Behind The Scenes: THE LION KING Plays Birmingham Hippodrome from June 2013

This morning I had the pleasure of attending The Lion King UK Tour press launch which will be playing at Birmingham Hippodrome from the 29th June 2013 for a three-month run.

Disney Theatrical Group is one of the world's most successful commercial theatre enterprises and has had a great relationship with Birmingham Hippodrome since 2002 when Beauty and the Beast played there. Stephen Crocker from the Disney Theatrical Division, who gave a wonderful presentation about the show, expressed his joy at bringing another of their massively successful productions to the venue.

Based on the 1994 Disney film, The Lion King is fondly recognised worldwide so when 200,000 tickets go on sale tomorrow at the Birmingham Hippodrome, they may have a stampede on their hands (if you pardon the pun!). The production has been playing in London's West End at the Lyceum Theatre for just over thirteen years and currently has other productions in New York (where it originated), Tokyo, Hamburg, Sapporo and Madrid in addition to this new UK tour.

This is the first time that the production has toured the UK and Ireland and with a cast of 50 people and a backstage team of 100, The Lion King is the biggest musical production to go out on the road in this country. Due to its enormous technical scale, some deemed it impossible to tour without taking away the magic that the static venues possess.

However, judging by the images and video footage that I have seen this morning, there is no worry on this front. The tour is currently playing at Bristol Hippodrome to much critical acclaim. Therefore, although it is not playing in Birmingham for another eight months or so, the hype created will mean that tickets will turn to gold dust very soon.

At the press launch today, we were treated to four of the musical numbers involving Gugwana Dlamini (touring Rafiki), Jonathan Andrew Hume (London's Simba) and Ava Brennan (London's Nala), all of whom were absolutely fantastic; they were also accompanied by the Birmingham Community Gospel Choir. They performed in full costume/make-up and being up closer than usual, the detail is quite extraordinary. In certain productions, costumes can look stunning from a distance but up close you can see signs of wear and tear which is to be expected with their constant use. However these costumes were completely flawless and beautiful.

Stephen Crocker placed high emphasis on Julie Taymor's phenomenal vision. She had a huge input in the original production as she directed, designed the costumes, designed the masks and puppets alongside Michael Curry and provided additional lyrics. Taymor created a very special thing prior to its Broadway opening in 1997, in that every physical aspect of the show is not made to be literal but enough is given to audience members so that they can form images in their minds and exercise their imagination. This is an incredible feat.

Some of the masks and puppets were on show today at the host venue for the launch. The way that the performers can manipulate the puppets to reflect the animals' movements is amazing. I didn't realise the reasoning behind a lot of the costume/mask choices but as Crocker explained today, there is a lot more to them than meets the eye e.g. Simba's mask sits on top of the head like a Roman helmet representing his bravery and Scar's mask being very angular and sharp in comparison to his brother Mufasa's; hence showing a huge difference in personality.

Birmingham Hippodrome audiences really will be spoilt in 2013. Tickets go on sale over the counter from 8am tomorrow morning, 10am on the internet and from 10am over the phones on Thursday morning. Book early to avoid disappointment.

The Lion King is on at Birmingham Hippodrome from Saturday 29th June until Saturday 28th September 2013.