What happened to Julie Taymor?- Page 2

[Kad]

Posted: 1/30/26 at 6:20pm

Taymor seems like the sort of figure who will receive a big re-examination sometime in the not distant future and be newly re-appreciated. 

[Hey, Zelda!]

Posted: 1/30/26 at 7:06pm

Kad said: "Taymor seems like the sort of figure who will receive a big re-examination sometime in the not distant future and be newly re-appreciated."

Heck, this re-examination may even include Turn Off the Dark.

Not to diminish the pains that that show wrought, but, in certain pockets of musical theater fans and comic fans (and fans of both), there seems to be a cock-eyed appreciation for the fact that Taymor was allowed to take such a huge swing with the property at all. Which is inconceivable after a decade-plus of the Intellectual Property-Based Movie Machines at work, which have signed up directors with distinct and idiosyncratic styles just to plop them in the director's chair and leave them to shout "Action" and "Cut."

Updated On: 1/30/26 at 07:06 PM

[joevitus]

Posted: 1/30/26 at 9:50pm

Kad said: "Taymor seems like the sort of figure who will receive a big re-examination sometime in the not distant future and be newly re-appreciated."

I mean her resume is basically The Lion King. How much re-examination can there be? How much of her work has been filmed so that it can be re-evaluated?

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/30/26 at 10:06pm

Idunno. Not saying she's prolific but Green Bird, Magic Flute, Midsummer, Spider-Man 1.0. were all notable projects and she has had a significant film career that is always available to be visited. 

It's funny, I was just griping about the physical production of Ragtime in that thread. Lear and Julie have almost opposite strengths as directors in a way that also compliments what I find lacking in their productions. I don't know that someone of Taymor's sensibility and attitude would ever want to co-direct something but it would be nice to see a production that had her theatrical vision and deBessonnet's sensitivity with the performances. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 1/30/26 at 10:12pm

Her Magic Flute is divine.

[joevitus]

Posted: 1/30/26 at 11:09pm

I mean, when I think of, say, Hal Prince and even though the only one of his stagings I saw live was Evita, not only are there the video recordings of Pacific Overtures and Sweeney Todd, but the Broadway musical history books and websites are filled with images from his various shows, as well as specific moments descibed by people who saw them. He made history. We can say similar things about directors whose work almost no one still alive has ever seen, like Rouben Mamoulian or (in drama) Elia Kazan. I've never heard anyone outside the last couple of posts rhapsodize over Tramor's work beyond The Lion King. Maybe it is just too soon and she carried enough baggage that peole didn't want to acknowledge her work for awhile, but I just don't see enough of a record there to put her career among the important directors or give her much of a place in the history of musicals. shrug

Updated On: 1/30/26 at 11:09 PM

[CJRochester]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 8:23am

Two years before Lion King she staged Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass at the Beaumont. I recall it being a strange show but visually stunning. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Dari%C3%A9n:_A_Carnival_Mass

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 8:33am

TotallyEffed said: "Her Magic Flute is divine."

While I disagree, it’s been a fixture at the Met for over a decade now in multiple forms. She must make bank on that as well. I’ll also say her Grounded at the Public was quite stunning, wish it would have transferred. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 8:45am

I do wonder if the success of The Lion King (and maybe The Magic Flute) have allowed her to be more choosey in the shows she directs? She might not need (or feel she needs) to be more prolific because The Lion King will likely outlast all of us.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 9:34am

The Lion King on Broadway was and is a miracle. Thank you Julie. 

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 12:16pm

Taymor is a visionary.  Always has been.  Always will be.  She takes risks.  Swings big.

Sure, it hasn't always worked, but I defy anyone to say that the production design of Spiderman 1.0 wasn't brilliant.  There was nothing like it and hasn't been since.  Again, a massive risk that didn't pay off.

I admire directors who swing big.  More than I can say for most of the mundane **** that's on Broadway now.

 

Updated On: 1/31/26 at 12:16 PM

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 12:45pm

Firstly, Julie Taymor came from a family of means (which is how she was able to go to the four corners of the world to study the theatre and puppetry elements she is now synonymous for) so I don't think making money has been the chief motivator in her career. If it seems she has slowed down in recent years, its worth remembering she already had a completely remarkable, full career before THE LION KING ever happened, and those of you that only know her for her work after that production should look these works up. Many were filmed and are extraordinary.

 

[raddersons]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 1:16pm

Crazy to think that her last recent Broadway stint was almost 10 years ago when she directed M Butterfly. From what I remember the kabuki and geisha elements were quite spectacular as expected for Taymor, but the rest of the play was rather stiff. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 2:30pm

QueenAlice said: "Firstly, Julie Taymor came from a family of means (which is how she was able to go to the four corners of the world to study the theatre and puppetry elements she is now synonymous for) so I don't think making money has been the chief motivator in her career. If it seems she has slowed down in recent years, its worth remembering she already had a completely remarkable, full career before THE LION KING ever happened, and those of you that only know her for her work after that production should look these works up. Many were filmed and are extraordinary.

"

Anything you recommend?

[Kad]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 3:51pm

joevitus said: "Kad said: "Taymor seems like the sort of figure who will receive a big re-examination sometime in the not distant future and be newly re-appreciated."

I mean her resume is basically The Lion King. How much re-examination can there be? How much of her work has been filmed so that it can be re-evaluated?"

I mean this less in the sense of her being canonized and more looking at how she was publicly raked across the coals and made to wholly own the failure of Spider-Man to such an extent that it left her reputation in tatters and while it did not entirely kill her career, it knocked her so far down that it rendered her largely irrelevant. The fact she was a woman working in what was and still is an extremely male-dominated profession only adds to narrative. 

[Merkin2]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 5:31pm

She’s obviously not interested in doing theater or much of anything these days unlike Joe Mantello, who’s not far behind $Julie, who lives in Palm Springs much of the year but still works all the time

[Timon3]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 6:04pm

Heck those 2 have a gold platted pension scheme. Bit like Matt Stone  and Trey Parker, it would be pointless those 2 doing another musical, they’re not going to find those golden plates again. Likewise Robert Lopez.

Do we know what rough percentages of box office creatives get and does this go down as far to Lighting/Set/Costume Designers?

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 6:28pm

Eve a cursory review of her incomplete Wikipedia pages shows how prolific she has been.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Taymor

[Ke3]

Posted: 1/31/26 at 7:26pm

I agree with Kad about Julie probably getting a reconsideration in these next few years (especially her film work) however I've always wondered if we were sure Spider Man actually led to a decrease in offers for her.

She definitely took the reputational brunt in the public imagination but the only place Julie Taymor has really been absent is the Broadway stage. She has never been someone who was interested only in the Broadway stage.

As said above she came from a lot of money and then made even more money. It feels like a case of if she wanted to be on Broadway. She'd be on Broadway.