It’s hard to overstate what a cultural phenomenon The Lion King soundtrack was in 1994. Of the five songs written by Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, three were nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars (with ballad “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” triumphing over the epic “Circle of Life” and the exuberant “Hakuna Matata”). Two were nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys. The soundtrack album was the biggest-selling record of the year in the US, holding off competition from the likes of Nirvana, Green Day and TLC. The songs form the basis of the highest-grossing musical in the history of Broadway. Thirty years on they remain embedded in our collective consciousness, so Lin-Manuel Miranda could be forgiven for feeling wary about being called on to provide the tunes for follow-up Mufasa: The Lion King. “Well, when you list it like that, it’s terrifying!” he says, a sly grin breaking through his black goatee. “I didn’t think about any of those stats!”
Miranda, of course, knows a thing or two about creating cultural phenomenons himself. The 44-year-old New Yorker made his Broadway debut in 2008 with his Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights. A few years later came Hamilton, the hip-hop-inspired historical musical about one of the founding fathers of the US that became a bona fide pop culture juggernaut. It’s been a fixture on Broadway since it debuted in 2015, and in London’s West End since 2017.
Given his track record, Miranda didn’t feel the need to seek counsel from his predecessors John or Rice. “I’ve spoken to them about other stuff. This hasn’t come up,” he demurs. “He’s been very busy,” he adds of Elton. “He’s got Devil Wears Prada and Tammy Faye.” The former, a musical based on the 2006 fashion comedy, began its run in the West End in October. The latter, about the life of evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, opened on Broadway in November, although it has since announced its closure. “We’ve almost switched,” says Miranda. “He’s like the Broadway baby right now and I’m writing this movie music.”
Growing up in Manhattan in a middle-class Puerto Rican family, Miranda had his sights on the bright lights of Broadway from an early age. He started writing In the Heights while attending Wesleyan University, setting the story in the Washington Heights neighbourhood where he still lives with his wife Vanessa Nadal, whom he’s known since high school. They have two sons, 10 and six, with the eldest named after Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid. Clearly, Miranda’s love of Disney runs deep. Today, we’re sitting in the shade at San Diego Safari Park, with giraffe, rhino and Somali wild ass grazing on an ersatz savannah behind us. In a separate enclosure nearby, an impressively maned African lion named Bo lazes in the sunshine. The location has been chosen by Disney for its long association with The Lion King franchise: legend has it that animators visited the park ahead of the 1994 original for inspiration and promptly added Timon to the script as comic relief after falling in love with the meerkats.
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