Just a couple of feet of stage.

That's what knocked the Broadway road show of "The Lion King" out of the Fox Theatre and a few blocks across Midtown into the larger, but concrete bunkerish, Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center.

John Spink/AJC (ENLARGE)
Workers loaded tractor-trailers with sets from 'The Lion King' to take them to the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center.
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"Lion King" is physically bigger than the usual musicals that come through Atlanta, from its impressive actor-puppet hybrid costumes that parade through the aisles (the elephant is 13 feet long, with four actors as its legs) to the massive Pride Rock, the central prop onstage.

But it's the "Lion King's" "footprint" that bumped it to the Civic Center, explained technical director David Benken. "Lion King" requires a stage that's at least 36 feet deep. The Civic Center, which has the largest stage in the Southeast, is 49 feet deep, while the Fox is a tad shallow at 34 feet, 7 inches.

"It would mean some artistic compromises in the lighting design" to play the Fox, Benken said. "The show is very much about the lighting, the whole look of the backdrop, how it balances with the costumes and the vision for the show. There's a whole row of footlights that [would] have to be cut to play the Fox.

"You'd be hard-pressed to put your finger on it and say that looks awful," he added. "But it does look better."

The stage production is large in every way, the apex of the trend toward bigger musicals that started with "Phantom of the Opera." The road show has a cast and crew of 143 and VIP tickets go for $132.50.

"Lion King" is also unusual in that it will play for five weeks, as opposed to the usual Atlanta road show run of one week. In its only Atlanta appearance so far, in January 2003, "Lion King" ran a record seven weeks.

The musical was considered just another in Disney's recent string of hit animated movies when it was re-imagined for Broadway in 1997 by director Julie Taymor and choreographer Garth Fagan. The Elton John and Tim Rice songs from the movie — "Circle of Life," "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?," etc. — were elevated into something grander by Taymor's dramatic, slightly avant-garde staging.