‘The Lion King’ Roars Into Seattle’s Paramount Theatre

The last time Simba roared in Seattle was seven years ago, which is long enough in kid years for a whole new generation to be born and grow into fans of “The Lion King.” Millennial parents remember 1994, when the animated movie came out. Watching it is a core childhood memory and now we get to share it with our kids.

Disney’s “The Lion King” musical opened at The Paramount on Dec. 4, and runs through Jan. 4, 2026. The show has been going strong for 28 years, and this is its fifth time in Seattle.

A behind-the-scenes look

From the padded velvet seats, the only member of the orchestra the audience sees is the percussionist. The rest of the orchestra is hidden downstairs in the pit. When I toured the pit during a special backstage tour, flutist Darlene Drew played a few measures of the “Circle of Life” on her European-style pan flute. I immediately got chills down my spine.

During the opening sequence of the performance, the giraffes — performers on stilts — enter the stage and the audience gasps. Next lumbers the elephant, four people inside a 14-foot-tall puppet. Birds soar on sticks, handheld gazelles prance.

“Instead of an animated movie, we are a collective of people,” says puppet supervisor Michael Reilly, who’s worked on the Lion King puppets since 1999. “Humans are telling the story of ‘The Lion King.’ We don’t hide the humans at all. Even in the elephant and the giraffe, everything is on display.”

Backstage, Reilly held up Zazu, the only hand puppet in the show. You see Zazu flapping around onstage, and up close, the puppet’s detail is astonishing. Each of Zazu’s 1,500 feathers is individually cut out of parachute material, painted and glued, and Zazu gets fully re-feathered every six months.

Reilly also set out the masks of Nala, Simba, Mufasa and Scar. Each one is made from a mold of the actor’s head so it fits perfectly. (Simba does a cartwheel with his mask on, and it can’t fall off.) They’re made of carbon fiber so they only weigh a few ounces.

Is there a favorite mask? Probably Mufasa, who is big and round and yellow like the sun, Reilly says. The actor stands 7 ½ feet tall with the mask on. “Every doorway is our worst enemy,” he adds.

A show for families, on-stage and off

The show tours all over North America, 52 weeks a year. When the show moves from city to city, the life-size elephant walks onto the truck, and the cast and crew learn to pack light for themselves. It’s a lifestyle for sure, but can you imagine doing that with a baby?

Cast members Daniela Cobb and her husband, Nhlanhla Ndlovu, met on the show and even got engaged onstage in front of an audience. Now the couple tours with their 1-year-old. Their daughter is a showbiz baby through and through, wide awake at 11 p.m. when her parents get off work!

Being pregnant, then a new mother, looks different when you’re onstage. Cobb described opening the corset of her costume to accommodate her belly, and running offstage to nurse. “Lion King has made it really special, really easy,” Cobb says. “The Lion King,” after all, is a story about families.

“Girls who are fearful of marriage and babies because they’re in the entertainment industry? I say let that fear go, girl,” Cobb adds. “You can do this. We are the new superwomen.”

Tips for parents

If you’re planning to see “The Lion King” at The Paramount Theatre, here are two important tips for Seattle families from the crew:

Number one: “Don’t be late,” says Reilly. “Because the opening number is maybe the best in Broadway history.”

That opening number would be “Circle of Life,” and if you miss it, you miss the whole point of the show. Chronically late families, beware: If the show starts at 7:30 p.m., do not arrive at 7:32 p.m. We went to the show Friday night and definitely saw the usher seating latecomers after “Circle of Life.” Bummer. 

Number two: The best seat in the house is any aisle seat, even in the back, says assistant stage manager Karen Parlato. “Good for reasons I will not spoil,” she adds. She’s absolutely right, and I won’t spoil it either.

Even if you know every line of the movie version by heart, there are Easter eggs tucked in the Broadway show to surprise you. You will laugh out loud. The hyenas even give the Seahawks a shoutout. 

The Broadway show keeps as close to the original 1997 musical as possible. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? There’s a reason this story has had such staying power. The puppets, the dancers, the music, the artistry. The grasses are people.

Go see “The Lion King.” It is so good you will cry.