A Lion King cast member talks performing on Broadway.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- It is no secret that “The Lion King” is very close to opening its curtains to Springfield. However, what a Broadway performer does before and after the show is not widely known.
Spencer Plachy plays the iconic evil uncle Scar in “The Lion King.” He has played this part since October 2018.
Plachy went to college in Huntsville, Texas, at Sam Houston State University, where he began performing about 17 years ago. His acting career started with amusement park performances over summers.
After college, he did a few “buff and truck tours,” traveing across the country.
“I’ve done a couple of understudy jobs on Broadway with one little off-Broadway contract,” Plachy said.
Once, Plachy landed a job on the big screen, starring opposite Jennifer Lopez on “Shades of Blue,” where he had one line.
“I hope I get to do more of that,” Plachy said. “It was very fun to be on set.”
Plachy has performed in two Broadway shows — the most recent revival of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
“I was in the ensemble for both of these, so I understudied Jasper and Neville (for “Edwin Drood”) and for “Romeo and Juliet,” I played the apothecary, which is a one scene part,” Plachy said. “I understudied Mercutio.”
Now, Plachy gets to be the villain in a Disney classic. His agent in New York City reached out to him when they found out the national tour of “The Lion King” was going to need a replacement Scar.
“I talked it over with my wife and we decided it’s a job worth pursuing at this stage,” Plachy said. “It all worked out.”
Plachy draws inspiration for his character from the actor who voices scar in the 1994 movie, as well as the actor who played Scar when the musical first went to Broadway in 1997.
“I also learned a lot from the Scar who I replaced,” Plachy said. “He is an actor who I’ve known for many years so I learned a lot from him.”
On top of preparing a character, Plachy had to learn the technical aspects as well. He said the costume alone weighs about 38 pounds.
Scar also uses a mechanical mask that operates throughout the show, according to Plachy.
“That takes a lot of getting used to,” Plachy said. “To figure out how to make it a part of your body, so to speak.”
Generally, Plachy said, the people who join the tour the way he did get approximately four to five weeks to practice with the heavy costumes and animal body movements.
“That’s one week of rehearsal in New York before I came out on the road and four more weeks of rehearsal before I actually started performing,” Plachy said.
The Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts has had to undergo a few changes to fit the set of “The Lion King,” such as temporarily removing seats and parts of the ceiling.
As much as Juanita K. does to prepare for the show, Plachy said the associate creators who have been with the show for years will come in and assess what parts of the show need to be altered to fit the space. But, it’s not just Springfield — this happens at every venue.
“For the most part, the adjustments are pretty minor, considering the whole production,” Plachy said. “Most of it remains intact, but there are minor adjustments that need to be made.”
The venues are not the only things seeing revisions. The cast and crew will also have to play the alteration game to help the show run smoothly.
“Sometimes there are entrances that need to be made in the house and depending on the space those will have to be switched around,” Plachy said. “There’s an adjustment every venue.”
The actors do not have much time to practice in the new venues either. The actors in “The Lion King” will be in Springfield on Feb. 25, even though the show opens on Feb. 27.
Plachy said usually a show will close on a Sunday in each city and everyone will travel the next day.
“Tuesday is really a day for the crew to get the technical aspects loaded in,” Plachy said. "Then we, the cast, will convene that Wednesday morning. That morning, we will have a meeting, we will get oriented to the venue.”
Plachy said that afternoon, everyone goes through a “tech-run” of the show to benefit the local crew.
After the tech-run, Plachy said they will perform in front of an audience that night.
“The first Wednesday in each city is a long day,” Plachy said.
In regards to the stage musical compared to the movie, Plachy said there have been slight changes, starting with the amount of music.
“The music has been beautifully expanded for the Broadway show version,” Plachy said. “There’s so much more music in this version than in the movie.”
To Plachy, the musical aspect is the biggest change that jumps out at him. He said there are very small dialogue changes that most audiences would not even notice.
“For example, in both versions there is a day where Simba gets to spend the day looking at the kingdom with his father,” Plachy said. “But in the movie, Simba comes to wake his father up, and he’s all excited about it. In this version, it seems to imply that Mufasa had to wake Simba up and get him going for the day. Little things like that.”
Plachy said while getting to go to cities he has never been to has been wonderful, he wants others to know that his job is not easy.
But even though it is physically demanding, Plachy said it is filled with “plenty” of reward.
“It’s one of the few lines of work where at the end of your day, a thousand people stand up and clap and cheer for you,” Plachy said. “That doesn’t happen very often in most professions.”
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