Queer Atlanta Dancer Returns Home in ‘The Lion King’ to Perform for His Own Mufasa
After eight years in the national touring company of Disney’s blockbuster musical The Lion King, Atlanta native Courtney Thomas, 30, is used to hearing applause.
But when the show opens at The Fox Theatre for a three-week run, the applause of his dad, Beau Harris, will pierce through to become a singular sound in Thomas’ ears.
A swing performer and dance captain, Thomas says he rarely gets nervous before performances but admits the matinee performance his dad attends will be different. “He’s been with me through this whole journey,” Thomas said of Harris. “So he’s seen every dance class I came home from crying.
He saw me wanting to give up. We lived so far away at one point that I would wake up at 5 a.m. to get to school on time. Then my day wouldn’t end until almost one or two o’clock, and Marta stops at a certain time, so I would stop as far as I could on the bus or train and walk two miles home every night if he couldn’t pick me up because he sometimes worked nights.” Raised on the Southwest side of Atlanta, Thomas attended North Atlanta High School before relocating briefly to West Virginia with his mother where he graduated.
