shows Lifetime on Broadway was really interesting for me to see I've never heard of an actor playing a principal for that long in a running show.
When I was a kid, I did watch the animated version of The Lion King, but nothing else. I did see a Lion King show when I was in Disney World, and the energy of everyone involved was so moving and truly electric and I can’t imagine what it’s like to see it on Broadway. I really loved reading the interview. I’ve never really thought about the potential of a new movie that has a live musical affecting the ways the audience engages with the story/how actors connect with their characters. It’s always interesting to read about how the actor becomes the character–how they write that backstory and find out their motives. I hope that these newer movies don’t negatively impact Broadway’s audience. There’s an energy that you can’t get by sitting in front of a screen as opposed to a stage with people right in front of you.
Something that always surprises me about performers on Broadway and professionally is how much thought and intent they put behind their character, even if it is a seemingly shallow and simple Disney character. I guess there is a certain level of depth to all characters. Hearing Scar's performer talk about the backstory he envisioned for Scar reminded me of a podcast I listened to with my mom about the Broadway Beauty and the Beast, and the actress who played Belle. I would have never put THAT much thought into the character of Belle, honestly, though I guess if you are playing her every day for months or years, you would get to know her pretty well. Perhaps they came up with these detailed backstories to prevent themselves from going insane by playing the same character every night hundreds of times. Or perhaps it is just part of their training or personal ideals. I would be curious to ask a CMU performer about this.
I haven’t seen Mufasa yet, but I have heard so much about the music and production that I think I have to watch it now, but I love The Lion King, so I find it really cool that after all these years on Broadway, the way actors approach the show is still evolving. I have always assumed the performances stayed pretty consistent, but this article really made me see how much the actors bring their own interpretations to the works and how these new movie adaptations can actually shift how they play their roles. The fact that these two actors are thinking about adjusting their performances after so many years in the show is kind of crazy. It makes me wonder how many other little changes have happened over time that we wouldn’t even notice unless we were really paying close attention. I also like the idea that this new movie gives more depth to characters like Scar and Mufasa, giving more things for actors to play off of when performing.
It's really interesting to consider how the release of a prequel movie can have a strong influence on the narrative of the original movie, especially with a long time classic like The Lion King. It did a really good job of providing more information and background story for some of the most memorable characters in the original movie, while really taking the time to flesh out their story. I would be curious to see if this has a change in how the characters of Mufasa and Scar in the broadway production of The Lion King are performed. With this greater context of the backstory it provides more motivations for the characters to be at odds with each other again. I haven't seen the live production of The Lion King but I would be really interested in seeing if there are any interactions between Scar and Sarabi in the production and again if there were to be any changes in that character dynamic too.
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