Julie Taymor is an American film and stage director and screenwriter, who, for Disney was part of the creative team behind the stage adaptation of The Lion King, as well as an executive producer of the 2019 remake of the original film. She also directed Touchstone Pictures' The Tempest.
Early life[]
Taymor was born in Newton, Massachusetts and joined theater groups and performed in shows at a young age. At the age of 15, her parents sent her to both Sri Lanka and India with the Experiment in International Living. After graduating high school at 16, Taymor went to Paris to study with L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Her studies there exposed her to mime, which helped develop her physical sensibilities. While in Paris, Taymor worked with masks for the first time and immersed herself in film, especially the work of Fellini and Kurosawa. She later attended Oberlin College in 1970, graduating with a major in mythology and folklore.
Career[]
Her international education helped her to design sets and costumes for shows as well as directing productions on various venues including Broadway, such as Way of Snow, Tirai, The Haggadah, The King Stag, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass, Oedipus rex, The Magic Flute, Titus Andronicus, Salome, The Green Bird, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and M. Butterfly. She took her creative style to film where directed, wrote, and even produced works, such as Titus, Frida, Across the Universe, and The Glorias.
The Lion King (musical)[]
Taymor's unique style of puppetry and set design led her to spearhead the direction and design of the production of The Lion King. Like with Beauty and the Beast, she incorporated deleted material from the film, such as a sequence similar to "The Madness of King Scar" and, for a time, "The Morning Report". Notably, Taymor changed Rafiki's gender to female and expanded Nala's character arc with the song "Shadowland". Choreographing the ensemble alongside Garth Fagan, Taymor had the performers be a mix of actors in animal costumes with mechanical headpieces or handling life-size puppets of the wildlife such mimicking giraffe movements while walking on stilts. The production is noted for its complexity in movement. Musically, she contributed lyrics to "Endless Night".
The efforts paid off as the musical remains a popular Broadway venue since its debut in 1997 and had been presented in over 100 cities in over 20 countries, having been seen by more than 100 million people worldwide. Taymor was also the first woman to receive the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. She also won a Tony Award for her original costume designs. In 2017, Taymor was honored as a Disney Legend.
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