Lion King Monte Casino
LION PARK The Lion Park is situated in Gauteng Province near Lanseria Airport and Fourways within easy reach of Johannesburg and Pretoria. The park offers terrific up close views and other exciting interactions with a large variety of predators and large herbivores indigenous to Africa. Beginning in June 2007, The Lion King Musical debuted its first ever performance on the African continent in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its tenth year anniversary was celebrated in the new Teatro Theatre at Monte Casino in Fourways. The Lion King is the first production to take place in the new theatre.
- 2Theatres at Montecasino
Montecasino
Montecasino first opened its doors on 30 November 2000, basically consisting of Pieter Toerien's Theatre & Studio and expanded in May 2007 with the addition of the open-air Piazza - including the large new performance venue, The Teatro.
Montecasino's Piazza, which is slightly smaller than a rugby field and modeled on a typical Italian piazza features several restaurants where visitors can dine al fresco, and enjoy the mesmerizing musical fountain displays. The Piazza also features the SunSquare Hotel, aimed at the modern business tourist, the Montecasino Ballroom which can accommodate 400 people seated banquet style, and the spectacular Teatro at Montecasino, which opened with the legendary stage production The Lion King.
Theatres at Montecasino
Montecasino has two theatres – Pieter Toerien's Main Theatre & Studio and The Teatro. Past performances at both theatres have included: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, Lord of the Dance, The Merchants of Bollywood, Chicago - The Musical, Beauty and the Beast, High School Musical, Dirty Dancing, as well as the Jozi Comedy Festival.
Pieter Toerien's Theatre & Studio
Pieter Toerien's Theatre & Studio opened at Montecasino with Defending the Caveman in November 2000.
The Teatro
Also billed as The Teatro at Montecasino, this venue is acoustically designed for large scale musical productions and it can accommodate 1 870 people at full capacity. Despite the vast number of seats, the Teatro has an unmistakable intimacy and no seat is further than 33 metres from the stage. The Teatro was constructed at a cost of over R100 million by Tsogo Sun Gaming and is one of the 10 largest Lyric theatres in the world.
The venue opened its doors in May 2007 with a production of The Lion King (co-produced by Lebo M and Pieter Toerien), that played to packed audiences for 36 weeks, making South African history when it broke all box office records in South Africa, with over 550 000 people watching the show. This Disney musical is the longest-running and most successful show in South African theatre history. The show also received the distinction of being awarded the Best Production of a Musical category in the 2007 Naledi Awards, and Tsogo Sun Gaming was recognised for their contribution to the arts when it received the BASA Award for First Time Sponsor for the construction of the Teatro.
Since The Lion King closed in February 2008, the Teatro has played host to other local and international productions. , including
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This year is going to prove to be a very special one for the South African audience who will get to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of “The Lion King” as a Broadway musical. There are very few of us who have not seen the wonderful Disney animated movie “The Lion King” brought out in 1997, some years back.
The production will take place on the South African stage in Johannesburg where we will be provided with a spectacular musical, showcasing the immense talent we have in South Africa. Lebo M, a musician and a composer, was part of the original production of the animated Lion King in New York and will again take part in the musical. The music featured will be totally home grown with well-known tunes like “Pridelands” and “Circle of Life” making it a truly South African event.
For those whose memory is a bit hazy on the story line of “The Lion King” here is a quick refresher. Simba, a lion cub, loses his father in death to his malicious uncle who desires to rule as king. For many years Simba secretly hides away in the jungle until he is older and more capable of overthrowing his cruel uncle, replacing him as king, as he rightly should be.
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The Lion King production is set to open on the 6th of June 2007 at the 1,900-seat Monte Casino theater. Casting for the fifty-three artists needed to make the musical a reality began last year September. Ever since the first production of the movie South Africa has played an important role in making the movie the hit it has been. It only makes sense that the tenth anniversary of the Lion King Broadway production would then take place in the country that has had so much influence and involvement in it.
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Julie Taymor, an award winning director; Thomas Schumacher, a well-known producer; Pieter Toerien, an experienced theater producer; and Lebo M, a composer are just some of the few highly qualified members that will help make the musical a great success for all people, young and old, to enjoy. Many cast members taking part in the South African version of the Lion Kingmusical have taken part in many similar versions around the world. These cast members include Buyi Zama who plays Rafiki, Andile Gumbi as Simba and Sello Make as Mufasa. The official sponsors of this truly memorable event will be SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) and South Africa Telkom.