• Rafiki, the mandrill´s gender was changed to a female character for The Lion King musical.
• The Lion King premiere took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) in 1997 before moving to Broadway in the same year.
• The Lion King is the third longest-running musical in Broadway history.
• The Lion King debuted its first ever performance in Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• The show debuted at the West End’s Lyceum Theatre in 1999 and is still running.
• Lion King has been already played in 24 countries all over the world.
• The Lion King musical has had over 25 global productions and has been performed in more than 100 cities, entertaining over 114 million people worldwide.
• It takes 114 people to prepare for each performance of The Lion King.
• Lion King has won more than 70 major awards worldwide including Tony Award for Best Musical, the Grammy for Best Musical Show Album and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Costume Design.
• The Lion King is based on Disney animated film from 1994.
• The phrase “Hakuna Matata” (“No worries”) is being said 25 times in every performance.
• There have been several new scenes and amendments in music added into the musical version of The Lion King keeping the show fresh.
• There are 5 different languages used in the Lion King including Zulu, Xhosa and Swahili.
• The song Morning Report originally featured in the stage version of The Lion King has been later added to the film for its Platinum Edition DVD release.
• It took more than 17,000 hours to make all the costumes and puppets for the Broadway production of Lion King using 750 pounds of silicone rubber.
• Performance design uses over 700 different lighting instruments including 100 moving lights.
• The tallest animals in the show are the 18 foot exotic giraffes in the song "I Just Can't Wait to Be King".
• The tiniest animal in the show is the trick mouse at the end of Scar's cane: 5 inches.

Find out more about the characters in the show and read our guide to all the songs. If you have not seen this amazing musical, book your The Lion King tickets today.

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