Archive for the ‘Disney's The Lion King’ Category

Puppetry may appear to be an incongruous fit with a town whose nickname is “Sin City.” It is often stereotyped as “for the kids.” For many, children’s televisions shows like “Howdy Doody,” “The Muppet Show,” and “Sesame Street” were their first introduction to puppetry.

But puppetry occupies headline roles in numerous top Las Vegas shows including Disney’s “The Lion King,” Terry Fator and Cirque du Soleil’s “KÀ”:

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By Jennifer Whitehair
Vegas.com

In 1989 a puppet army invaded the Las Vegas Strip.

Using classic puppetry techniques, designer Michael Curry transformed 12 female dancers into a golden army of more than 160 marching figures for Siegfried & Roy’s show at the Mirage.

Twenty years later, puppetry occupies headline roles in numerous top Las Vegas shows from Disney’s “The Lion King” and Terry Fator to Cirque du Soleil’s “KÀ,” “LOVE” and “Believe.”

Puppetry may appear to be an incongruous fit with a town whose nickname is “Sin City.” It is often stereotyped as “for the kids.” For many, children’s televisions shows like “Howdy Doody,” “The Muppet Show,” and “Sesame Street” were their first introduction to puppetry.

“You say puppetry and people think of juvenile work, but then what we have done with it – Terry Fator, Julie Taymor and I, and different folks – is take it really seriously and put it out there as a real art form,” says Curry. Curry has designed puppetry and props not only for “Lion King,” but also “KÀ,” “LOVE,” “Believe” and “Le Rêve” in Las Vegas. You can also find his puppet designs in the Metropolitan Opera, the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics, New York’s Millennium celebration, movies and more.

“It’s not just for children,” Curry explains. “I haven’t done work for children although children like my things. How rare is that, that we can have a technique that operates well multi-culturally, multi-gender and multi-age. It’s a good technique and that’s why I think it’s going through a renaissance.”

For Las Vegas, with its diverse audiences, entertainment like puppetry that can cross cultural, age and gender lines is a requirement for a successful show. Last year 26.6 million of Vegas’ 37 million visitors saw a show – four million of them were from another country. The age composition of Vegas audiences is even more diverse, ranging from 5 to 90 years old.

“Puppetry spans all generations,” says Terry Fator, whose show at the Mirage features a range of characters from Winston the Impersonating Turtle to Vicki the Cougar. “I have people that come to my show that are under 10 and I have people who come to my show who are over 90 and they all go away saying the same thing: ‘It was like magic. The puppets came to life. For 90 minutes I didn’t think about anything but watching those puppets sing, tell jokes and have fun.’ ” And, as Fator’s puppet Emma pipes in to say, “That’s the magic.”

Making Magic

Puppetry is often compared to magic for its ability to engage and surprise the audience. It doesn’t even necessitate the use of a physical puppet. Shadow puppetry is one of the oldest forms of puppetry, dating back thousands of years, yet this ancient art is a key component in two hit Las Vegas shows – “The Lion King” and “KÀ.”

Shadow puppetry is low-tech. Take a light source and then insert an object to cast a shadow, which becomes the character the puppeteer is trying to create.

“KÀ” ranks as one of Vegas’ most technically complex shows. Its custom built stage, lighting, props and sound all contribute to a show that is often compared to a special effects-laden movie. With all of these effects, it comes as a surprise that many audience members’ favorite scene in the show involves no complex special effects, just two of the characters – played by Sheri Haight and Kleber Berto – creating shadow puppets.

“For a lot of the audience it’s like a magic trick,” says Haight.

“I know when we are doing the show they think it’s a projection on the wall,” says Berto. “They don’t think it is real. But we do it for real every single night.”

“Most people are just speechless in the audience,” adds Haight.

Even when a puppet and the puppeteer are in full view of the audience, that magical spell isn’t broken.

Actor Damian Baldet is part of a cast of 50 who employ more than 200 puppets to perform “The Lion King.” Baldet portrays Timon, the outrageous meerkat who, together with Pumba, makes up an Abott and Costello-like duo who are responsible for much of the comedy in “The Lion King.”

To create the character, Baldet works with a 15-pound puppet whose design is similar to Japanese Bunraku puppets where a large puppet (usually between 3 and 4 feet tall) is manipulated by three puppeteers. Baldet is covered in green facial make-up and a green body suit with a plant-like pattern that focuses attention on the Timon puppet.

While the audiences’ focus may be on the puppet, the actor is never forgotten.

Curry, who worked with Director Julie Taymor in creating the “Lion King’s” puppets, likes to tell the story of the audience member who came up to him and commented about the show, saying: “I love it when the eyebrows move on the puppets.”

Only one problem – the eyebrows are painted on.

“That was the actors’ eyebrows moving,” says Curry. “This is what is so great. We’re so expert in reading the human face that when the actor does that, it transposes to the puppet … they fill in the lost lines.”

This unique relationship between the puppet and actor is key to the success of “Lion King” and other shows that employ puppetry. The fusion of the actor’s performance with the puppet creates the full character.

“There’s a back and forth,” explains Baldet. “Julie Taymor talks about this thing called a double event. There’s human event and there’s a puppet event and that ratio is in flux depending on the demands of the story-telling.”

“It’s ultimately not about the actor,” he says. “It’s about putting your attention always through the puppet and not around or over the puppet. It’s a humbling experience, but ultimately very awesome.”

That relationship is not limited to just the actor and puppet but grows to encompass other performers and the audience.

“For us it’s such a good feeling because you are so close to the theater audience,” Berto explains. “We can see people smiling, laughing, getting surprised by the puppets we do.”

Behind the puppet is the puppeteer

The key component behind any successful puppetry is the performer.

“Puppets, as much as we like to say they have life, they don’t,” says Curry. “They lay there on the table when not attended by a person.”

However, there is no university of puppetry. The path performers take to master the art is as varied as the puppets. Some performers took up puppetry as kids. Others had no previous experience other than watching “The Muppet Show.” But all agree, it’s about bringing the character and story alive.

Curry worked closely with Cirque du Soleil when he designed more than 10 puppets being used in “KÀ.”

When asked how he starts the process, you get a one-word answer.

“Story!” he exclaims. “This is what makes a piece fit in the show. It’s not its own special effect. It’s one that is supplementing and furthering story. It’s something I am absolutely focused on all the time. I talk people out of puppets all the time because it doesn’t help the story.”

His creation process is both physical and visual, combining designs and prototype creations with real–world usage. This process eventually leads to the performer.

“It is very exciting for me to finish a piece and then it has a second life. That’s when I put it in the hands of a performer,” Curry says. “Then I work with them finding their role with that piece.”

For “KÀ” that meant a collaboration between Curry and the acrobatic performers who would bring to life a crab, turtle, starfish and other denizens of a sandy beach.

“It does take a personality to make a puppet come to life,” explains JanNelle Rivers, “KA’s” head of props and puppets. “You and I can both learn the movements but we couldn’t make the puppet come to life without that personality.”

That takes the talent of performers like Eric Henderson who can perform as either the crab or the starfish.

“The biggest challenge is taking the human out of it and keeping everyone thinking that it is a crab,” Henderson says. “We know it is a puppet but we want to make it as much of a crab as possible.”

To do that, performers study the real-life movements and emotions of the characters they are portraying. It also means interpreting human emotions and characteristics and conveying those through a puppet.

“There’s a weird translation process that happens between what you have in your brain and what looks right on a puppet,” explains Baldet.

For the character of Timon, Baldet wanted to capture the swaggering braggadocio of the character’s ego in his walk. But the typical wide-legged stance didn’t look good on the puppet. Baldet had to find a way to channel that emotion into a rather mincing walk.

Practice in front of mirrors forms the key as performers explore the nuances of each gesture and move of a puppet.

“It was a really interesting journey,” Baldet says. “The first three months my body was just trying to catch up to being able to physically do the show with the puppet. Once I got over the weariness, soreness and pain – after about six months I’d be backstage having a conversation with somebody with my hand in the puppet and I wouldn’t realize it but the puppet would be looking where I looked and talking when I talked. It sort of grafted itself onto my psyche. That was a really cool point. It has found its host and embedded itself in my brain.”

That character creation continues on even after the puppet has debuted on stage.

“There’s always ways to find new things to do with the puppet,” says Baldet

Fator is constantly introducing new characters in his show. Vicki the Cougar and a Beatles’ inspired puppet were introduced when he moved his show to the Mirage. For his one-year anniversary on March 14, he will debut another new character.

“I like having the variety,” Fator says. “I don’t want anything ever in my show to just become one type of puppet. I want to be creative. Whatever my brain comes up with I want to do.

“I love every single character I’ve created. It’s a little creation of yourself – like an artist might love a painting that they create. It’s just a part of my art.”

Puppet popularity

The puppet invasion of the Las Vegas Strip shows no signs of letting up. Curry is currently at work on projects for Las Vegas, including some new pieces that will debut this spring. Jeff Dunham has recently signed a contract for a series of performances at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum.

Curry and Fator see puppetry’s popularity as a reaction to the world around it.

“I think one of the reasons puppetry has become so popular in Vegas, and we’re seeing this trend worldwide, is it makes you feel young again,” says Fator. “We all want to remember those times when we didn’t have to worry about the bills and we didn’t have to worry about a job. It was just a matter of seeing a puppet and feeling like a kid again. That’s really what the magic of puppeteering does.”

Curry believess that puppetry connects directly with an audience like no other medium.

“So here we are in a time in our history, acerbated by politics and economics, where we want more heart,” explains Curry. “And I think puppetry can deliver that in a way.”

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By Kristine McKenzie
Vegas.com

Guitar player Lionel Hamel is positioned in front of the mirror in his dressing room, makeup brushes in hand, by 3 p.m. to transform his face in time for his 7 p.m. performance in Cirque du Soleil’s “KÀ.”

Multimedia Look At Make-up
	Watch a video of “Disney’s The Lion King” star Buyi Zama as she transforms into Rafiki.
	See photos as “KÀ” guitar player Lionel Hamel undertakes the 90-minute process of transforming his face.
	See photos as “Phantom” star Anthony Crivello is transformed into the deformed title character by makeup artist Ron Wild.

Performer Buyi Zama hops into the makeup chair just 40 minutes before show time while a professional makeup artist applies her brightly-colored tribal-style makeup for Disney’s “The Lion King” at Mandalay Bay.

The stars of “Le Rêve” at Wynn coat their faces with powder in hopes of making their makeup stay on throughout 75 minutes of performing in the water that serves as the show’s stage.

Makeup is used as a powerful tool to convey emotion, enhance costumes and create memorable characters in many Las Vegas productions. Makeup artists and performers all over town work hard behind the scenes to make sure that the final product audiences see on stage leaves a lasting impression.

“Number one, it should help the performer get into character, but the audience needs to buy into it too,” said Ron Wild, makeup artist for “Phantom –The Las Vegas Spectacular” at the Venetian.

For Zama, who plays Rafiki in Disney’s “The Lion King,” putting on makeup is crucial in helping her become her character, as well as helping her lower her inhibitions on stage. “Otherwise I would just feel naked,” she said.

A do-it-yourself job

Besides all of the usual things that a performer does like singing, dancing or playing music, many of those who work in Las Vegas shows are also tasked with applying their own makeup.

One of the most recognizable makeup jobs in Las Vegas is the brightly-painted “Blue Man Group.” While the makeup might seem like a very simple concept, it does take some work for the performers to achieve their signature look. Blue Man Group performer Scott Speiser said it takes about 45 minutes to get into makeup and wardrobe before a show and the performers do a good portion of it by themselves.

“At first it is difficult, but then you get used to it and quite simply, you get good at it. Everyone has their own routine, but the tricky part is figuring out what will work best for you at that time,” said Speiser. “We wear bald caps held down to our face with glue. We want the bald cap to stay on our head for the entire show (and often two shows), but as we sweat, the glue loosens up. We don’t want the cap to come up in the middle of a show… at the same time, we don’t want the cap to be too difficult to remove at the end of a show.”

The makeup the performers use, which comes in cakes, is called “Blue Man Blue” and was made specifically for the group. Speiser says each Blue Man uses one to two cakes of greasepaint per show and it has to cover every inch of the performers’ faces, including their mouths. “Every once in a while, the makeup tastes a little like an asparagus risotto with a tinge of garlic powder,” Speiser joked. “But most of the time it’s pretty tasteless. It’s like a bland, tasteless paste.”

Part of a Cirque du Soleil performer’s job is to do their own makeup, so workshops in makeup techniques are part of the training provided to artists. Cirque du Soleil makeup designer Nathalie Gagné teaches performers how to do their own makeup and then writes a step-by-step application guide for each of them to follow, complete with pictures illustrating exactly how the makeup should look.

Hamel has one of the more complicated makeup designs in “KÀ” and it takes him about an hour and a half to apply it. He said it took hundreds of applications before he was able to do his 26-step makeup design without the guide. “I was not born with a brush in my hand,” he said. “Outside of Halloween, I had never put makeup on.” (See photos as “KÀ” guitar player Lionel Hamel undertakes the half hour process of transforming his face).

Hamel paints his face with oil-based makeup in red, orange, yellow, black and white, and then sets the look with powder. After the powder, he goes over the whole design with the colors again to redefine the lines and get a more precise look. If a slip-up does happen, Hamel said he has to make it match on the other side because it’s easier than trying to correct. Mistakes don’t happen all that often though – the performers go through makeup reviews each year, which are basically refresher courses to ensure they are still applying it correctly.

Calling in the pros

Other Vegas performers, like Zama, are lucky enough to have a professional makeup artist who comes in to complete the design. “Thank God, because I am not that talented,” said Zama. (Watch as “Disney’s The Lion King” star Buyi Zama is transformed into Rafiki.)

The show has five makeup artists who perfect the characters’ complicated tribal designs and elaborate painted-on animal faces. “Lion King” Hair and Makeup Supervisor Juliette White uses a water-based body paint that is manufactured in Belgium. She paints seven colors, applied in a very specific sequence, onto Zama’s face when she is creating the Rafiki character. During the process, Zama has to sit very still, not talk much and keep her eyes closed while some of the makeup dries. She said it’s not her favorite part of the process, but White chats with her and keeps her company or she listens to music while she’s being made up.

Another show that involves makeup that’s too complicated for the actor to do himself is “Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular.” The mask worn by the title character has become an icon in the world of theater, but what lies beneath it is just as integral to the story of a disfigured man who lives beneath the Paris Opera House, hiding his face from the world.

During one of the songs, the Phantom laments about his face, which “earned a mother’s fear and loathing.” Creating a face that startling takes expert makeup skills and that’s where Wild comes in. (See photos of “Phantom” star Anthony Crivello as he is transformed by Ron Wild).

A two-time Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, Wild has a background in film and television. When the Las Vegas version of the show opened, the directors thought it was a good time to redesign the makeup, which hadn’t changed in the production’s 20-plus-year history — and Wild was the man to do it.

Wild said because of the theater’s size, the makeup had to have a little more oomph. “I didn’t think it had enough impact,” he said. “It needed a more textured design.” Wild said he also wanted to bring a more realistic, film quality to the makeup. Wild spends an hour each night working his magic on Anthony Crivello, who plays the Phantom. “My head is a canvas,” said Crivello. “I literally watch myself being transformed.”

The makeup, which includes prosthetic pieces on the right side of the face, is custom fit to the performer. A full head cast of Crivello was taken and everything was tailored specifically for his face.

The foundation of the Phantom’s makeup is a bald skull cap, which takes about a half-hour to fit, glue, dry and trim to perfectly mold to Crivello’s head. Next, the prosthetics are glued onto Crivello’s face. “By having everything custom made to Tony’s face, everything just kind of falls into place,” Wild said.

Each piece is used only once, so a supply of the pieces is kept on hand. One week per month, Wild sets time aside to prepare them and painstakingly paint them.

The makeup on the other half of the Phantom’s face is painted on. Wild said he wanted to create an old-fashioned Hollywood movie makeup style on that side. The makeup he uses is castor oil-based, which stops it from soaking into the rubber prosthetics.

Mishaps can happen during the show. The bald cap can tear very easily, which affects the rest of the makeup and there’s not much time for repairs during the show, which has no intermission. “If something goes wrong, he’s doing Frankenstein surgery on the back of my head,” said Crivello. Anything can happen – it’s live.”

Facing challenges

While anyone who works with makeup encounters little challenges here and there, one show faces a big challenge every night: water.

“Le Rêve” takes place in, around and above a round, 1.1-million gallon tank of water that serves as a stage.
Since all of the performers are constantly swimming, diving and splashing in the water, finding makeup that will stand out, but won’t wash off presents a big problem.

Jan Scherry, head of wardrobe for the show, says even though “Le Rêve” features a fairly natural makeup look, all 85 performers wear it. The makeup is waterproof, but there are still issues with keeping it intact. “Powder has a lot to do with it,” Scherry said. Applying lots of powder to set the makeup and having a makeup artist who can help the performers with touch-ups during the show helps keep the makeup looking fresh.

Having makeup that needs a lot of retouching means that the show goes through a lot of product. With two performances a night Thursday – Monday, makeup must be ordered in bulk, and often. Scherry said she gets makeup requests every day and orders items by the hundreds, including a recent order for 300 eyebrow pencils that will probably last just three months.

Taking it all off

It takes performers an extensive amount of time to get into makeup and for some it’s a big process to remove it as well.

White says “The Lion King” performers use baby wipes to remove the bulk of their makeup before washing it off with soap and water or using gentle removers. The makeup can’t just be wiped off with towels because the paint can actually clog the wardrobe department’s washing machines.

For Speiser, removing his makeup takes just as long as putting it on. “The blue makeup is greasepaint, so it doesn’t just come off with soap and water,” he said. “On a good night, the cap has stayed on for both shows, but is just loose enough to peel off at the end of the night without any irritation.”

Speiser said performers have to be careful – sometimes the paint ends up where it’s not intended. “It’s pretty common knowledge when you work for Blue Man Group that you don’t wear any expensive clothes on the stage or in the dressing rooms,” he said. “It gets everywhere. I find random clothes in my closet at home with blue on them. I’m not sure exactly how it got there, but it’s a powerful thing. It finds its way into many mysterious places.”

Makeup’s Magic

No matter who’s applying it or what type is used, there’s no denying that makeup adds something special to Las Vegas shows and helps audiences believe what they are seeing on stage. The use of makeup can be so powerful that it’s completely transformative for the performers who have to wear it every night as well.

“As soon as I put the makeup on, it’s not me anymore,” Zama said.

Crivello said the difference between what he looks like in real life and when he’s in full makeup is stunning. “I’ve been doing theater professionally for 37 years and prior to that was college and high school and my mother has seen everything I’ve been in,” said Crivello. “She was here for opening night and she said ‘I have always been able to see a little piece of

Kristine McKenzie can be reached at kristine.mckenzie@vegas.com. You can follow Vegas.com on twitter at www.twitter.com/vegascom.

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See Buyi Zama transformed into Rafiki in Disney’s “The Lion King.”

 

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