Danny Grumich, The Lion King’s Pumbaa, Talks About the Hit Disney Broadway Show, Life as the Loveable Warthog, and Tour Life as a New Dad.
Disney’s The Lion King is roaring into the Straz Center this month, bringing the beloved movie to life on stage in a BIG way. The show features all your favorite characters and songs from the 1994 animated film, along with a few new musical numbers sprinkled in, written just for the stage show.
What also makes this Broadway adaptation so unique is the way it highlights the story’s South African origins with authentic costumes, music, and dances.
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One of the most beloved characters in the show is Pumbaa, the jovial, carefree warthog. Pumbaa befriends Simba and helps him regain his rightful place as the Lion King while providing comic relief throughout the show alongside his sidekick, Timon, a witty meerkat.
Danny Grumich has been playing the role of Pumbaa with the touring cast since last September. We recently had the chance to talk to Danny about the show, what it’s like to play such an iconic role, and what life is like on tour as a new dad.
TBPM: Pumbaa's the one that provides so much comic relief to the show. What's it like on stage every night being able to play that kind of character?
DG: It's awesome. I mean, there's nothing like it, to be honest. I've been in sort of the mix for the show for about three years now. So, it's been something that's been on my radar for a long time.
Getting to experience it every night is both challenging and amazing in different senses. Challenging in the sense that you really want to do justice to these iconic characters that everybody knows and loves. But really, it's just an incredible experience in the sense that the show really offers the opportunity to bring our own selves to those roles and find our own bits within Timon and Pumbaa.
TBPM: How is it having to create this iconic character as your own?
DG: What I really tried to strive for was finding my own Pumbaa, my own voice within this known beloved character. So, within the realm of what Pumbaa would do and wouldn't do, what funny bits could I come up with or certain things can I try to get a laugh from here and there.
But really, it's just kind of paying respect to that original character that everybody knows and loves. Luckily, they're obviously early to the show, and they’re just so zany and crazy half the time that there's a lot to work with within that, which is really freeing. I think, ultimately, that was my biggest task – making my own within the confines of what people know and expect from this character.
TBPM: For people who have not seen the show before, what sets the Broadway show apart from the original movie?
DG: I think the best way to describe it is that you're going to get all the major highlights from the animated film that everybody knows and loves. You’ll have “Hakuna Matata,” “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “I Just Can't Wait to be King,” and “Circle of Life” – all the iconic songs, all the iconic characters. But what makes the musical so special is that there's so much more South African culture and influence intertwined within that. So, every costume is based on some sort of South African beadwork or fabric pattern, and it's sort of intertwined with these puppets and South African mask-making influences for the lioness and the lion heads.
It's such an amazing melting pot and melding of the South African culture within this iconic film that everybody knows and loves. And I think it ultimately just elevates it to a stratosphere that people who are just familiar with the movie aren't going to expect in the best way possible.
TBPM: Let's talk a little bit more about the South African costumes and their influences.
DG: The movie takes place in Africa, so they wanted to pay homage to the place that was the roots of this movie.
Lebo M was the original orchestrator and creator of that iconic opening, “Circle of Life,” and wrote a lot of the music in the show along with Elton John. Paying homage to where he came from and the roots of the movie really tackles what is not just an animated feature cartoon; it tackles all of the culture.
All the corsets are hand-stitched and hand-beaded. The fabric and everything else just have such an amazing influence.
I think there are five or six different South African languages that are spoken from Zulu to Swahili to a few others intertwined throughout the show. A lot of South African lyrics are being sung. And what's special about our show is that you sit there and you might not understand what's being said or sung, but you can feel exactly what's happening.
TBPM: The use of puppetry is incorporated in a lot of these characters, too. What’s that like?
DG: Well, Pumbaa is an eight-foot-long, 50-pound body puppet. He's a big boy. I think there are over 120 different puppets that we use in the show and they range anywhere from full body puppets like Pumbaa to shadow puppets behind a piece of fabric with light shown behind them.
It's not just one specific type of puppetry. It's not one specific South African language that we're focusing on. It's that melting pot that incorporates so much, and it just creates something so special.
TBPM: What was it like having to train to do that?
DG: It's so unique. You take on a part where it's just you in a costume on stage, and you figure out your character and embody what they are. How do they stand? How do they walk? How would they carry themselves and such? With Pumbaa, most of my body is covered by the puppet. So, it's really the question of how does that puppet become me? So, when I look left, my muscle memory takes the whole body left, etc.
It's all kinds of one movement in motion. And we have a full-time puppet department that travels with our show full-time, headed by Michael Riley, who's an incredible puppet master. They do a good job early in rehearsals, being around to help you get in and out of it, to show you exactly how it works, and give you some tips and tricks on what works and all that.
The show's been on Broadway for 27 years. The tour's been out for almost 23 now. It's a smash hit musical that is a very well-oiled machine at this point.
They showed me the basic mechanics of the puppet, and they said, “Okay, now make it your own. And how would your Pumbaa move? How would he say this line? What bits would you come up with within that?” So, it was freeing in a sense, as an actor, to come in wanting to physically embody a character like you would, taking on a different part, only within a puppet. So, there was a lot of freedom within that to kind of play.
And my Timon, Nick Corleone, is incredible. He's been in the show for 12 years. I thought I'd come in and defer to whatever bits he thought worked or how he likes to do things and everything. But he was incredible in the sense that we just came in from even playing fields. And we were able to organically create this whole new Timon and Pumbaa, you know, vibe or life that, you know, he hadn't done with another actor before.
TBPM: You’re a new dad! How is it balancing parent life and touring life?
DG: It's definitely a day-by-day process. I've been on the road about six months now. My wife and I were just talking the other day – I feel like we're starting to find a groove of how this all works with raising a kid on the road.
It was definitely a learning curve. I will say, they always say it takes a village, and that is more than true out here. We travel with a cast of about 50. There's a little over 120 in the company. And I would say with spouses and other families on the road, there's probably close to 200 folks that travel city to city. So, we're literally a small village traveling, if you will.
And within that, the company has been unbelievable. The second they found out that my family was coming on the road with me. People would come out of the woodwork to babysit, to help out, to offer advice, to anything and everything in between.
But I'll tell you what, the real MVP has been my wife. She didn't hesitate. We packed up our dog and her and my daughter all came on the road. She's been incredible. She's obviously full-time, solo parenting anytime I'm at the show or doing press or in meetings for the show. She's definitely the real rock star in that whole thing.
TBPM: When people come to the show for the first time, what can you tell them to expect?
DG: That it’s going to really blow you away. I think the biggest thing is to expect the story from the movie and then expect from the go to get shot out of a candidate 120 miles an hour.
Admittedly, I had never seen the show on stage until I got the job. What blew me away the first time I saw this was the first day of my rehearsals. I got to sit in and watch it when we were in Greenville. South Carolina, but I was just so blown away with not only the special effects, but just the way that it creates some iconic looks and moments from the movie live on stage. Then that curtain goes up and Rafiki is out there to start the “Circle of Life.”
Mukelisiwe Goba is our Rafiki. She starts in a stratosphere that is completely unmatched. You're sitting back in your seat, blown away by the energy that just hits you from the go, you know, and that's sort of incredible.
But I think the biggest takeaway is that a lot of the special effects that we use to tell the story are all the original designs from Julie Tamor and the original team. So, the fact that after almost 30 years, they still hold up and have that much of an impact and really elevate and can tell a story so greatly. With where technology is today and where CGI or other certain things that are sort of incorporated into today's modern Broadway shows, I think that the most incredible thing is that they were so far ahead of their time when they designed it. It’s close to 30 years later, and it still has people in tears and on their feet, erupting in applause and screams every night. It's a really cool thing to see.
If you know the movie, you're going to get that story times ten, and I guarantee you'll leave satisfied.
TBPM: Do you have a favorite moment in the show?
DG: When I started out, my favorite moment was the “They Live in Your Reprise” from the song “He Lives in You.”
I'll give this away. There's a moment where, at the end of the song, the entire cast is out in traditional South African clothing, and they're singing and there's dancers leaping across the stage and it's this huge celebration and the song itself is just so catchy. I have to go on right after that, so I get to stand on the wing and just have a front-row seat to it every night.
It's just an incredible experience. And then, selfishly, being a part of it, I love the finale.
There are a lot of fun moments, but Timon and Pumbaa are very isolated, mostly interacting with Simba and Nala for the majority of the show. So I get to see a lot of the other cast backstage in passing, but they're changing or on a break while we're out and vice versa. And most of Act One before we come on, I'm in a makeup chair, I'm getting in a costume and stuff like that.
So, the finale is really the first time where we're literally on stage with everyone in the show and just being able to look across the stage and make eye contact with some castmates that I hadn't interacted with the whole night up until then. It’s really special, and just getting to share that and being lucky enough to be more in the front of the stage of the group and just hearing that sound that comes in and that circle from behind me, it gives me chills every night. It's such a powerhouse moment, for sure.
You can see Danny and the rest of the cast of The Lion King at the Straz Center from April 2-20. For tickets, visit strazcenter.org.