‘Lion King’ fans find order in ticket jungle

Eight-year-old Hailey Teston and her mom Kelly Teston slept under the stars Friday.

They did it for the sake of getting a good sight line to Simba and his African pals.

“We thought we’d arrive to a crowd,” said Kelly Teston, who was first in line for the “The Lion King” ticket rush. “When I woke up, there they were!”

“They” amounted to the approximately 160 people who were in line behind the Testons at the Spokane Arena at 5 a.m., one hour before tickets went on sale. Jack Lucas, vice president of WestCoast Entertainment, estimated 750 ticket buyers would pass through the human maze on the first day of sales.

The Broadway production will be at the Spokane Opera House from Oct. 27 to Dec. 4. There will be 46 shows, making it the longest run for a Broadway show in Spokane.

The Testons, of Kennewick, arrived at 11 a.m. Friday and were joined by nine other campers. Keenen Slinker, of Coeur d’Alene, arrived at 3 p.m. and was joined by his wife, Tara Slicker, later. The Coeur d’Alene couple said the reason they decided to rough it was because they learned from experience. For a recent Neil Diamond concert, the couple went to the box office to buy their tickets, only to discover that all of the best seats had been snapped up earlier by fans on the Internet.

For “The Lion King,” where 115,000 tickets over the run are available, Internet orders were not available until three hours after the Arena box office opened. Internet sales and phone sales began at 9 a.m.

“Selling has been crazy,” said a TicketsWest employee Saturday night, who declined to give her name because of company policy.

The salesperson said about 60 phone answerers were working Saturday and took roughly 116 calls from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and business remained steady all day. Many customers said they phoned in their orders because the Internet was flooded.