Production: The Lion King (2017)

Performer: Nick Cordileone

Role: Timon

Timon is obviously a physically smaller character because he’s meerkat. Can you talk about your costume, since it’s a little bit different from some of the others?

My costume is pretty simple. It’s just a green jumpsuit, but the puppet..! He’s three and half feet, modified puppet that stands in front of me. Our feet are attached, cables attach my head to his head, kind of like a drummer in a marching band harness that I wear that he kind of jumps on. It’s really great, super responsive, very articulated, and just a blast to perform in. It’s very organic and alive.

You definitely mastered that Timon accent! Did that take much practice?

Early on when I started, I was a reader for people who were coming in to audition. I was just messing around, and in my head, it kind of sounded like the character actor Bruno Kirby, and I was like, oh, you know, I can do a kind of Bruno Kirby take on it. But the way it’s written, it just slipped into a sort of Nathan Lane-y, Jersey kind of thing, so it came naturally.

Is there anything else you think people would be interested in knowing, particularly from the backstage perspective?

Yeah! What I love about the whole show is that it is, there’s a lot of beautiful sort of, visual feast. So Broadway, and yet it’s kind of low tech- very old story telling methods. My favorite effect is the apparition when Mufasa comes back. It’s so beautiful and so simple. It’s such a simple mechanism, but it tells the story and it tells is beautifully. It’s timeless.

Feature Photo Credit: Joan Marcus