CAN 'LION' BE KING IN L.A.?

Byline: Reed Johnson  Staff Writer

``The Lion King,'' Disney's blockbuster musical of majestic felines and wise-cracking wart hogs, will preen and strut across metro Los Angeles today in a promotional style befitting the king of beasts.

With the mouse's corporate muscle behind it, the $15 million show is hoping to ensure a warm hometown reception when it officially opens at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on Oct. 19.

Yet the question may be whether, several months from now, ``The Lion King'' will exit Los Angeles with a roar or a whimper. With ``Lion King'' productions currently running or soon to open in New York, London, Toronto and Japan, Disney may be facing its stiffest challenge in its very own corporate back yard, where L.A.'s nerve-wracking commutes, seasonal competition from theme parks and beaches, and tickets costing a hefty $75 apiece may limit the production's longevity.

As the Disney p.r. machine heaves into high gear this week, company officials seem to be balancing a hard-sell marketing strategy with a low- key, wait-and-see approach to how the Broadway smash hit will actually fare in Los Angeles.

``We've announced eight months, and if it ('Lion King') runs a little longer than eight months we'll be extremely happy,'' says Peter Schneider, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, who also heads the company's Buena Vista Theatrical Group with Disney animation chief Thomas Schumacher. ``I've always felt that Los Angeles is a great town in terms of entertainment, and it's been a very tricky town in terms of theater.''

Not that Disney is taking a laissez-faire attitude toward its Tony Award-winning theatrical property, which is presently scheduled to run here through June 30, 2001, before probably embarking on a national tour.

When tickets go on sale this morning at the Pantages box office, there'll be a circuslike atmosphere comparable to the buzz surrounding last summer's ``Star Wars'' prequel.

Cast members from the New York and London productions of ``The Lion King'' are being flown in to sing musical excerpts. A stretch of Hollywood Boulevard is being closed to auto traffic to make room for a temporary stage, where a chorus of 50 will perform ``Circle of Life,'' the musical's signature Elton John tune. Free ``Lion King'' watches will be handed out to anyone buying a ticket today (while supplies last).

This afternoon, there will be more song and dance at downtown's California Plaza, and later at Orange County's South Coast Plaza - supplying just the kind of uptempo video bytes that TV newscasters love to stick between weather and sports reports.

Meanwhile, the 2,700-seat Pantages is undergoing a cosmetic touchup reportedly costing between $5 and $10 million, including new seats and carpeting, to make ready for ``The Lion King.''

``I'm very proud of the Nederlanders, stepping up and deciding to renovate the Pantages,'' says Schneider, referring to the dynastic clan that owns and operates live theaters from New York to Los Angeles.

The Disney brand of marketing helped turn ``The Lion King'' into a cultural event many months before it opened in November 1997 at Broadway's restored landmark New Amsterdam Theatre, where it's still playing to sellout crowds.

Although Disney is characterizing the L.A. production of ``The Lion King'' (the first in the United States outside Manhattan) as a ``limited engagement,'' some observers are offering bolder predictions.

``It's going to be a gigantic commercial success,'' says Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers Inc., the national trade organization for the U.S. commercial theater industry.

Bernstein calls ``The Lion King'' a ``destination attraction'' that will draw customers ``because of the cachet of the show'' and the unique ``experience'' it offers.

He cautions, however, that it will have to capture suburban middle- class theatergoers who may be wary of Hollywood's recent reputation for crime and blight, are reluctant to navigate rush-hour traffic, or both.

``You have to feel safe, you have to feel comfortable, and you have to feel that it's not going to take you an hour to drive from Brentwood to Hollywood and Vine,'' Bernstein says.

Disney's promotional push for ``The Lion King'' actually started last fall shortly after the company announced plans for the L.A. engagement. It has been courting potential group-sale ticket buyers, such as subscribers to the Ahmanson Theatre and the Broadway/L.A. series.

On Feb. 11, Disney invited 1,800 members of Theatre L.A., a nonprofit association of 162 theaters and producers that promotes the greater Los Angeles theater community, to attend a special one-hour ``Lion King'' ``preview presentation'' at the Pantages. Gift bags were distributed to the natives, a couple of show numbers were sung, and the crowd greeted slides of Julie Taymor's anthropomorphic masks and costumes with whoops and cheers.

Theatre L.A. president Lars Hansen thinks Disney so far has done ``everything exactly right'' in wooing L.A.'s numerous small and midsize theaters to support ``The Lion King,'' and in negating the impression of a corporate Godzilla big-footing down Hollywood Boulevard.

``They were very gracious and they wanted to find out how to connect with the theater community,'' Hansen says. ``They didn't want to be perceived as just the giant Disney company coming to town without getting to know its neighbors.''

Indeed, some of Hollywood's small theaters say they welcome Disney putting its stamp of approval on the slowly reviving stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Gower.

``I'm actually incredibly supportive of the arrival of Disney,'' says Jeff Murray, artistic director of 18-year-old Theater/Theatre, which occupies part of the Pacific Theatres building at 6425 Hollywood Blvd., west of the Pantages. ``I really wish that other corporations like the Gap would realize the potential of the Boulevard.''

Yet Hollywood is still finding its feet as an entertainment center. Last fall, the gender-bending ofroadway hit rock musical ``Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' closed at the Henry Fonda Theater, a few blocks from the Pantages, after a disappointing three-month run, at a reported loss of $600,000. Privately, some Disney officials have expressed concern about what ``Hedwig's'' failure might augur for ``The Lion King.''

While a number of L.A. theater producers and promoters think Disney is privately hoping for a two-year run for ``Lion King,'' the odds may be against it. ``Beauty and the Beast,'' Disney's 1994 debut in the world of live theater production, lasted 17 months at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, following a summer of sagging box-office receipts. ``Ragtime,'' the $12 million musical, produced by Canada's now financially ailing Livent Inc., closed at the Shubert after 10 months.

The benchmark for L.A. theater remains Andrew Lloyd Webber's ``The Phantom of the Opera,'' which, beginning in 1989, lasted 4 1/2 years and 1,772 performances at the Ahmanson.

But with the recently announced Broadway closings of such mega- musicals as ``Cats'' and ``Miss Saigon,'' the blockbuster era may be drawing to a close. ``Phantom's'' marathon L.A. run increasingly looks like an aberration never to be repeated.

Most observers predict that ``The Lion King'' will open strong in Los Angeles. The real test will come at the start of summer 2001, when sun and surf beckon.

``Disney never recognizes the fact that they are competing with themselves in this market,'' says a local theatrical impresario, who requested anonymity because ``I have to work in this town.''

``Are people going to take their kids to 'The Lion King' at the Pantages at $80 a shot? Or are they going to take their kids to Disneyland? Something that's big, big, big in New York is not necessarily going to have the same reception in L.A. They will have a big opening, but the same kind of excitement won't sustain here.''

Theatre L.A.'s Hansen agrees that ``we don't react the same as a New York audience, where you get a good review and - boom! - there's lines around the block.''

But that's not necessarily a bad thing, he adds.

``I'm not saying that 'Lion King' will sit down for four years like 'Phantom' did, but maybe it shouldn't,'' Hansen says. ``Maybe in L.A. we need to have short visits and not open-ended runs, because of our lifestyle and choices.''

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Mark Allan Davis, left, Levensky Smith and Iresol Cardona in lavish costumes in a scene from Broadway's award-winning musical, ``The Lion King,'' opening in Los Angeles in October.