Nicholas Afoa joins the cast of Disney’s The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre
Former international rugby player turned stage star Nicholas Afoa will join the award-winning West End production of Disney’s The Lion King later this month.
The New Zealander whose promising playing career with the All Blacks was cut short by injury, began his new career as a theatre performer when he beat 400 other hopefuls to the role of Simba in the Australian production of The Lion King three years ago.
After playing the role in the Sydney production more than 860 times following his stage debut in 2013, Afoa is now in rehearsals as Simba ahead of his first appearance in the London production in nine days time.
Currently in its 17th year at London’s Lyceum Theatre, the show will feature a number of new cast members alongside Afoa when the curtain goes up on 10 May.
Other new additions include: Etian Almeida, Jonathan Andre, Janique Charles, Zinhle Dube, Sandile Gontsana, Kwesi Jeffers, Stephanie Lo, Sadia McEwen, Khaya Maseko, Daniel Monteiro, Nosipho Nkonqa, Dominique Planter, Antoine Murray-Straughan, Kayode Salina and Ricardo Walker.
The multi award-winning musical The Lion King had its UK premiere in London in October 1999. The musical has entertained over 13 million theatregoers and remains the West End’s best-selling stage production. Now the sixth longest-running West End musical of all time, tickets are currently on sale until 2 October this year for individuals and 4 June 2017 for groups.
Julie Taymor’s internationally-celebrated stage adaptation of Disney’s much-loved animated film premiered on Broadway in 1997 and has now been seen by more than 80 million people across six continents.
Eight productions are running concurrently around the globe. In addition to the record-breaking productions in London and New York, The Lion King can currently be seen in Hamburg, Tokyo, Madrid, and Mexico City, and on tour across North America and Japan.
Angela Thomas
Tickets for The Lion King are available HERE.
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