Five Inside: Get to Know The Lion King's Creative Engine, Musical Director Cherie Rosen

Broadway’s blockbuster musical The Lion King has many astounding qualities: sweeping sets, meticulously-designed costumes, larger-than-life puppetry. But none of these things would carry quite the same grandiosity without the show’s vivid score. Cherie Rosen bears much of this responsibility as The Lion King’s musical director and conductor.

She's been with the production full-time since 2005, but Rosen first took on musical direction in college. “The short story is I had a love of languages and music and I did a lot of things. I got involved with a show—I was in the show—but the pianist didn't show up one day and I said I could fudge my way through. Then, as a result of that, somebody asked me the next semester, 'Would you musical direct a show?' So I did that and it was like the lightbulb went off in my head. Oh, this kind of combines everything I love: music and storytelling and teamwork and, in the case of The Lion King, all these languages.”

Though she’s been with the show for over 20 years, Rosen started out as the associate conductor, a role which she held for 18 years. She took over as musical director after Karl Jurman, who had been with The Lion King for 26 years, retired in January of 2024. 2026 marks the beginning of her third full year in the position.

Rosen recalls a formative interaction with original company member Ron Kunene during her early days with the production. “He was in the original movie of The Lion King [as] one of the singers. He was in charge of teaching all the South African languages to the Americans. He had to teach me all the parts and how to pronounce all the words and what everything meant,” says Rosen. “He said to me that first day, ‘Cherie, you're walking through a doorway today into another world and this is going to change your whole life.’ I thought, ‘Okay, great.’ But now it's twenty-something years later and I realize how right he was. It changed my whole life and the way I look at the world. All the people that I've met here have enriched my world.”

Throughout the years. Rosen has sustained a meaningful relationship with L. Steven Taylor, who plays Pride Rock monarch Mufasa. “I had some days where I was learning the languages and doing preliminary things, but the first person that I rehearsed with was L. Steven. He's a lot younger than me, but we both happened to have sons that were in first grade. So all through these years, we keep checking in with each other. How's Boogie? How's Frankie? How's third grade? How's fifth grade? How are the college applications going? We've known each other that long.”

For Rosen, this type of enduring relationship is typical for those involved in The Lion King. “It's like a second family for everybody, especially for the South Africans who are miles and miles away from their home,” she continues. “When we came back together after COVID, we all came together—the musicians, the actors, the crew, the dressers, the ushers, every single person—one by one, each person told us about what their experience was like during COVID and why they were glad to be back and what was the hardest thing. We've been through everything together—marriages and divorces and babies and deaths of parents and brothers and cancer. We've just been through every life ritual that there is. So we have become like a family to one another.”

After more than two decades working on the show, the musical still holds tremendous power for Rosen. “The Lion King endures because it's a timeless story about community and family and stages of grief and survival and the meaning of finding your place, where you fit in the world and where you belong," she says. "That's a timeless story that can appeal to anybody of any age. Then there's the way we tell the story. It is so unique, with all the different languages and costumes and the puppets. It's like eye candy, and I get to watch it right up close. It's amazing."

She continues: “There's something magical and spiritual about the show and the way it's presented. Even people who don't speak English or understand the show at all, they're sobbing at the end. They come to me and they're like, ‘Thank you.’ They can't even say why, but it reduces everybody to their childlike sensibility, and that's something that everybody wants to pass on to their child.”

The Broadway Show's new Five Inside series highlights the individuals who help bring Broadway's long-running shows to life, both onstage and off.

GET TO KNOW THE LION KING FAMILY
The Star: L. Steven Taylor | The Debut: Jeremy Noel | The Long-Runner: Lindiwe Dlamini | The Creative Engine: Musical Director Cherie Rosen |  The Backstage MVP: Production Stage Manager Antonia Gianino

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