FIRST the facts. The stage adaptation of Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King was first seen on the Broadway stage in 1997 where it’s now the highest grossing show in Broadway history. The production has now been seen by over 70 million people worldwide, including London’s West End where the show’s in its 15th year.

The Lion King can currently be seen in Tokyo, Hamburg, Madrid, Sao Paulo, Brazil and on tour in the US, UK and Japan. The production has recently opened in Sydney, Australia. To that, can soon be added Sunderland where the awardwinning show begins a seven-week run next month.

With bumper box-office returns no wonder Disney’s director of creative services Stephen Crocker calls the show “my happy place”, somewhere he’s pleased to return to time and time again. The rewards are not just financial but artistic. Director and co-designer Julie Taymor’s adaptation of the animated film uses all kinds of theatrical magic to tell the tale of Simba, the young lion cub, on the path to becoming king despite relatives who’d rather see him dead.

It is truly a spectacle unlike any other in the theatre. Little surprise to learn it takes 23 giant trucks to transport the show from venue to venue. There’s the cast of over 50 actors, singers and dancers from 18 different countries and a backstage team of over 100 people. All of which adds up to the biggest musical production ever to go on the road in the UK. Again, more facts: the show features hundreds of masks, puppets and more than 700 elaborate costumes representing 26 different types of animal.

“It’s an enormous show but one of those that there’s something very satisfying about. Such a wonderful production and unique and all of us who work on it feel so lucky to be guardians of this fantastic show, to bring it to a new city and watch audiences enjoy it,” says Crocker.

When The Lion King first opened on Broadway there were immediate demands to take the show on tour because it was such a big hit. “But it seemed ludicrous and impossible. You must be joking, we thought, it will never tour. But over time people changed their mind because American touring theatres are able to take much bigger shows as they have enormous capacity and stages,” recalls Crocker.

What was learnt from touring the US was put into practice for overseas tours. Theatres in the UK pose particular problems, with many being 100 or more years old and lacking sufficient access for such a big show.

“One by one we managed to cross those hurdles, taking a lot of the experience from the US tours.

We started touring in the UK two years ago and when we first moved the show it was terrifying.

But when you see the show in one of the touring venues it looks like it was meant to be there.

“For me, I’m lucky as someone else has to do the logistics of getting the show into venues.

Where do the masks and puppets go? How do all these people fit backstage? The theatres are old but beautiful, but in the end we’re pretty much playing every theatre where the show will physically fit on stage, backstage and there are a lot of requirements front-of-house too.”

Technological advances have helped get the show on the road, not least concerning the lighting. In a show like The Lion King lighting is as big as the set and obviously a key element of the staging.

“Very big shows can play places like Sunderland. The audience should understand such shows should be coming to them and it shouldn’t be a scaled down, cheap and cheerful version.”

Casting the show continues all the time all over the world. It’s challenging in many ways but Crocker points out they are “slightly lucky” in that there are ten productions around the world so they’re always seeking people internationally to go into productions.

“We’re always looking for new talent. The show is very demanding. Dancers have to perform a real range of dance and need a huge amount of experience. Actors need to be terrific and able to work with puppets. And there’s a lot of big singing,” he says.

Interestingly, two of the biggest shows of recent years – The Lion King and War Horse – have used puppets like they’ve never been seen before. “If someone had told me 15 years ago that the two biggest shows in the West End revolved around puppets you’d think it was crazy,” he says.

“It didn’t seem it could be relevant with audiences but something about Julie Taymor’s ideas and the way she used theatrical techniques from around the world showed they can still be vibrant, exciting and stimulating.

“She is an incredible artist and wants to keep in contact with the show because she wants to keep it fresh and her vision alive. As an artistic show she doesn’t see it being preserved in aspic.”

The show has yet to tour India (“that’s still very much on the to do list”) although a Chinese language version is set to open in Shanghai in the near future.

The Lion King was the Disney organisation’s second stage show, following the success of transferring another animated hit Beauty And The Beast on to the stage. That was more conventional, turning a film into a musical. For its most recent theatre outing Disney returned to another animated hit, Aladdin, as the basis for the show. That show has yet to reach these shores.

Crocker can’t see any end of The Lion King’s roaring success. The London production remains the top-selling show in the West End while the tour breaks records wherever it goes with people who weren’t even born when the film was released coming to see the stage show.

  • The Lion King: Sunderland Empire, Sept 18-Nov 1. Box Office: 0844-871302 and atgtickets.com/sunderland