-It's called [indistinct], okay. -So you're going to --
It's here, here, here.
Exactly. -Ooh!
Yours was prettier than mine.
Yes, yes, yes. We should do a trade.
-Thank you. -We should do a trade.
Thank you. -[ Laughs ]
So I'm going to [indistinct] out of here.
Exactly.
♪♪
Scribner: The lives of Broadway performers are busy.
They only have a few short hours
between their matinee and evening performances,
and they're giving us an inside look,
from grabbing a bite to unwinding,
plus a backstage tour.
Have you ever wanted to see what we do in the time
sandwiched between performances?
Follow along and find out.
This is "Broadway Sandwich."
♪♪
Today we're at the Minskoff Theatre,
home of one of the biggest Broadway shows of all time.
They're about to finish up their matinee.
That show, of course, "The Lion King."
♪♪
To give you an idea of how massive this show is,
there are 25 global productions around the world, 232 puppets,
which took 37,000 hours to make along with the masks,
and six different indigenous African languages
spoken in the show.
Today we get to meet up with Bradley Gibson,
who plays none other than Simba himself.
Bradley joined the cast about a year ago
after starring in "A Bronx Tale,"
plus a stint on the national tour of "Chicago"
and his Broadway debut in "Rocky."
Bradley. Hey.
How was you show?
Good, you know, two-show day, great.
Matinee went well?
Yeah. Good, cool.
So we only have a few short hours
before we have to get you right back to the theater
to do your second show.
So what's the plan now?
Let's get a little P.S. Kitchen. Okay.
Then we'll get a manicure, a little self care. Oh, that sounds good
because I need help with these cuticles. Oh, they'll fix that.
Let's do it, and then maybe a theatre tour after?
Absolutely. Let's go.
Let's go. Perfect.
♪♪
Gibson: Cheers. It's so nice to get to know you and spend time together.
It's nice to meet you. Talk about the difference between doing new work
and doing something that is an institution.
"Lion King" has been going for almost 22 years now.
You're jumping on a moving train that is moving at full speed,
and it's not going to stop for anybody.
You know? You got to jump on.
Yeah. Thank you.
Oh, this is beautiful.
Look at that. -There you go.
And you saw "The Lion King" as a kid?
Yeah. Everybody knows, I mean,
everybody knows "The Lion King." Yeah.
Does that put a lot of pressure on you?
How has that changed, like, doing that musical?
Yes, just because I love the movie so much. Mm-hmm.
It was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater.
Really? As a kid, with my mom, yeah.
I remember sitting there and loving it,
and so I, you know, I had a "Lion King" comforter
and a "Lion King" birthday party.
So, yeah, it's terrifying every day, but so exciting.
[ Laughter ]
And how do relate to Simba's journey?
It's really a story about healing.
Right. How do I move past this pain?
How do I face it head on,
talk about it, feel it, breathe into it,
but then let it go and use that to a better good, you know?
Mmm. I think that's really
what I connect with most in the show.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, so it's spa day. It's spa time.
I need to get my nails done, right?
Yes. Because it's crusty.
These cuticles are janky.
Yeah. Ready to roll? Let's do it.
Okay.
Whoo! Let's do it!
It's a cute spring day for our self care day.
Let's go this way. Okay.
So what kinds of things have you learned about yourself
with each show that you've done and about the business?
Yeah, "Bronx Tale" taught me about the community
and about how, you know, you really make friends
that feel like family, that are, you know,
everyone is lifting each other up.
So what have you learned from "The Lion King"?
Oh, "The Lion King" is teaching me
how to survive an eight-show week
and how to have a life.
Outside of the show? Outside of the show.
Yeah, and a big feature of that is, of course,
keeping our nails right, which we're about to do.
Can't wait. Oh, my gosh, yes. Taking care of yourself, yes.
♪♪
All right, so we also have to make sure our nails are nice
because that ring on your fourth finger...
This ring, yeah. ...needs to be highly featured.
Yeah. Tell me about that.
Yeah, I got engaged in February.
So it's a new... Congratulations.
...a new addition to my hand.
And tell me about him.
He is also a performer. Yeah?
He was just in "Once On This Island" on Broadway.
His name is Adam, and he is the best.
I knew really early on when we met
that this was the person that I wanted to spend my life with.
What other kind of stuff do you get into between shows to relax?
You know, sometimes I like to go home.
I think it's nice to kind of go home
and have that quiet of your own space.
Totally, and then what do you do
after your second show of the day?
I finish a show, you know,
literally climbing Pride Rock and, like, bowing to the kingdom
and hearing the roar of the crowd,
so coming down from that is sometimes hard.
So I try to just kind of get quiet.
Oh, I could stay here all day.
I am going to stay here all day.
[ Laughter ]
But we got to do a show. I got to do another show.
Yeah, you have to get back to the theatre. It's time to go.
-Bye. -Bye-bye.
Okay, Bradley, this is a really fun part of the show.
It's our "60 Second Sandwich."
60 seconds on the clock, you got to answer
as many questions as you can in that time.
Are you ready? Okay, let's do it.
Here we go. Clock is on.
Facebook's Leah Passione wants to know
other Disney roles you'd want to tackle? Hercules.
Instagram's Britt Ville wants to know about others
in "The Lion King." Scar.
Ever dress up as a Disney character as a kid?
Yes, Mickey Mouse.
Instagram's Marissa K. Connelly -- "Favorite song
to perform from 'A Bronx Tale'?" "Hurt Someone."
Favorite song from "The Lion King"?
"Endless Night." Amazing, 42 seconds.
Same use -- "Favorite memory from 'A Bronx Tale'?"
The family I created. Aw.
"Do you take your makeup off between every show?"
Sometimes. Sometimes I do. Okay.
Finley Mullin on Instagram wants to know
how long the makeup takes before each show?
About 20 minutes.
Favorite post-show treat?
Popcorn.
R. Brian Lee on Instagram wants to know,
"How much does the headwear in the show weigh,
and are their any special measures to avoid injury?"
It's about 5 pounds, got to do a lot of neck
stretching to keep myself together. Love it, 15 seconds.
"Best advice ever received?"
Don't take yourself too seriously.
Calum Fisher on Instagram wants to know,
"What's the funniest mishap ever onstage?"
Oh, my mic fell out of my mask onstage, awful.
Five seconds, last question.
Linds R.C. on Instagram --
"How does being so young on Broadway feel?" Crazy, amazing.
"Crazy amazing," that's it, 11! Nailed it! Yeah!
We did it. Perfect, now we've got to get you back to your show.
Let's do it. Let's go.
♪♪
We're back. Here we are, home sweet home.
Uh-oh. What happened?
I'm locked out. Are you still on the payroll?
I'm still here, I think.
I think.
We're in. All right.
♪♪
Now this feels like a Disney elevator.
Going up.
Wardrobe, hair and makeup, puppet department.
Yeah. Because you have 232 puppets, which I learned.
Yep. That is insane.
Here we are. Oh, this is stage level?
Stage right. On stage right.
Yep. And you've got all the stuff flown up.
Yeah, elephant graveyard.
The cheetah. Yeah, the cheetah is up there.
Okay, the cheetah is my favorite part.
It's the best part. One of my favorite parts of the show.
She is so incredible, how she moves that thing.
It's so graceful. And I see Zazu right here.
Yeah, Zazu is right here, the puppet.
Even coordinating turquoise pillows to go
with the colors of the bird -- perfect.
Everything is right here at "The Lion King." I love that.
This is the men's bunker. Oh, wow!
You know, the hyenas are here.
You know, it really is like a magical African fort.
Yeah, right? Whoa, these are so special.
This is the coolest part to me. The lionesses.
This really kind of shows what the costumes do for the show.
Julie Taymor did a pretty good job, right?
Julie Taymor, Elton John, Tim Rice, not bad.
Not a bad group. Not bad at all.
Completely nervous 'cause I feel like I'm going to go onstage.
Okay, so you come out this wing?
Right out this wing. And you -- geez.
Quite an entrance. I land center stage,
and I start the show, yeah.
Oh, man, I love this theatre.
It's pretty big, right? It's gorgeous.
You know, I always forget how wide it is, how vast. Yeah.
Is there anything else that you find special about being up here
or anything you think about when you're onstage?
Yeah, I think when I first saw the show.
When I first saw the show in high school,
I sat in the center row of the mezzanine,
and I was taken by such a surprise,
to see so many people onstage that looked like me.
It reinforced my dreams.
It made me feel like there was a place for me here.
You know, being from North Carolina,
from a little small town, I always kind of felt like,
"How could I get to New York?
How can my dreams become a reality?"
Yeah. But then I saw this show.
I'd never seen a show with a black cast on Broadway
or on tour, community theater, anything like that before.
So this was my first experience
seeing a full stage of people dancing and singing
and acting that looked like me, and that did so much for me.
I remember I got back home to North Carolina,
and I kind of was on a mission then to really,
really understand how to become a professional
and how to do it and how to get here,
and it's crazy to think that 14 years later,
I'm in the same show.
So you come out, and there's this incredible parade
of animals for that "Circle of Life" moment,
and I was, like, really overcome with something.
Yeah. Watching it, I was surprised, myself,
at how emotional I got with that moment
because you're immediately transported.
Powerful. It's very powerful because you are always affecting
someone else out there in the audience.
It is -- It's their first time.
So how do I make that
an exciting moment for their first time?
How do I make them feel something for the first time,
and how do I kind of get over myself?
You know? Yeah.
Because I remember being that high school boy
from North Carolina, in the first row of the balcony,
just --
Yeah, pretty crazy. I love that.
Now, when I was watching the show also,
I couldn't help but think, I mean, so much of the show
is about who comes before us, the people before us.
I can't help but think about my parents,
particularly the moment when -- We've all seen the movie --
what happens to Mufasa, Simba's father.
Mufasa lies dead on the center of the stage,
and little Simba is like, "Come on, Dad, wake up."
Yeah, yeah. "Come on, what are you doing?"
Yeah. He doesn't understand, you know, his father is gone.
It's so beautiful to see that tragedy can be overcome,
and that those people who we lose along the way
always stick with us.
Mm-hmm. You know? Sorry.
[ Chuckles ] Yeah, I know.
One of my favorite quotes in the world is,
"I come as one, but I stand as 10,000,"
and I think about that so much in everything that I do,
but I think about that so much in this show
because of my history with the show and history with my family.
You know?
I wouldn't be here without my family,
but that's why it's beautiful, too.
The show is so much about healing.
Right. Simba is healed throughout the show.
So therefore, I think audiences heal, too. Yeah.
When he climbs Pride Rock at the end of the show,
there's no way that you can't kind of feel,
you know, healed and empowered.
It's about animals,
but it's the most human story in the world, I think.
I think so, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I think it'll be here forever.
A 30-something-year-old man, and I'm crying at Disney. [ Laughs ]
I know, it does that. Early 30s, very early 30s.
Early, right. Anyway, I want to see your dressing room before I go.
I have to see it. Let's go see it.
All right. Which way? Is it stage left? This way.
Okay, perfect.
Oh, here we go. This is you?
This is my dressing room.
Okay, excuse me, this is a very nice dressing room.
It's really nice, right? I've seen a lot of them now.
Yeah, it's pretty nice.
Yeah, I share this with Steven Taylor,
who plays Mufasa, so father and son.
With Dad, I love that. Me and Dad in here.
Are there any preshow rituals that you can tell us
about before you go out there?
Yeah, preshow, I always have to steam.
Okay, for the juicy... Cords are juicy...
...cord effect. ...ready...
Right. ...ready to sing, you know.
How long do you do that for? Maybe like 10, 15 minutes.
Okay. All right. Just sit there, let is all get juicy.
And that's before the vocal warm-up?
Yeah, before the vocal warm-up, before the makeup.
Drink some water.
Okay. I've got some coconut water.
You've got the coconut water. And I'll steam.
See, I just think that tastes like sweat to me, coconut water.
But you're so grateful for it when you're onstage, I think.
True. Because I get out onstage,
and I'm there without any sort of break when I start.
Yeah, yeah. So if it gets dry, it's awful.
Yeah, you're done. You're cooked. All right.
Well, I think you have to do a second show.
I got to do a second show.
What if I just put the Simba costume on and went out there?
You think they would be cool with that? Can I go home while you do it?
Yeah, trade. Here, tag in.
I don't think they're going to like that very much.
Man, all right, well, thank you
for spending time with us between.
It's been so cool to see how you live your life between,
and you are wonderful, and thank you.
Oh, thank you. Yeah.
Bye, Bradley. Bye.
Have a great show. Thank you.
See you. I'll see you soon.
♪♪