With over 100 people in the cast and crew, the Palace Theater is preparing to put on a full stage production of Disney’s “The Lion King Jr.” with actors from 4 to 18 years old.
After the success of “Beauty and the Beast” last year, director Larry Reitzer decided to produce a show specifically for youth.
“Besides growing our talent pool and getting more young people involved, we also want to grow our young lovers of theater,” Reitzer said. “We saw so many kids wanted to audition and get involved, so we though we’d do a fully 21-and-under show.”
Charles Bankhead Haines is the musical director and Nadia Schlosser is choreographer for “The Lion King Jr,” which is presented by the Palace.
“The Lion King Jr.” is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International, or MTI. All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
After his experience throughout the rehearsal process, Reitzer said he hopes to present a youth-led musical, along with an adult-led musical, once a year at the Palace.
“Scheduling is always hard, with everyone having karate, baseball and other things going on, but these kids are the most respectful and so gratifying to work with,” Reitzer said. “It’s great being able to teach the thing I love the most, which is community theater. The best thing is watching them go from fearing auditioning to building confidence and self-esteem.”
“The Lion King Jr.” allows for several intricate costume designs, sounds and special effects during the musical’s 120-minute run time. Many actors are playing multiple parts and will have costume changes throughout the show.
“We have about nine different people making costumes, volunteers at (the East Hawaii Cultural Center) are making masks, there are just so many people working together to make this happen,” Reitzer said. “I want to give so much credit to all of the artists contributing and doing so much to make the show special.”
The Palace Theater sold about three-quarters of the tickets on the first day of sales.
“The success of theater through COVID-19 has proven to everyone that people really do want to see theater and the arts, and the support that we’re getting is just great,” Reitzer said. “Other organizations have been doing their own programming, and I think it’s amazing. The goal is always to bring more theater to the community and I feel like we’re all doing that now.”
“The Lion King Jr.” will run for two weekends beginning Friday, Oct. 14 with show times starting at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays until closing on Sunday, Oct. 23.
Tickets are available at hilopalace.com.
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com