(soft music)
- I'm Bradley Gibson and I play Simba in "The Lion King."
Simba is a role that's been in my life,
my entire life, since I can remember.
"The Lion King" was the first show I ever saw on Broadway,
also the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater,
so it's always been relevant in my life
and always was around.
Simba represents discovery, he represents self-discovery,
and navigating that through healing, healing through
the trauma, which I think is incredibly human,
which allows everyone to be able to see themselves in Simba.
It's a lot of fun to navigate the story,
because he's incredibly complex, but yet he's incredibly
light and fun, and it's a Disney show, but if you get
the audience where they need to be, they're gonna see
everything that's underneath that, they're gonna see
what's more behind the curtain of Simba's life, right?
They're gonna see the incredible heartbreaking trauma
that he experiences as a child, that he has to hide,
or chooses to hide throughout his adult life,
to get to the end of the show, which is climbing Pride Rock.
About 15 minutes 'til the show, I go upstairs to make-up,
and the amazing Brenda O'Brian transforms me into Simba,
she's been painting the faces of many men
who have played Simba before me.
I actually love that time because during my time here,
we've become buddies, we talk about everything,
about our day, our old stories, movies that we're watching,
Netflix shows that we're binging, and she really gets me
into a place where not only am I looking in the mirror
and seeing myself become Simba,
but also it centers me, it grounds me.
The key to playing Simba is to have an ability to understand
yourself, also understand how to navigate the heartbreak,
how to go through heartbreak but also see the positivity
in life, having the positivity flourish through your life,
but also being in tune with the pain.
I go back downstairs, I start my physical warm up,
I do a lot of stretching.
(soft music)
Push ups and just getting my body ready to do
what I have to do on stage.
Playing Simba has been an amazing opportunity,
because it's kind of forced me to see how strong
that I am, doing eight shows a week on Broadway
is not easy in any capacity, but Simba is very physical.
The show for everyone, "The Lion King" is very physical,
so you're having to take care of your body
in a way that I've never had to before,
and to navigate that is not the easiest thing
in the world, but I've shown that I can do that.
I drink tea, I drink a lot of coconut water,
coconut water is my best friend.
I have to drink a lot of regular H2O 'cause I sweat
so much on the show, so what I make sure to do
is to hydrate myself for my voice,
but also for my body and for my energy.
I wear a pair of harem pants, I wear a corset,
which is beaded, a pair of shoes that are padded,
with cuffs on my ankles and my wrists, and also,
last by not least, my Simba mask, which is a lion's mask
which has horse hair as the mane.
Before I go on stage, I always say to myself my mantra,
I say "I come as one, but I stand as 10 thousand."
Maya Angelou said that, I live by that, because I do it
for everyone who came before me, and everyone
who's gonna come after me, and playing this role,
and being in this moment, and standing on that stage
every night is a moment of affirmation for me.
(soft upbeat music)