Backstage tour of Disney's 'The Lion King' at the Academy of Music in Philly

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Disney's The Lion King is on stage right now at the Kimmel Cultural Campus.

The Tony Award-winning musical from our parent company has been on Broadway for 25 years and on the road for 21.

Our Alica Vitarelli got a chance to go backstage at the Academy of Music to see how the magic comes to life.

Our backstage tour started with Jeremy Noel, one of the stars, who is from Bucks County.

After more than 700 shows on the road, the 23-year-old from Sellersville is finally performing to a home crowd.

"It's a feeling that I can't explain," Noel says.

Noel is in the ensemble and makes his entrance down the aisle inside a massive elephant.

He is also an understudy for Simba.

"My family and friends, and teachers from middle school and high school came and saw the show," Noel says. "I remember when I swung out and landed as Simba, they were all cheering."

Meanwhile, backstage, the costumes and the sets are all stacked from the floors to the rafters.

Each and every piece is identical to the Broadway production.

"We have over 300 costume changes throughout the course of the show," says Wardrobe Assistant Quinto Ott. "There's a lot of pieces for a lot of people."

We saw the masks and costumes worn by the lionesses, with incredible detail down to the eyelashes, every bead, every stone, authentic and custom.

Scar's costume has the claws attached to the leotard.

"They look really kind of hard and sharp, but they're actually made of their leather," Ott explains, "so they're actually quite soft!"

The actors control their motorized masks.

The idea is for human and animal to become one on stage.

"It takes what is a cartoon and allows the actor to kind of embrace the duality of the animal and the human," says Puppet Supervisor Michael Reilly, "which is really the magic of The Lion King on stage."

Taking this show on the road takes three advance trailers and 17 semi-trucks.

The show is here through September 10.