Darian Sanders Stars as Simba in The Lion King at Overture: The Lion King Returns
Darian Sanders has blended ministry and the performing arts into a fulfilling professional career.
By Jonathan Gramling
The Lord works in mysterious ways. For Darian Sanders, who plays Simba in touring Broadway play The Lion King coming to Overture Theater, it seems that there has been some invisible hand that has guided Sanders throughout his life. While he is now a Broadway actor, dancer and singer, it didn’t always appear that was the direction his life would take.
“I grew up playing the trumpet,” Sanders said. “I played the trumpet for 20 years. It was something that I got a full ride scholarship to the University of Kentucky for. I was going to be a high school band director. I ended up leaving the University of Kentucky and doing ministry full time. That’s what I did for about 16 years. I became an ordained worship pastor.”
And then fate intervened.
“My current manager, Peggy with Square Peg Group, worked at a basketball game where I was singing the National Anthem,” Sanders said. “She then saw me and went to New York and talked to one of her clients who happened to be Matilda on Broadway at the time and happened to know me from church and connected us. She said, ‘Hey would you ever think about doing theater?’ I said, ‘I have never thought about it. I play the trumpet, so I would think about being in an orchestra pit. But I don’t dance. I don’t act. And I only sing in church.’ She said, ‘Perfect, I see some potential in you. And this is what I would like to do.’”
Sanders got hooked up with Dr. McCorvey in the University of Kentucky opera department where Sanders started singing and dancing. Sanders performed in A Grand Night For Singing and met Wendy Franklin Smith and Jeremy Smith who were the choreographers for the show and who were helping to create the LEX Theatre Co. in 2015. Sanders got involved on the ground floor.
“Their motto was, ‘Today’s Broadway Stars and Tomorrow’s Broadway Hopefuls,’” Sanders said. “They brought me into the theater company. They brought me in as a Broadway hopeful because I had never had any theater training. They partnered me with different Broadway stars and I auditioned to be in different shows. And eventually from there, I started taking some classes and some training with the artistic director.”
There were strong connections between Broadway and The LEX Theatre Co. And Sanders got his chance to audition.
“I was auditioning for Hamilton,” Sanders recalled. “And I had a series of call backs to Hamilton. While I was doing that, my manager Peggy asked me to audition to The Lion King. I submitted a video audition. And I had not heard back from neither Hamilton nor The Lion King. And so I took a worship pastor job in Louisville, Kentucky. And two years after taking that job, Peggy called and said, ‘Hey are you still interested in going to Broadway and The Lion King. They want you to audition for that.’ I ended up becoming an ensemble member and understudy for Simba. I started in September 2019 rehearsing for that ensemble role. And then in October 2019, I debuted in the ensemble. And in November 2019, I was blessed to have The Lion King tour actually come through Kentucky. I was able to debut Simba in front of my hometown in front of my wife and son and my best friend and family. It was a really cool experience. Sadly to say, I tore my meniscus and had to leave the show in December. While I was repairing my knee and recouping, the world was shut down for the pandemic for 18 months. It was a blessing in disguise. I was able to recover and recoup. I heard from Brandon McCall who was Simba on the tour and Broadway. They asked me to audition for Simba on tour. I did that and I’ve been doing that for the past 1-2 years.”
Sanders has a nice blend of ministry and Broadway going on.
“We worship in different venues and avenues around the country,” Sanders said. “There are churches that we get involved with as we tour around the country. It’s really cool because I get to partner with other cast members and put on Worship Night. It’s culminating all of the things that have brought me to this point.”
Sanders is married and he and his wife have a small child. Family is important to Sanders and he spends time with the family every chance he gets.
“My wife and child come on and off the road,” Sanders said. “They aren’t on the road full time with me. But depending on the cities we go to and how close we are to home, they will either come on the road with me for a little bit of time or I will go home in between cities or when I have days off.”
The Lion King will be performed at the Overture Center May 11-28. Based upon the Disney animated film, The Lion King has brought the animated feature to life.
“People ask, ‘Is it a spectacle,’” Sanders said. “I say, ‘It is utterly captivating.’ I would say the company and the creative team are so brilliantly wired and put together that there is something for everyone, between the music, the dancing, the colors, the scenery, and the puppetry, it really is a one-of-a-kind production. It really is just majestic. And I think the artistry of the musical theater that we present and what is being created from the animated feature is something that is appealing to anyone, audiences of truly all ages.”
The Lion King is one of those few shows that have cast a positive image of Africa. But for Sanders, it doesn’t stop there.
“It’s really amazing that we have cultivated and continue to illuminate the beautiful aspects of our show and knowing and understanding where we get a lot of our dialogue and dialect from,” Sanders observed. “But also we know and understand that it has transcended so many things. It honestly comes from a diverse influence of a lot of different things, from African music and mask making to Balinese puppetry. I would just say that The Lion King is truly diverse. And I think that it is so diverse that it has allowed us to perform in a lot of different languages and places. We have performances that are in English, Japanese, Korean, French, German and Spanish. And we are in a lot of different places not only in America, but also in London, Hamburg, Tokyo and Madrid. I think that it is something that just speaks to not only the culture of Africa, but just the culture that the world has to offer.”
The Lion King is a colorful, engaging spectacle for the whole family.
For ticket information, visit https://www.overture.org/tickets-events/