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Exclusive Interview: Nick LaMedica of 'The Lion King' · The BSB Podcast

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  The Savanna is headed to Metro Detroit as the Lion King arrives at the Detroit Opera House on March 12th.
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  And today we're talking with Nick LeMedica about this production.
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  Thank you so much for joining me today, Nick.
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  Yeah, happy to be here, Brian.
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  So I just want to start off, this is such a cool experience to talk to somebody who is in a Disney production.
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  Disney is such pure magic for families of all ages.
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  I grew up on the story.
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  I'm sure so many people have.
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  What is it like for you to step into the world of a Disney story such as The Lion King?
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  Well, uh there is somewhere, my mom has a picture that I drew of the sun rising on the savanna um on a family vacation.
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  I saw the Lion King on VHS for the first time and I drew that.
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  So it is a pun intended full circle moment to come here and be doing this.
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  This is one of the first shows I ever saw in my life.
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  So it is amazing to be doing it uh eight times a week.
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  What is it like then to step into it when you, this was one of your first shows.
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  That's such a cool moment to be back to it.
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  Yeah, yeah, there is, I have a picture at the stage door with the original Mufasa and little, I don't know, 10 year old me, something back in 1998.
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  So it is really overwhelming.
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  There are times where I'm standing on stage, cause I get to be right in the center of the circle of life.
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  Of course I'm not being lifted up on top of the rock, but I'm right there smack in the middle with animals in every direction.
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  And there are times where I look around and it's,
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  It is hard to believe that it's real.
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  Like I could imagine, you're just, you're like, I'm here, this is it.
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  This is such a uh story that everybody knows and just a moment that everybody gets to appreciate.
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  Yeah, it's a piece of history um and it's a piece of innovation and it's a piece of a...
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  it's the beginning of a journey for so many people.
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  For so many people, The Lion King is the first show that they ever get to see or the first time they really saw themselves in a show uh or the first time that they get to
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  experience...
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  you know, something that they already know, but in this completely new and different way.
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  So it's really cool to be a part of something that uh is a part of really millions of people's stories from around the world.
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  I am going, I'm a bad Broadway gay.
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  I have never seen The Lion King live, so this is my first time I get to experience it at the Detroit Opera House.
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  That's really exciting.
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  Yeah, I I saw it at maybe 10 years old and then I didn't see it again for 20 years.
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  So it is really exciting.
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  We have a lot of people who see The Lion King for the first time uh as adults.
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  And it's so cool to see where people enter this show.
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  You see it as a young person.
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  You think oftentimes The Lion King.
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  you think of it as a young person's show.
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  But there is so much more to it.
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  There's so much more story to it.
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  And people enter this story in a lot of places.
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  uh You know, of course is it a young person ready to take on the world?
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  But then also um As you grow up and you start to find literally your place in the world as you start to deal with Disappointments and loss and victory and there are so many
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  different ways that you can sort of enter this show in that way We see a lot of families come to say I saw this when I was a kid and now I'm bringing my kids or even my grandkids
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  To see this show that's happening at this point now
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  That's really cool then too.
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  And then again, for them, that's a full circle moment as well.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  Yeah, it just keeps coming around.
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  So while you're playing such an iconic role that many people know, you're playing Zazu.
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  Who is Zazu to you?
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  wow, that's a really good question.
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  So Zazu in the show is the major domo to the king.
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  I'm defined by my job and my role and what I feel with other people.
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  So if we take that back to the circle of life, it's like, if the circle of life is broken at any point, if there's like a crack or if it's a little off kilter or something, then
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  I've failed miserably.
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  So as Zazu, I get to play someone who is wonderfully obsessed.
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  with everything going according to plan and nothing does.
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  So as an actor, that's a huge gift because it's nothing but obstacles and nothing but having to pivot and figure out a new way to make it work.
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  um So that's a lot of fun.
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  It's also, as an adult, my primary scene partner in addition to Mufasa and Scar, my primary scene partners are these really wonderful, super talented kids that we work with.
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  So I have the joy as a performer to work with
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  uh these little vessels of infinite imagination that are our young Simba and young Nala.
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  So when you're kind of entering into a character such as this, who has been around, you know, the movie's been around for as long as I can remember, how do you kind of interpret
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  this character as part of your own while also so honoring all of that legacy that came before?
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  I can imagine that'd be a little bit of a balance.
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  Yeah, I mean, uh as far as the animated feature Rowan Atkinson and then the most recent live action, John Oliver.
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  So to come within that, that's comedic royalty to fall into.
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  There's so many awards and beloved characterizations that come along with that.
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  It's...
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  To make it my own is been a real gift.
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  That's what was really great when our directors brought me into it.
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  says, you know, we kind of have to get from A to B.
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  These are the lines, but how much you get to walk that line gets to be your sort of artistic freedom.
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  And this show has so much newness coming into it at all times.
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  There's so many people on stage.
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  There's all these animals.
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  going to different houses and different theaters.
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  People laugh and react in different ways.
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  The way the show sounds shifts slightly as you go from city to city that it...
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  constantly has this injection of newness within it.
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  I just try and, uh you know, stay focused, like, what are my goals?
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  What am I trying to achieve?
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  And really just hang on for dear life.
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  And then the show sort of takes care of it at that point.
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  for And it's cool because Zazu really has this like he's so comedic but he's also got that such a loyalty and that seriousness to him, you know, that you get to play with both those
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  lines.
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  Yeah, that's why it's funny, right?
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  Because you're white-knuckling through this whole thing.
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  You're trying to hang on, you're trying to make it work.
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  And I think that's the comedy that we all identify with, is just someone who uh is on the verge of meltdown at any moment, but has it all bound together and gets to take on that
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  shape, but it's at uh risk of falling apart at any second.
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  You mentioned it kind of having like, while you have to get from point A to point B, there's kind of like, you can interpret it the way you want to.
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  Does the comedic timing change then from like performance to performance and how you deliver those lines or how you get to that point?
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  absolutely.
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  Yeah, it's a chemistry that is happening in real time at all time.
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  That's one of the...
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  That's the beauty of live theater.
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  because yes, there's this slew of characters and these beautiful costumes and lighting and sound.
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  There's all this stuff that's happening on stage, but there's a reason why we do it live.
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  And it's for that, you know, two to 5,000 people that are in the house that are just as big, probably the number one character in the show.
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  And it's what they contribute, what they bring to the performance, the way they react.
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  And that changes, you know, region to region, house to house, night to night, those things change.
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  not too long ago, uh a school performance.
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  It was a really early matinee for us.
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  think we were performing at 10 in the morning or something, is, you know, that's crazy for professional theater actors.
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  know, one o'clock is early for us.
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  um So 10, but the injection of, you know, thousands of kids laughing, screaming, uh you know, reacting to the kisses and hits and the...
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  the jokes and some of those jokes are uh aimed at different types of audiences.
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  So the way that they react is something completely different and that is uh another injection of inspiration, how we sort of walk that line.
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  That's so cool.
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  I mean, yeah, you're right.
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  10 o'clock is way too early in the morning to be performing.
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  that's cool to be able to take that with kids or schools.
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  And then there's layers for adults as well.
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  Yeah, it hits on every single layer.
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  I'm also really happy as Azu.
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  I have a lot of puns and wordplay and sort of intelligent highbrow humor, but I also run into a wall and get spun around and lose my temper.
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  So I get to play as many of those notes for any audience.
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  There's usually a note that I get to play.
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  What I love about your character too is for some reason as a kid I always thought he was the most funniest character ever and I would just like roll around on the ground laughing
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  so much because it is such highbrow so it's really funny and I think sometimes you know again like you said you know Rowan Atkinson it's very like that dry British humor almost
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  but like to me it was like absolutely the peak comedy for this movie.
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  Yeah, yeah, and it's there.
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  There's everything from that dry humor with the little puns, the the the like sort of stiff upper lip uh comedy of it all.
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  But it is also if you think of Can't Wait to Be King and it's all slapstick, it's, you know, him getting smashed between the butts of two zebras or something, you know, like
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  it's that kind of fun stuff.
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  So I get to uh experience sort of all of those all of those versions of clown.
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  within the show.
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  So something unique about the show too that I think is interesting for a lot of people, and I'm sure a lot of people recognize that those have been there, but you're also doing
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  puppetry with a lot of the animals on stage.
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  And your role actually is part puppet, correct?
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  Absolutely, it's uh hugely that.
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  It is inextricable from what I do in the show.
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  There are literally hundreds of puppets in this show and they cover a wide gamut of...
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  Zazu is the closest that I would say to a traditional puppet.
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  When you think of a hand puppet, it's closest to that.
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  But we have shadow puppets.
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  There are the sort of full-bodied and Bunraku inspired puppets.
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  There are things drawn from different traditions.
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  all over the world over thousands of years there are all of these different things that that come into to tell this story so it has a huge variety of ways that we tell that story
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  and uh Zazu I have this gorgeous puppet conceived by um Michael Curry
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  and Julie Taymor.
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  So Zazu is a complex puppet.
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  have several different triggers and paddles and things to make his eyes move and to make his mouth move.
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  He's brilliantly constructed and I get to play with that every night, which is also for any of the actors that may be listening here, you're always trying to figure out what to
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  do with your hands.
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  It is such a gift to have a puppet.
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  Like, uh operate the puppet, make sure he's alive.
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  So that's something I'm always thinking about, keeping him alive.
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  There's a lot of puppetry in my professional experience.
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  I never thought that that would be part of my life, but uh it's been for shows like War Horse and Hand to God.
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  uh And now to do this, to get to bring that history and then the unique flavor of puppetry that comes to Lion King to make that really live and breathe.
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  I mean, Circle of
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  I'm so excited that you get to see it for the first time.
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  Because Circle of Life, when that happens, when you see the full-scale elephant and the wildebeest and the zebras and the gazelle and the uh giraffes walking across stage and
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  you're seeing all of these things living and breathing in front of you, it's breathtaking.
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  A lot of my friends have seen it they all said, first off, they're like, we're not gonna spoil that for you and stuff.
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  And then they're like, but actually once you see it, it's like there's nothing else like that in any Broadway show you'll ever experience.
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  No, and that's where I tell people, get there early.
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  You know, it's not like uh showing up to a game where, okay, I missed the uh first couple of pitches of the first inning, that's okay.
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  I still got a lot more to see.
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  There is so much to see in Lion King, but if you are, if you're there late and we work really hard to get people into their seats so they don't miss that, but I hate for people
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  to miss Circle of Life because...
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  There is simply nothing like it.
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  That is so cool.
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  And like, again, like that's going to be a memory, a core memory for so many kids who come there.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, I have that memory from when I was a kid of seeing that.
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  So it's amazing to be part of that sort of that procession now.
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  for sure.
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  You had mentioned with your career too, you've worked with a lot of maybe different puppetry in different levels, but like what has kind of, what inspired you to pursue
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  musical theater and what's kind of been your personal journey to musical theater leading you to The Lion King?
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  Wow, that's a great question.
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  So Lion King was one of the first shows that I ever saw.
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  think Beauty and the Beast on Broadway was the first Broadway show I ever saw.
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  um so I think it really hooked me at that point, seeing these people on stage uh living sort of at a different level.
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  You know, like a super reality.
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  And there's something miraculous about theater.
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  And I think that really drew me in.
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  My dad's also a performer.
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  So I grew up, he does educational shows with animals where he brings animals to, so it's like, of course I was going to be, yeah, yeah.
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  And of course like Lion King, it's like perfect.
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  okay, yeah.
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  Growing up, my dad had educational animal shows and he used puppets.
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  Like of course I would end up in the Lion King.
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  It's like it's practically nepotism to do that, but to kind of like, you know, work my way up the Broadway level.
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  My mom's wonderfully creative, a wonderful singer and always sort of, always nurtured that.
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  It brought me to the movies and brought me to live theater.
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  um So it was always there.
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  I had terrible stage fright when I was a kid.
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  ah I really wanted to perform, but I remember having to sing in my first recital and...
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  was absolutely paralyzed, I couldn't do it.
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  So I didn't really touch it for um several years.
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  I played sports um and I think I was a goalie and I think that really kind of taught me to be in the moment and deal with pressure and understand like balls are gonna go past you.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  then you have to focus on the next one in front of you.
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  And I think it was those lessons that kind of got me back to kind of built up my confidence to try performing again.
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  And then I got back into it, my late teens and just really ran with it, went to college, got a degree in it.
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  And then, then.
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  doing it since, been very lucky um to get to do a lot of different theater.
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  Been primarily doing plays, did some musical theater right out of college, primarily focused on doing plays and Shakespeare and new plays and have sort of stumbled my way
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  backwards into this.
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  I'll tell you a very quick story on Lion King.
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  uh A few years ago, I was doing a play, a small plays, comedy, and I was in the dressing room.
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  And one of the other actors said, have you ever thought about doing Zazu in The Lion King?
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  I was like, no, why?
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  He's like, I think you'd be good at it.
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  I'm like, okay.
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  Like what brings that up?
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  said, I used to do it.
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  yeah, was Tim McGeever who had been Zazu in the tour of The Lion King.
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  like several years prior.
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  So I got back to town and I went and saw it again.
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  I told my agent, hey, if this ever comes up, I'd like to go in for it.
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  And it never comes up because people join the Lion King and they stay there.
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  They stay there for years.
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  It's a wonderful job.
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  It's a wonderful place to be.
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  a really exciting thing to be a part of.
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  So when a few years after that, the opportunity opened up, you know, put everything I had into it.
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  Now I've been here.
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  going into, I've been doing this for like four years now, more than a thousand,
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  performances.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  That's such a cool, like to be able to stick with the show and to still find the joy and the energy in that, that's not something that a lot of you hear a lot of.
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  Yeah, that's what, you know, uh it's like reading your favorite book.
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  You know, uh like every time, even if you know what's gonna happen next, which you do as an actor, it's like staying on the page that you're on.
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  and continuing to find things and new pieces.
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  And that's what's also sort of the gift of the show.
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  There's so much to look at.
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  can, I think it was Julie Taymor who would talk about, I want someone, if they come to the Lion King and all they do is stare at one of the house percussionists for the whole night.
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  That was a complete theatrical experience.
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  You can do that in the Lion King.
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  You can just pick a few square feet.
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  focus in on that and it's going to be a full piece of theater for you.
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  So as an actor, you know, it's very rich with that.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  oh So then what themes from this show do you really resonate the most with you?
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  I think it is endurance.
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  You know, we talk about doing this show for a long time.
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  It is endurance and that's not just being able to stick it out through something, but to endure what life throws at you.
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  um Because there's so much about just continuing to stand up even when it's hard.
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  um You know, because life is going to take your legs out from underneath you and continuing to stand up and to endure and to be there.
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  And that's also the natural story of the Lion King.
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  Like as things disrupt, as things sort of fall into disarray, and it's very clear when you look around, hey, we've gone wrong here.
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  uh It's right in the lyrics, the river's dry, the ground is broken.
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  but there is a sort of spirit that is going to outlast the wrong.
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  And it is that endurance.
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  know, it's like there is something, if you just, it's just even when it's that most tenuous hold, if you can just hold onto that a little bit, it will outlast everything
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  else.
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  You know, as a psychologist, really appreciate hearing that answer, because I think that not enough people think about it that way.
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  like, remember Nick, remember, remember that, remember that.
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  I'm like reminding myself that.
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  And then just one final question from them for you.
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  Just what are you hoping audiences take away from this production of The Lion King?
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  There's a place for everyone.
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  There's a place for everybody.
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  That is, okay, I'm not like now I'm getting, now we're there, we're there, I'm just gonna ride with it.
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  You know, we say like in the circle of life, when we find our place in the path unwinding, in the circle, there is a place for everybody.
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  And we all belong in here.
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  um And that's also the beauty of the beginning of this show.
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  You are seeing uh predators.
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  You're seeing predators and prey.
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  seeing the whole thing come together, the air and the ground.
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  Everyone is coming together because we have all seen this thing and we say we all have a place in this.
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  We all are a part of this continuing to move forward and that's an
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  That's a noble and that's a beautiful thing and that we all belong in there.
• 20:19
  ah And it's that celebration of respect and understanding and harmony ah in that, um even in the places where there is a built-in friction.
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  um So that's what I hope people take away from it.
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  Also that it's fun.
• 20:40
  Life is fun.
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  um
• 20:44
  I tell people, even if you're not taking a message away from the Lion King, it's a beautiful thing if you just came here and for two and a half hours you were able to laugh
• 20:55
  and experience joy and hope and wonder.
• 20:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:59
  That's a beautiful answer.
• 21:01
  That's just like, I appreciate all the wisdom and all the great thoughts that you have shared today because this is truly a one-of-a-kind show and I can't wait for everyone to
• 21:11
  experience that when it arrives to Detroit.
• 21:13
  so excited that you, I like, I'm so excited that we get to be a part of your first time seeing it as like, you know, as someone who is so deeply connected to theater, I'm excited
• 21:23
  um to get to share it with you.
• 21:25
  It's gonna be fun.
• 21:26
  I appreciate that.
• 21:27
  and it's good.
• 21:28
  I'm so like I am literally this when they announced this was coming out as jazz I was like, you know having gone to Broadway for so many years and never seen this Feels like a
• 21:36
  crime and so finally I can say that I've seen it
• 21:38
  yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 21:40
  And you get to see us and I'm biased.
• 21:42
  I mean, there's productions of this all around the world in Paris and Madrid and uh Tokyo and Germany and on Broadway, but, and Mexico City, uh Australia is coming.
• 21:54
  You know, have like all these productions around the world, but I'm biased.
• 21:58
  I'm biased that, you know, that I get to be a part of this one.
• 22:02
  Well, thank you so much for being here, Nick, talking with us.
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  It has been such a pleasure and we deeply appreciate it.
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  Disney's The Lion King arrives at the Detroit Opera House March 12th and runs through April 5th.
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  So get your tickets now from ATG Detroit and we'll see you at the show.