By 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Zach Lascari of Albuquerque was bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, his head on a pillow on the floor of the foyer of Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico.
Lascari had arrived at 7 p.m. the day before. He didn’t get much sleep, didn’t do much, but he achieved his objective: He was first in line when single-ticket sales started 12 hours later for the 32 performances by a North American touring production of Disney’s “The Lion King” at Popejoy. The long-running Broadway musical hit opens at the hall on Oct. 2.
“My parents (Mike and Nannette Boyce of Las Cruces) saw the show in New York. They told me it’s amazing. So I wanted to share that experience with my son, Sebastian, who is 3,” said Lascari, who was one of about 400 people in line when tickets went on sale in the morning.
He bought five tickets: for himself, for Sebastian, his wife, Rose, and his parents.
Ann Maes of Santa Fe woke up at 4:30 a.m. Saturday to make sure she had a place in line to buy a ticket for herself and her husband, Tomás.
“I saw ‘Lion King’ in New York City 15 years ago when it opened. It was so memorable. The choreography was phenomenal,” Maes said.
The person in line who may have traveled the farthest was Gabriel Sanchez, who flew in from Seattle, Wash., where he has a home.
With him was his wife, Yvonne Sanchez of Socorro, who was buying tickets for them, a granddaughter and a niece.
Lascari, a physical therapist assistant in Rio Rancho, said he was going to make up for the sleep deprivation on Saturday so he’ll be ready to watch the Super Bowl today.
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