Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "The Lion King" at Shea's Performing Arts Center roars in Wednesday. Over the next three weeks, an actor with Buffalo roots will take the stage, and what he'll play will depend on the show.
"It's a dream come true," said Gabriel Croom, who comes home to Buffalo as a swing performer during the three-week stop. "That means that I actually cover all of the male dancer roles. So I can go on for a giraffe, a zebra, gazelle, and any of the animals you see on the stage."
Croom says preparing is a challenge.
"I learned the show as one track. But when I left the show, and then they would call me back, because 'The Lion King' is so universal, there are tours all over the world, including the one in New York," he said. "So I was blessed to have been on the list to cover roles now. So I got to learn each individual role as I would come back and cover different roles. As swings, we create a book that kind of gives us a layout of each scene and what the different characters do, just to make our heads not explode."
Croom was blessed to be influenced in theater at an early age, attending the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts.
"I started off as an acting major, because in that school, you were able to major in the arts, and was exposed to dance and singing and music as well," Croom said. "I actually started there when I was 10-years-old, and had incredible teachers, and it actually opened me up to do other opportunities, because I was there at a time when Studio Arena Theater was still there and Pfeiffer Theater still there and Alleyway Theater."
Croom says his first show he saw at Shea's was "Cats," and he's thrilled to be on the stage he grew up sitting in as the theater's audience.
"Shea's is such a beautiful theater, especially the way they renovated it. So I'm really excited to finally have the opportunity to perform at that incredible venue," he said. especially with family and friends present.
In fact, Croom has been asked for some 20 tickets, and he's trying to figure that all out.
"The Lion King" runs through Jan. 5.