MADISON, Wis. — Disney’s “The Lion King” is currently taking center stage at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts.

What You Need To Know

  • Disney's "The Lion King" is one of the most popular musicals in the world
  • It's running at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison through May 28
  • A crew of about 200 makes the show happen eight times a week
  • More than a dozen semi trucks of costumes, equipment, and set pieces travel to each city

Everywhere the production goes, people flock to “The Lion King” because it’s such a spectacle.

Brian Westmoreland was always a theater kid.

“I love the theater,” he said.

Westmoreland is the Production Stage Manager for the current tour of “The Lion King.” The tour is spending a few weeks at the Overture Center for the Arts.

“We have a whole team of department heads, and all of them know where everything is,” Westmoreland said as he walked through the packed backstage.

Props, costumes and set pieces are stored everywhere.

“Because the show is so big, as soon as everything comes off the stage, we have these set pieces that fly up into the air,” he said. “These all fly in before the show to get into them, the zebras, the cheetah, and the rhino.”

Backstage there’s a long makeshift locker room-type area called “the bunker.”

“The bunker is where the ensemble members will come in. They basically spend their entire show here when they’re not on stage,” Westmoreland said. “They just run back, they do quick changes, and then jump out for their next scenes.”

It takes about 200 people to make sure the show goes on eight times a week. Plus, more than a dozen semi trucks full of costumes, set pieces and equipment go from city to city. Westmoreland spends a lot of his time planning for the next steps.

“On the road, you’re always having to advance to the next city,” he said. “I’m preparing for not only our next stop, which is Tulsa, but our stop after that which is Washington, D.C.”

This stop is special. His parents are from Wisconsin.

“Every summer my parents would send my brother and I out here,” he said. “So, we went here, and to Wisconsin Dells.”

Even though he’s seen the show hundreds, maybe thousands of times, he said it never gets old. Every performance, he tries to get into the theater to see the opening number.

“There’s so many elements, there’s always things that change … it always feels fresh,” he said. “The story is about self-discovery, finding your place in the community, family, and these are things that everybody can deal with.”

The show runs through Sunday, May 28 at the Overture Center.