He made us laugh on stage and screen from “The Lion King” to “The Birdcage” to “The Producers.”
The prolific Nathan Lane will receive Signature Theatre’s Sondheim Award at The Anthem on Monday, April 29.
“You start to feel really old, you start to think that this was the kind of thing they gave Angela Lansbury,” Lane told WTOP. “[Stephen Sondheim] was a hero to me and I was very lucky over the years to work with him many, many times, so it has a real significance on a personal level too, just to be getting this. Somewhere Steve is laughing, but yeah, it’s a lovely honor and I’m happy to be coming to Washington.”
Lane won his first Tony Award for the 1996 revival of Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” They teamed up again on a 2004 adaptation of “The Frogs,” in which Lane starred and revised the book.
“He was drawn to really interesting and surprising subjects,” Lane said. “He’s sort of known for being brainy, an intellectual and sophisticated, but I think he writes about what people are going through: the longing and the loneliness. He writes about the human condition. … He was extraordinary in his musicianship, his lyric writing was extraordinary as well, and it has made him the person who has truly changed the face of musical theater.”
Lane will enjoy tributes from past co-stars, including Faith Prince, who won a Tony across Lane in the Broadway revival of “Guys & Dolls” (1992); Krysta Rodriguez, who starred with Lane in Broadway’s “The Addams Family” (2010); James Caverly, who played his son in Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” which won Lane an Emmy; and Susan Stroman, who directed Lane to his second Tony win for Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” (2001) on Broadway.
“‘The Producers’ was just that once in a lifetime phenomenon,” Lane said. “It was a zeitgeist hit. For some reason that’s what the audience really wanted. It was a throwback to old-fashioned musical comedy with an emphasis on comedy. … Whenever we did it, people just went crazy.”
This year also marks the 30th anniversary of Disney’s “The Lion King” (1994), in which Lane sang “Hakuna Matata” as the meerkat Timon to Ernie Sabella’s warthog Pumbaa, one of the great comic-relief duos in animated history.
“In May, we’re doing this Elton John and Hans Zimmer [event], it’s a ‘Lion King’ 30th anniversary concert at the Hollywood Bowl, so Ernie and I will be singing ‘Hakuna Matata,'” Lane said.
Hear our full conversation on the podcast below:
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