Julie Taymor’s breathtaking staging of the Disney animated cartoon reinvents the possibilities of theater for a whole generation: not for her the literalness of Disney’s previous screen-to-stage adaptation, Beauty and the Beast. Instead, Taymor thrillingly reimagines the story of Simba the lion cub’s voyage to adulthood as a show of theatrical daring, in which the humans are always visible beneath their animal masks and costumes. Elton John and Tim Rice’s songs from the film score have been brilliantly supplemented by much more authentic sounding African songs by Lebo M. The Lion King was the winner of the 1998 Tony for Best Musical, and Taymor won for Best Direction of a Musical.