Word: lions
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...understand that the ocean ecosystem has been evolving over hundreds of millions of years as an integrated whole--a biological machine in which each component has a vital function. For most sharks, that function is to serve as what biologists call an apex predator, the ocean equivalent of a lion or tiger or bear. Not only do they keep prey populations in check, but they also tend to eat the slowest, weakest and least wily individuals. In so doing, they improve the target species' gene pool, leaving the smarter, stronger individuals to reproduce...
...anything like it." Since then Klimley has analyzed more than 130 videotaped white-shark attacks. All seem to follow a pattern. The powerful first bite usually takes place underwater, and the first sign of an attack is often a blood slick on the surface. Within 20 min., a sea lion or seal pops to the surface with a big chunk taken out of it. Then the shark appears, seizes the carcass and finishes...
...Broadway musical, Beauty and the Beast--based on the film and directed by a theme-park veteran, Rob Roth--was a traditional stage confection that came as close as possible to being a literal, three-dimensional re-creation of the movie. Yet to direct the stage version of The Lion King, the most successful movie in the company's history, Disney has hired someone who made her name in the avant-garde theater. It was a daring choice, for live theater has become an increasingly important part of the Disney empire. Beauty and the Beast, now in its fourth year...
None of this fazes Taymor. "I told them I wanted to go for elegance, not cute," she says. "The Lion King is a very commercial work, but what they've let me do is very experimental. I was totally delighted and surprised." Tom Schumacher, Disney's executive vice president of theatrical productions, first encountered Taymor when he was a producer for the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival, where he hoped to put on a musical she had co-written. That didn't work out, but a decade later--after Taymor had won acclaim for her presentations of opera (Oedipus Rex), children...
...also designed the costumes and (with Michael Curry) the masks and puppets. The Disney folks scoff at the notion that she was a risky choice. "I don't think the Julie part is the risk," says Peter Schneider, president of Disney animation and theatrical productions. "Putting The Lion King onstage is the risk." Schneider and Schumacher have both been looking over Taymor's shoulder in Minneapolis, watching rehearsals and consulting with her after preview performances. "She is extremely open to collaboration," says Schneider. Taymor seems comfortable with her corporate kibitzers. "If you really know what you're doing and have...