Lion King on Broadway is a roaring success with its fans, both new and old. Sitting down with a few of its most prominent cast members makes it clear that the storyline is supported by actors dedicated to the story and characters.
Lion King on Broadway is a roaring success with its fans, both new and old. Sitting down with a few of its most prominent cast members makes it clear that the storyline is supported by actors dedicated to the story and characters.
First were the actors L. Steven Taylor and Tshidi Manye, who play Mufasa and Rafiki, respectively. Certainly very different looking without the headdresses, they were delighted to answer questions about their characters and the show itself.
So I wanted to ask first off because the Lion King seems to be a story about lions, and a monarchy, heir to the throne- so why do you think this continues to appeal to people in a country where kings and thrones don’t seem to ever come into play?
Taylor: Ah, this is good. I would say aside from those things, there’s somebody that- everybody who watches the Lion King- everyone who watches the show there’s somebody to relate to- everyone’s been Simba at one point. There are a lot of people, lot of parents who bring their kids obviously, who can relate to a Mufasa and Sarabi, who are just trying their best to teach their kids these lessons that they don’t quite get. So I think that there are, in addition to the things you said, I think there are universal themes that everybody can relate to. I think that’s why the show is the phenomenon that it is-I think that that’s why people can see it so many times, because at different points in their lives they’ve been those different types of people, so I think it’s all of those things.
Right. So, Rafiki has this language that keeps coming up throughout the musical. At times it seems comedic, at times-like at first when you ask the audience do you understand and of course the audience has no idea what’s going on. So what language is that and why do you think the language is incorporated so much?
Manye: The show has got five different languages. Four of them are from Africa, and then one’s English. I think because of where the show is coming from- the show is coming from Africa, to relate to the culture. It’s like what Steven just said. It’s in everyday life, it’s something that we know about, so we’re speaking the language in the clicks, and that sends some kind of uniqueness into that. Because people are like- they come and they’re like Wow, when I come. What are you saying? Is it you, or is it a tape? You know, that makes me happy, because people think we are not- what is it- a real language, that has existed in Africa, in South Africa.
Awesome, what languages?
Manye: Zulu. We have Zulu, we have Xhosa, Sotho. those three languages.
Yeah, because throughout the musical I thought that was amazing. Now you were talking about how everyday scenes keep coming into play, and there’s this sort of weird dynamic between Scar and Mufasa. We see it in the movie, and we see it much more in the musical. Scar mentions in Act 2 that he was neglected as a child- so how do you think that plays into the dynamic between the two brothers?
Taylor: Scar is a famous antagonist. I mean, who doesn’t like a villain? But I think that in order for Mufasa to be who he is, I think that Scar has to be that kind of bitter, put-upon character. So the dynamic between them, you know, Mufasa, Mufasa represents balance and Scar is everything opposite that. So when you bring those two things together, obviously there’s going to be conflict. And Garrett Sachs who plays Scar in the show, he’s fantastic, he’s great to play off of, and really fun to hate onstage, so makes my job easy.
Nice.
Taylor: Mufasa doesn’t hate him.
Brotherly rivalry. I wanted to also ask-what you think- the dynamic between Mufasa and Simba- we see how he is supposed to punish Simba, but it doesn’t quite ever come to fruition. Do you think that affects why Simba can’t quite ascend to the throne, sort of, when that whole thing happens with Mufasa dying? Do you think Mufasa failed as a parent to bring Simba to the place he is, and it’s only when he speaks to Simba after death that Simba can?
Taylor: Well, Scar, obviously plays a big role in that, but yeah, I think parents in general, we teach our kids lessons. I have a fourteen-year-old, and I teach him these lessons, and he’ll still go and do the opposite, sometimes, of what I say to do. And yet as a parent, you can’t help but think you’ve failed your child a little bit. So I think that probably Mufasa does feel a little bit like he’s failed Simba, but I think the important thing is that ultimately that they do always gravitate back to those fundamentals- which is what essentially Rafiki then- and it does, it takes a village, that’s what our show is about, it takes a village- it can’t be just on Mufasa’s shoulders. It has to be the community which kind of continues to instills these things in Simba so that he can arise to be the person he’s supposed to be.
Manye: And he was young. I feel he was betrayed. It is one of those things where when you talk to a kid and say, even though your dad, your parents are telling you to do this, someone bad will always come and say what are they telling you to do? And kids are like sponges- they absorb very fast. So in as much as you say Mufasa fails, you know, like he didn’t do a great job, it’s got somebody that is trying to twist that, which is Scar. I’ve always felt that.
And one last thing for the character Rafiki. It seems that for most of the musical that Rafiki is sort of a comedic character- swinging in on vines, stuff like that, so what do you think makes Rafiki such an especially poignant character? Because in a way, she’s one of the most serious characters, and funny at the same time.
Manye: Sometimes when you have a child, like Steven said, there comes a time when you want a point to go across, you can’t be serious. There’s time to play, and there’s time for you to understand when I say don’t do this, don’t do it. With Rafiki, she’s a shaman, she’s a clairvoyant, so she sees these things before they even happen. So sometimes she tries to go and prevent them, and you try to figure out how to make this child understand that what I’m saying. Sometimes you want to play with it, but then you have to stand and say this is what I want from you. Let’s do it.
All cast members involved seemed thoroughly excited about not just the plot of the show, but how it connects back to the culture of Africa as a continent and what it’s like to live and interact with family when there are often so many expectations, things to which many can relate, Africa or no.
Yesterday, saw the opening of the exhibit César in Context at the Luxembourg and Dayan gallery on 77th and Park Avenue, a space tall but narrow with several floors.
César in the context of his contemporaries is evocative of a slightly stranger, more horror-esque aura than his whimsy usually allowed for. Certainly the colors are dark overall, earthy tones ranging from red to a pitch black best seen in Robert Motherwell’s Untitled (Elegy), shadowy tar black set against unassuming canvas. Cesar’s works of compression are fun, as art reusing other materials often feels. The three dimensionality of many of the projects gives an open atmosphere to the almost windowless gallery- certainly this exhibit is not one to be seen alone.
Walking through the gallery, it is almost like walking through someone’s very weird house. With peculiar taste in art. Where else but an eccentric old man’s mansion would you find César’s Scorpion? At one point there is a bow of crinoline- but in actuality it’s bronze and the title to the piece is meaningless (Armstrong Siddeley by Lynda Benglis). But the real beauty lies on the third floor, in the front section. While I nicknamed it “the limb room”, in actuality it contains more than realistic limbs- in one case an entire woman.
Classical Allusion by John de Andrea is a masterpiece. When I first caught a glimpse, it was as though an intruder had entered at random and draped herself, nude, across a Greco-Roman marble bust. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that’s not the case…or does it? The uncanny valley certainly springs to mind. It really must be seen in person to grasp the full effect.
Looking for the Césarian inspiring piece, one alights upon the thumb, or Pouce. A piece in resin with the dirt of age only augmenting its realism, it certainly leads one to draw comparisons between a real thumb (one’s own) and it. Clearly this experimentation with realism was a fascination in César’s time.
All in all, the exhibit is marvelous not just as a tribute to César “in context” per se, but also as a celebration of artists around the same time period who may not have received as much acclaim. A must-see exhibit, it truly boggles the mind and eyes- and you don’t have to be European to “get it”.
Dark Horse, a Sundance Film Festival winner for Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary, premiered at Regal Union Square last night amid much excitement.
Africa Is Not A Country
The (Lion) King of Broadway
Broadway, Squad-way: Aladdin Still Going Strong
Vincent Lindon has won a Cèsar for his starring role as Thierry Thaugardeau in Loi du marchè, having made its way to the States now as The Measure of a Man, playing through the 21st of April at the Metrograph and Lincoln Plaza theaters. Sitting down with the veteran French actor on a bustling Thursday afternoon, we settled in for a chat that soon revealed Lindon as not only a brilliant artist, but one passionate about his craft and his cause.
I know we’re here for Loi du marchè, but I just saw Pater actually last night at the Metrograph. It made me think. You mention in that film, since you are playing yourself, you mention- that people always think in the short term, never in the long term. You have a very varied filmography. So when you accept roles do you think about the longterm effects on your career or do you just take them as they go?
It’s kind of a way of thinking. It’s not a long term or a small term, it’s something about organic. I can’t present myself on set if I am not crazy about the story and the character. It’s cinema, and what you do and the picture in which you are is too important. It’s not a game, it’s my job. It’s not like I have nothing to do these two months, I’m going to do that shit movie, maybe I can build my swimming pool this summer to pay my bill, and after I will do a good movie, I hope I will receive a good movie. No. I don’t think like that. When I choose a movie, I can die for the story. I have to go in my room before sleeping and say how lucky I’m going to be that guy. And even if the producer says to me, I’m sorry Vincent, we don’t have too much money to pay you, I want to be able to answer him: I don’t care. I take what you have. I don’t care. I want to be in this story. I want to share a month with this director, those actors. That’s my life. In the cinema, if you don’t succeed, everyone knows it. Not just your family. Someone will be walking in the street and say, Oh, etc. Sometimes a friend comes to me and says, I have a small part, three days, come, do it, we’ll have a good time. I don’t want to have a good time. It’s my job, I want to do a good movie. I want to live a good movie day to day. And I want my son and daughter to pick up the one they want and say anyways, my father only did good movies, to at least movies in which he believed before doing them. It’s a way of looking at [the] long term. But in Pater, I was speaking about politics. If you want to change the world, make big changes, it will be an unpopular decision. If you take decision that you want to see the results in two or three years to be reelected, it’s small decisions. It’s small moving and the world is worse and worse. It’s just an adjustment. You can’t leave your name in the history of France or history of America if you just do small things. If you want to be in a history book, do something. Do something heavy, and to do something heavy it’s going to be a big change. It’s going to be very unpopular, and people don’t like change. But maybe, in thirty to forty five years, people will speak about you the way they speak about Churchill. But Churchill did things very difficult to do- and he succeeded, but he said something I think everyone should print in his wallet or put on the wall of his kitchen, he said… You have the choice between the war and the dishonor. You choose the dishonor, and you will have the war…that’s the long term. Don’t bend. Stay like that (gestures). It’s gonna hurt, but watch more than the end of your nose. The best champion skier, he is never looking at the signs he passes. This is sometimes what I want to say to people, and many times to my children…hey, wake up. Look over. Stop complaining about what’s going on just right now, what’s around you. Think about what you will think about that in one year.
Speaking of the long term now, I’ve noticed that a lot of your films had a theme of inequality, including Measure of a Man. Is that a specific choice you’ve made, or just something you keep coming back to?
No, it’s a mix. I’m well known for doing movies like that, so directors bring me films like that, and because I like when the movie makes a jump between culture and society. I think to do a movie today, to play a movie, art in general, is a way of doing politics. By the arts, you can try to say to most people: here is what I think. I am not more clever in the world, and I’m not the owner of the truth. That’s my thinking, just watch it. Maybe it’s gonna ring a bell in your head. Like Mustang, a film like that? Even if one person, just one human being, changes because of a movie, it’ll be a good reason to have done the movie. You understand? Everything is good to do if you can just change one mind. Better to change a lot of minds, but just one. Someone comes to you and says once I was thinking like that, and I saw a movie, and it grabs my attention…whoa. Je sais à quelque chose- I’m useful for something. I have a purpose. That’s the best.
Along those lines, I noticed [The Measure of a Man] is a little fatalist. It’s more like a psychological exploration than it is really inspirational. Do you think it’ll be received differently than it was in France?
I don’t know. I don’t know because I don’t think like you. I think there is a lot of open [endedness] in the movie. I think that guy, he is so courageous, more than not having a job, more than being in misery, I think unconsciously people can say it’s worth it to have problems like him, if I am sure I would behave like him. He is a kind of hero. When I see that guy, sometimes I think to myself I would like to be him. He is better than me. He doesn’t have any job, and I am a very famous actor, but if I can change, why not? Why not? He has a big space of progression, which is not my case. Everything just arrives for that guy. He is so down, so near the ground. What do you want worth from him? Nothing. And he’s rich, isn’t he? He has a wife. They are in love since twenty-two years, which is very sexy now. Everybody is divorced, everybody is going from here to there, the children are going- so now, today, when you see a couple and say how much time have you been together? And one of them says, well tomorrow it’s going to be twenty-five years-wow. It’s sexy. So he’s rich, and he’s crazy about his son, he loves him so much. He likes himself, he’s in love with himself watching what he’s doing for the other one. When you love people, when you give love to somebody, you get it back. So I think that guy is very proud about the image he sees of himself coming back from other people. So he is lucky. He is lucky to be like this. So I don’t know how American people will get the movie. But if people see that, maybe it will be a success like it was in France- and in France it was a huge, huge success.
Yes, and I know part of the reason is because it speaks to the economic downturn. So do you think this film could have been made a few years ago, do you think it’s a sort of movie that will remain relevant in our time?
Well, I think if you make this movie in fifteen years, it will work too. It’s really a pity, because the dream is that this movie will be completely unfashionable because that would mean everyone has found a job. Unfortunately, in fifteen years, people will see the movie and say wow, it’s exactly h same now. And there will be people who say, no, it’s worse. It’s the way or the world. I think, what is more desperate- not the movie, it’s our lives. You asked me do I think the movie will work in the United States. It depends on the way you are living in your lives. Do you think people want to go and see a movie like that, with the life they have in real life? Are you okay after your day job to go back to your house, take yourwife or your husband and see Measure of a Man? Oh no, come on darling, you sure? But the moment you are in the theatre. It’s like running. Before, you don’t want to go. You say, oh s—, I have to run 55 min, I’m so f—— tired. But when you finish, you say wow, I’m happy. You did the footing [running]. But the day after, it’s the same problem. You don’t have any memory. It’s crazy. People are crazy. It’s like Mustang. People go and they say wow, I want to see movies like that. But the next day, they forgot. It’s the effort. So I don’t know whether people will make the effort or not. If they do, yeah. It will work. If not, it will not work.
You were speaking about how you admire the main character of this film. So when you were playing him, did it make you reflect back on your own life and the sacrifices you’ve had to make?
It’s not exactly like-I will explain. It’s like doing that character, plus the one in Pater, plus the one in Welcome, it’s like a tree. In my own country, when you are all of those characters, I am obliged to a certain way of living in my own life. If I am Thierry in Loi du marchè (Measure of a Man) and afterwards I drive a Porsche, and I go to the Ritz, and afterwards I speak to the waiter like hey! I asked for whiskey, come on. People will ask, who’s that f- a-? Who’s that guy? He wants to be Thierry, but not in real life. And it’s bad for me, it’s bad for Thierry, it’s bad for the director, very bad for the movie. It comforts people in their idea that everything is fake, everything I people, everything is s—. That’s what those movies change in my life. They oblige me- I don’t need them to try to be a good man, but plus those movies, if ne second I thought of doing something quite silly, the movies are here to say hey Vincent, wake up. What are you f- doing? Oh sorry, and put me back on the path. That’s good. I like that. But sometimes, there is stupid reflection. Once I was in the restaurant for my son’s birthday. We went to a quite good restaurant…two days after, they said Vincent Lindon, Loi du marche, in real life he was in this restraurant….that day I was sad. But I don’t care about that day. I am happy to be obliged to follow a certain way of life. I’m sure that unconsciously I do movies like that to keep me awake.
Stay woke, cinephiles. Such awareness comes highly recommended.
Pater, a French film from 2011, pokes fun at the movies. Yes, all of them.
It has been a week since the worst season finale in The Walking Dead’s history.