The Lion King” made its official Utah debut Friday
After almost a decade of anticipation, Broadway’s “The Lion King” made its official Utah debut Friday night at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.
Steve Boulay, president of production company NewSpace Entertainment, said getting the oversized show to Utah took a massive amount of restructuring, including knocking out parts of the wall at Capitol Theatre in order to house larger animals and using a chunk of the lobby to begin the show.
“While our theater market does well, our biggest difficulty is that we have relatively few seats in our theater, and for ‘The Lion King,’ it’s technically a little small,” Boulay said. “It’s gorgeous, but it took a real effort to accommodate the show.”
Luckily, Boulay said, the end result is a visually stunning show that fills every inch of the theater and creates an even more personalized experience for the Salt Lake audience.
“I think what people will see here is that it’s the biggest, coolest show that’s ever been at the Capitol Theatre,” Boulay said. “I think from the patrons’ perspective it will be bit overwhelming, but that’s what you want.”
Salt Lake City residents Aaron Coleman, Leah Coleman, 13, Lucy Coleman, 10, and Laura Sowell said they visit New York often to see Broadway shows and snagged tickets to “The Lion King” as soon as they could.
Although it was in high demand, “The Lion King” will only run for seven weeks instead of the standard 10 — a fact Boulay attributes to the strong arts scene in Salt Lake.
“The Lion King” will be showing at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City through Sept. 26. Tickets can be purchased online, Buy now and save $20 on your next order over $250.
