Good Morning America: 15th Anniversary of The Lion King on Broadway

Good Morning America: The Lion King

Sam Champion talked with one women who has been acting for The Lion King for 15 years, the entire time the play has been on Broadway.

And today marks the 15th anniversary of the iconic show. Nearly 25 different animals appear in the show, from elephants to rhinoceroses, with over 65 million people having seen the play around the world.

Good Morning America super fans Josh Elliott, Sam Champion and Lara Spencer were invited on the set of the play to try their hand at being some of the animals. Spencer tossed on a zebra costume but had a really hard time walking around and even bumped the choreographer in the head with the snout of her costume.

The Lion King 15th Anniversary on GMA

Champion and Elliott got in the rhinoceroses costume but were having a hard time just standing up. It may not look hard, but all three said it was really hard to walk about with the costumes on.

Next they tried the scene where Rafiki holds Simba above all the animals below, showing them the new king. It proved to be a bit easier than walking with huge animal costumes on, but going up a spiraling, moving fake mountain was more difficult than it looked.

Good Morning America: “The Circle of Life”

Good Morning America aired some of the live performance on the show, starting with Rafiki singing “The Circle of Life” and all the animals prancing towards Pride Rock to see the new king.

It was really cool to see all the actors running around in animal costumes, the elephant barreling down the aisle towards the stage. It reminded me of the first time I saw the movie, many years ago.