For Shelly Cohen, working with Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ is a ‘dream job’
“This is my dream job. This is everything I’ve wanted to do. I’m getting to live my dream."
Shelly Cohen said her mother, Adina, inspired her career in the entertainment industry.
“I was going to UC Davis and thought I was going to be a vet. I love animals but had a change of heart. It was my mom, who’s one of my biggest inspirations, that said ‘You love editing movies. You should go and study films. She really pushed me into chasing my dreams,” Cohen recalled.
That advice paid off well. Cohen’s career has included stints in both film and stage productions and included working with some of the biggest names in the industry including her current role as the associate company manager of Disney’s “The Lion King,” which she calls her “dream job.”
“I live 15 minutes from Disneyland and have loved Disney since I was a little kid,” she said. “‘[The] Lion King’ is a legacy show. It’s been on Broadway for almost 30 years.”
The breadth of the show is expansive. It has toured the world for more than two decades, traveling with 115 people and 21 trucks which are responsible for the show’s nightly production.
“The scope and the size is incredible,” Cohen said. “The amount of time it takes to put on the show, strike it and move it to the next city — it is a hurricane effort. It’s done in nine languages around the world. That’s nine productions currently going on around the world.”
Each, she said, connects with audiences and continues to inspire those who see it.
That may be because of the inclusiveness of the show which includes African music, more than one language and Balinese puppetry.
The puppets, she said, add to the magic of the show, breaking the “fourth wall” between the audience and performer.
“One of the most incredible things to watch,” she said, “I’ll go out with my boss and we’ll sit in the front of the show and watch people react. It’s a very special thing to see people’s eyes light up when they see the elephant go down the aisle and things like that.”
Cohen’s professional career began to take shape after graduating from college with an internship at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Next up was a stint with Broadway at Music Circus in Sacramento, California.
After work with several other companies, Cohen spent six years helping to bring a smile to children’s faces on productions of “Trolls Live,” “Paw Patrol Live” and “Sesame Street Live,” before working on several films — “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”
She said that in her role as associate company manager at “The Lion King,” she focuses on the logistical needs of the show. Together with her supervisor, she said, she manages the housing, travel and financial aspects of the show, including payroll and human resources and maintains union rules and guidelines.
“It’s kind of what you do in an office setting, but we travel with the show and have a little office setup where the cast and crew can come and talk to us if they have questions,” she said.
Those components, she said, combine to make each day unique. The next stop is Canada.
“I have to make sure every person has a hotel room and a plane ticket, that their name is spelled correctly, that they have their passports,” she said. “Every day is different, which I love.”
“The Lion King” has done approximately 10,000 performances in 90 cities across North America, Cohen said. “I take pride in myself because the show has been able to perform in cities it’s never been to, like Monterrey, Mexico. It’s probably one of my favorite highlights. There’s a new theater in Greensboro, North Carolina, that just opened while I was on the show. Being able to say we played somewhere for the first time is a big deal because it’s been in 90 cities over the course of 23 years,” she said.
Cohen’s role with “The Lion King” is more than simply a job. It’s provided a link to her grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors.
“It’s about what they’ve passed on,” she noted. “I love keeping [those] traditions that they have taught me. I have a very supportive family that is very big about hard work and service. It’s something both my grandparents and parents have passed on.”
Her Jewish background, she said, has imbued her the importance of being humble and being kind to everyone, something she keeps in mind traveling from city to city and country to country with “The Lion King.”
“If I could be half the person my mom is, I’d be the happiest person in the world. She escaped communism. She’s my hero. She’s remains humble and kind and finds joy in everything.”
That includes finding joy in her daughter’s role in Disney’s “The Lion King.”
“This is my dream job. This is everything I’ve wanted to do. I’m getting to live my dream. I remember, I sent my business card to my mom with Mickey Mouse on it and she started to cry. She said, ‘You’ve wanted this since you were 2 years old.’” PJC
Disney’s “The Lion King” will be staged Sept. 9-27 at the Benedum Center. Tickets can be purchased at Pittsburgh Cultural Trust official website: TrustArts.org.
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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