The mane event: 'The Lion King' comes to Little Rock now that Robinson Hall is big enough to hold it all

When the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau earlier this decade pushed to reassign an existing hospitality sales tax to fund the renovation of Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall, one lure was that the newly rebuilt hall would finally be big enough to accommodate those really big Broadway touring shows.

The ones that had passed Little Rock by because they couldn't squeeze into the venue or cope with its limited loading docks.

The two shows that got the most prominently mentions: The Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King.

Celebrity Attractions, which books an annual Broadway series into the hall, brought in Phantom of the Opera last season. And now Disney's The Lion King roars into Robinson this week for a three-week "limited engagement."

The two-decade-old road show shares the same shape and staging as the Broadway version, envisioned by Julie Taymor, who directed, designed the costumes and co-designed the show's integral masks and puppets. (The costumes and direction won her two 1998 Tony Awards. The show also won Tonys for Best Musical and for scenic design, lighting design and choreography.)

As in the Disney animated film on which it's based, Simba (Gerald Caesar), the leonine heir apparent, is shouldered aside by his Uncle Scar (Mark Campbell) after the wicked schemer engineers the death of Simba's royal father, Mufasa (Gerald Ramsey).

Ramsey, a native of the island of Aunu'u in American Samoa and raised in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, was studying anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo while working as a Polynesian dancer on the side when the opportunity came up to join the Lion King company.

He admits his experience as a dancer probably weighed more than the anthropology expertise at the audition.

He has been ruling the animal kingdom on the road for 2 1/2 years and this is his first major acting role.

"When I tell people I'm an actor -- it still sounds funny to say that out loud," he says. "The word doesn't really flow off my tongue.

"This is a completely new world as far as being a professional actor; as far as telling stories through song and dance, where I come from, in the Pacific, that's the way we've always passed on our stories -- but without a paycheck."

Even more unusual: Not only is he pretty much starting at the top, the national tour of one of the world's most popular musicals, he's starting out at a pretty advanced age.

"I'm in my early 30s," he says. That's pretty old, especially in lion years. "Old enough to have a cub -- that's a good way to put it," he adds.

And, he admits, he has some big, er, shoes to fill, up to and including those of the legendary James Earl Jones, who provided Mufasa's voice for the movie.

"I'm so glad that the directors, right when we started rehearsals, said, 'We don't want you to be James Earl Jones' -- that was a great weight off my shoulders," he says. "And at first, I was trying my best to imitate the Mufasa who was before me, who is now on Broadway, and it wasn't working. Then I got a chance to speak on the phone with the original Mufasa from Broadway, and his advice to me was to just be myself and use the skills that I have and use my own ancestry to inform the story.

"The story culturally pulls from Africa, but it's incredible how many parallels it draws on with the Pacific cultures, specifically ancestry, connection to your past and how they're still with you no matter where you go."

Fans of the movie will be scratching their heads trying to remember what Mufasa sings (he doesn't). But for the stage show, among the songs that was cut from the film (though it showed up in the film score as underscoring) comes to the forefront as one for Mufasa: "They Live in You."

"It's a beautiful song that was written by Lebo M, a South African composer," Ramsey says.

Mufasa's passing occurs fairly early in the action, but Ramsey doesn't quite get to take the rest of the show off.

"Pretty much all of Mufasa's major stuff is in the first act," he says. "In the second act, he's there from a distance. Up in the stars, exactly."

Does being king mean he must exude a bit more stage presence? "Definitely," he says. "And it helps to have such a beautiful costume and mask. And the makeup artists do such a great job of helping me out." The show travels with three makeup artists who take care of all the principal actors.

Most of the tour stops are two- and three-week "sit-downs" -- the show will have spent three weeks in Birmingham, Ala., and two weeks in Kalamazoo, Mich., before coming to Little Rock. They recently had a four-week stay in Orlando, Fla.

Current contracts for the actors run until October, Ramsey says, and they'll find out somewhat before then who gets an offer to continue with the show. He'll stay if he gets the chance.

"This is an amazing company, and an amazing story," he says.

"There are people who may have seen the film or even seen the stage production, who feel like, 'I saw it five or 10 years ago, I don't need to see it again.' But I've heard from patrons who've returned, and myself, after being here for more than two years -- every time I see the show, I'm relating to a different part of the show, I'm connecting to a different character; realizing a different part of the song that now relates to my life that didn't relate to my life before.

"Even where we are, socially or politically, something new will relate to you. It's such an incredible way to escape for a couple of hours."

Style on 04/17/2018