Behind the scenes of Disney’s The Lion King in Edmonton

Disney's The Lion King uses around 230 puppets and puppet replacements in their show tours. That's one and a half semi-trucks full of puppets. July 16, 2025. (Evan Klippenstein/CTV News Edmonton)

A classic Disney film turned stage production is well underway in Edmonton, and cast and crew are inviting audiences to bask in the mechanics of the magic.

The Lion King performances at the Northern Alberta Jubilee auditorium began last Wednesday and run eight times a week through July 27.

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Part of its charm is the vast array of detailed puppets on stage that help bring the show to life.

The show is designed in a way where it’s often visible to the audience who’s pulling the levers.

Drew Hirshfield is the man behind the puppet of Zazu, the show’s uptight hornbill who often flanks King Mufasa and later Simba.

He appears on stage dressed in a blue wool suit with a painted blue and white face while he operates Zazu’s puppet with his hands.

“That’s sort of the magic of this theatrical event,” Hirshfield said.

“There’s me, the human actor, but then there’s also this amazing puppet that clearly represents a bird, and then the two of us together create this dual event.”

His right thumb, for example, articulates movement of Zazu’s eyelids. His left hand supports the body and wings so Zazu can “fly through the Pride Lands as needed.”

Hirshfield credits people like puppet supervisor for Broadway Across Canada, Michael Reilly, for making the artistry a reality.

“They maintain the intricacies of this puppet and many more … we couldn’t tell the story without them,” he said.

Reilly and his team travel with 17 semi-trucks. One and a half of those trucks, he said, are filled with the 230 puppets and puppet replacements needed to make the show go on.

“We have everything from as small as a mouse to as big as a full size elephant,” he said.

The puppets were designed and created by Julie Taymor and Michael Curry. While they may look like wood, they’re really carbon fiber.

Reilly said a lot of trial and error went into ensuring the puppets were operable by actors with as few incidents as possible.

Part of Reilly’s job is also to keep the puppets prepped and ready to go, even during the normal bangs and scrapes of live showtime.

“If you’re doing your job well, no one notices,” he said. He said when there is a mistake, though, the audience tends to laugh with the actors, not at them.

Reilly, in turn, credits the actors, singers and dancers who bring the show to life.

“Otherwise, [the puppets] just sit here and look very pretty on a table,” he said.

The production is North America’s longest-running and most-attended Broadway tour with more than 10,000 performances in over 90 cities.

Tickets are still available on the Broadway Across Canada website or through Ticketmaster.