The excitement builds when the spectacular Disney musical “The Lion King” comes to town. After touring the world and thrilling millions of delighted adults and children, the dazzlingly beautiful show has returned to Broadway/San Diego’s Civic Theater for the first time since 2005. The North American tour is one of the seven productions running simultaneously around the world in such diverse cities as Fukuoka and Tokyo, Japan, in the United Kingdom in London, in ooh-la-la Paris, and Hamburg, Germany as well as the long-running New York production by the Nederlander Presentation folks. Director/costume designer and additional music composer Julie Taymor became the first woman director to win the Tony Award as Best Director of a Musical. When the show was first eligible for the awards season, it swept every conceivable kudo in existence, including six Tony Awards, six Outer Critics Circle awards, the New York Drama Critics award for best Musical, the Theatrical Event of the Year for the Evening Standard, two Oliver Awards, a Theater World Award, the Astaire Award for Outstanding Choreography (Garth Fagan), two Drama League Awards, and a smashing Best Musical Show Album from the Grammys. Other than those prestigious awards, it didn’t win anything! Oh, wait — Elton John and Tim Rice’s song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won the Oscar as Best Song for the animated film. Taymor is quite the talented woman. She’s not new to Broadway, having schlepped around theaters directing such shows a “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Titus Andronicus” and “The Green Bird,” which played at the La Jolla Playhouse. She has directed some operas (“Grendel,” “The Magic Flute,” “Salome”), written a book (“Julie Taymor: Playing With Fire”), and directed some films, including the two-time Oscar winner “Frida” starring Salma Hayak and “Titus” starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. Taymor designed the costumes and was co-designer of the masks and puppets with Michael Curry (2002 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies). Pop star John originally gained fame on the world stage through his music and hit records. His recording sales top 200 million worldwide. He wrote the new musical “Billy Elliot,” now playing in New York, which won Best Musical in London. He currently performs “The Red Piano” show in Las Vegas. Queen Elizabeth liked him so much she knighted him in 1998 and made him Sir Elton John. As an openly gay man, it’s possible he would rather been crowned a queen. Elton met songwriter Rice and the two collaborated on the songs for “The Lion King.” They worked and slaved and batted out some pretty nifty tunes, including the Oscar winner. Rice was familiar with working hard, having collaborated with the legendary Andrew Lloyd Webber on such hit shows as “Evita,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” They split up in the ’80s, and Rice went to Disney to collaborate on the music for “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” (with Alan Menken) and “The Lion King.” He also worked with John on “Aida.” To create the astounding masks of the animals and the African story masks, Taymor worked with Michael Curry. Curry has a background in engineering, and he helped create the technical design of the characters. “I had to play with keeping some of the ‘character’ of the Disney characters, so that they are recognizable,” Taymor explained. “I was very inspired by the African masks, which are much more abstract, much more stylized, much more essential, less soft and round. Because we’re doing three-dimensional theater, I didn’t want the faces to look flat. I wanted them to have a kind of depth, like wood has. So I used texture and organic materials, fibers, wood — things that would make it less cartoon-like.” There are more than 200 puppets in the show, including some 16th century Bunraku-style Japanese puppets and some shadow puppets. The masks alone took 17,000 hours to construct using 750 pounds of silicone rubber. The heaviest puppet weighs 15 pounds. The show runs now through Sunday, Nov. 8 at the Civic Theater. For tickets call the box office, (619) 570-1100, or Ticketmaster, (800) 745-3000. The theater is located at 3rd & B streets downtown.