“I’m preparing for not only our next stop, which is Tulsa, but our stop after that which is Washington, D.C.” “On the road, you’re always having to advance to the next city,” he said. Westmoreland spends a lot of his time planning for the next steps. Plus, more than a dozen semi trucks full of costumes, set pieces and equipment go from city to city. It takes about 200 people to make sure the show goes on eight times a week. “They just run back, they do quick changes, and then jump out for their next scenes.” They basically spend their entire show here when they’re not on stage,” Westmoreland said. “The bunker is where the ensemble members will come in.

“These all fly in before the show to get into them, the zebras, the cheetah, and the rhino.”īackstage there’s a long makeshift locker room-type area called “the bunker.” “Because the show is so big, as soon as everything comes off the stage, we have these set pieces that fly up into the air,” he said. Props, costumes and set pieces are stored everywhere. “We have a whole team of department heads, and all of them know where everything is,” Westmoreland said as he walked through the packed backstage. Westmoreland is the Production Stage Manager for the current tour of “The Lion King.” The tour is spending a few weeks at the Overture Center for the Arts.

More than a dozen semi trucks of costumes, equipment, and set pieces travel to each cityĮverywhere the production goes, people flock to “The Lion King” because it’s such a spectacle.īrian Westmoreland was always a theater kid.

A crew of about 200 makes the show happen eight times a week.

It's running at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison through May 28.

Disney's 'The Lion King' is one of the most popular musicals in the world.

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