The Lion King is a Tony Award-winning Broadway stage musical based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name and is directed by Julie Taymor, portraying actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets. The show is produced by Disney Theatrical.
The stage show debuted July 31, 1997, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Orpheum Theatre, and was an instant and tremendous success before moving permanently to the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway in New York, New York, that October. The show debuted in London's Lyceum Theatre in 1999 and is still running, and another production opened in Toronto, playing there until January 2004. On June 13, 2006, the Broadway production moved to the Minskoff Theatre to make way for the musical version of Mary Poppins.