Remembering Ben Lipitz (1964-2023) of Broadway's THE LION KING

Back in 2016, the national tour of THE LION KING played a month-long engagement at the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina. Prior to that, I was able to interview actor Ben Lipitz for BroadwayWorld by phone. At the time, he was in the show as Pumbaa, a part he played for more than 6,000 performances through both the tour and Broadway productions. Ben recently passed away on April 18th at the age of 58. So what I decided to do is share with all of you the aforementioned interview. I've also included a snippet from a conversation I had with the tour's head carpenter at the time, Billy Kimbley, as the show was loading into DPAC a few days before the run began.

Ben Lipitz's previous stage credits included RED, HOT, AND BLUE (Goodspeed Opera, Papermill Playhouse); JUST SO (Goodspeed Opera); ART; DIRTY BLONDE; LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR; A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM; Cleveland Playhouse, Kennedy Center, Walnut St. Theatre. TV: THE SOPRANOS, LAW & ORDER, 100 CENTRE ST., HOMICIDE. Film: THE GIRAFFE and FIND ME GUILTY (directed by Sidney Lumet).

*I do not own any of the content used in this podcast.

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