Lion King The Musical Costume
It begins from my interest to watch my first musical show that I ever watched which is Lion King the musical show in Singapore about four years ago. This show is the most amazing disney musical show for me. Even in the opening act, I got goosebumps and almost cried which is until know I don’t even know why I always cry when watching the trailer of this show on youtube. The performance, theatre design, lighting design and as well as the costume design seems like already blended with the story.
The costume has made the characters alive and transform the whole cast into every kind of plants and animals that you might find in Africa and savannah. It is fundamental idea which is use natural materials and fabric to represent the earth, planet and the savannah itself. However, it also the use of pattern of fabric. The elements of tribal design in Africa is wonderful cohesive quality to all the costumes.
Julie Taymor (director, costume designer, mask/puppet co-designer) take her inspiration from everywhere for example Mufasa’s costume, the collar piece is really Balinese and the bottom is very Indonesian. The grassland costume is to create the feel of savannah by making grass corsets made of actual leaves. It is really great to create costume that can transcend just a costume to become scenery and architectural elements on stage. The costume is made of fabric. Everything is dyed, screen printed, painted, digitally printed.
http://www.thelionking.co.uk/cast-and-creative/