James Corden recruited "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" stars Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen for a crosswalk musical version of "The Lion King" in an intersection in Los Angeles. Rogen was assigned to act as the scenery, rocks, birds or trees, while Byrne was cast as both Timon and Nala. Corden acted as Simba.
Corden and his production stopped traffic more than a year ago with his "Crosswalk the Musical: Grease," and he was ready to endanger a bunch of actors again in Beverly and Genesee intersection during the May 25 episode of "The Late Late Show With James Corden" on CBS. His game was upped with the participation of the two celebrity performers.
After some rehearsals, the troop ran to the street in animal costumes when the red light was on to perform for pedestrians and drivers. They belted out songs from Disney's classics, such as "I Just Can't Wait to be King" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight."
The troop's choreography and costumes were similar to those in casual musical theatres except that the performers had to run to safety when the crosswalk light changed to avoid the oncoming traffic. As L.A. drivers can be unfriendly and considering the troop had to keep an eye on the traffic light, "Hakuna Matata" was not the safest phrase for the group to utter, according to ET Canada.
Corden's team members were made aware that if they were to be hit by a car, it would technically be a roadkill. An excited Byrne said in the video she had "the thrill of live theater and the thrill of death."
Rogen was given the name tag "Sath" when introduced to the group, and he became more baffled for his role. While he was not expecting to be part of the act, he could do a talking part since he was already there.
It came out Corden was up for the role of Steve Wozniak in the movie about Apple's Steve Jobs, which went to Rogen. The crosswalk musical was Corden's vendetta against Rogen, according to The Wall Street Journal.
At the end, Rogen impressed the team leader with his performance, particularly as the moon, and got a group hug. However, he was still not entertained as they could be killed doing such thing and then ask themselves why they had to do that.
Here is the video of James Corden and his team doing the crosswalk musical version of "The Lion King."