The Lion King: A Review
Mar. 7th, 2006 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
candylandThis is your brain.
This is your brain on the musical of The Lion King.
Any questions? See below...
The Lead-In
Okay, so we got on the bus at three-thirty and began the lurvly three hour drive to Des Moines. I got laughs because I was wearing khakis, a sweater, and big fuzzy pink slippers ^_^ I say that if you're gonna travel, do so comfortably. Drive was relatively uneventful. We got there, headed in, and found our seats. It was then that I became greatful that I was not afraid of heights (though I am afraid of falling from heights...), as we were in the third row from the back ^^;; So we sat down, got comfy, and about twenty minutes later (and yes, we were counting down the minutes), the lights went down.
Oh. My. God.
The sun rises over the stage, with Rafiki (played by a woman in the show) standing in the middle of it in a full shaman's costume to issue the opening call. "Nants ingonyama bagithi, Baba..." And then the giraffe walks across the stage, and it all goes from there. I mean, by the time the elephant and the rhino make their way down the aisle (yes, you read that right), you're already completely spellbound. I wanted to jump up and start applauding wildly--and it was only the opening scene.
The Characters
We've got all our favorites back on the stage. The two kids who played young!Simba and young!Nala were amazing--especially the girl who played Nala. She had enough attitude for ten. Timon and Pumbaa were as hilarious as we've come to expect from them ("Well, whaddya want me to do? Dress in drag and do the Charleston?") Mufasa was also quite impressive--not quite the vocal timbre of James Earl Jones, but he did the part great justice. The way the lion characters moved was really interesting, too.
Everyone was extremely well-cast, but the performance that had me the most impressed was Scar. I don't have my program in front of me, or I could give you a name, but He. Was. PHENOMENAL. He had the whole evil-sarcasm thing down to an art, as well as the big, booming voice to back it up. And yet during "The Madness of King Scar," he was absolutely hilarious...and then creepy O_O
Another surprise was what they did with the character of Zazu. In the movie, I always thought he was kind of annoying. In the show, he's hysterical. Right before they sing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," a curtain drops from the ceiling. He stares at it, then whips around to face the audience and shouts, "Hey! This wasn't in the cartoon!" A little later on, he grumbles that it, "looks like a shower curtain from Pier One." He had the entire theatre rolling in the aisles.
The Music
All our favorite movie songs, and then some. I've been a devotee of the soundtrack for a long time, so I knew what to expect on this frontier, more or less. There are three entirely new songs written for the musical. "The Morning Report" is Zazu's song, which can also be seen in the DVD release of the movie. "Chowdown" is a song given to the hyenas (Bonzai, Shenzai...and Ed). "The Madness of King Scar" opens Act II, though they cut the funniest part of the song :(
They also took several of the themes from the movie score and developed them into character songs. Simba gets "Endless Night," from the scored "Beneath the Stars." But the real treat in terms of new music, IMHO, is Nala's song. It's taken from the theme that plays at the end, after Simba defeats Scar and the rain is falling over Pride Rock (called "King of Pride Rock" on the soundtrack). It becomes Nala's theme, titled "Shadowland," and is probably my favorite song in the show. It's also the point where you find out why Nala left the Pridelands--yay for character development!
Another great song--almost an anthem of the show--is "He Lives in You." The reprise of it, I mean. That's the point where Rafiki convinces Simba to go back. Starts off slowly, then picks up until suddenly the curtain goes up and there's the choir, in African costume *dies*
The Staging
I'm going to start with the costumes/puppets. The lions all had these masks on the top of their heads; Scar's could come down in front of his face when he was stalking around. The animals were all people--like, the giraffes were people with stilts on their hands and feet and a big headpiece. Rafiki looked like a shaman--which was cool.
The puppets they used for Timon and Zazu were really interesting. I think the one they used for Timon is based on a Japanese style of puppetry (though I can't remember what it's called), where the puppet is attached to the front of the actor's outfit, and the puppeteer manipulates the puppet in that way. Zazu was a hand-puppet with a stick controlling the mouth, but sometimes the actor would put the puppet on his head and going right along with business as usual.
The sets were freakin' awesome--Pride Rock came in on a moving platform and spiraled to the center of the stage. There were a lot of overhangs and things that hung from the ceiling, a lot of cool effects with lights and lighting. The stampede scene (where Mufasa dies ;_;) was really cool--I'd been curious as to how they would stage that, and it was excellent.
The Overall
I spent most of the show melting into a little Candyland puddle of happy-goo. It was beautiful staged. Pretty sure my ears and eyes orgasmed at least two hundred times. If you ever have the chance to see it, I advise you to go. You will not regret it, and you will not forget it.
I feel like there was more I wanted to type on it, but I can't remember what it is, and I'm not feeling too hot at the moment, so I'll leave it at that. So there you have it!
This is your brain on the musical of The Lion King.
Any questions? See below...
Okay, so we got on the bus at three-thirty and began the lurvly three hour drive to Des Moines. I got laughs because I was wearing khakis, a sweater, and big fuzzy pink slippers ^_^ I say that if you're gonna travel, do so comfortably. Drive was relatively uneventful. We got there, headed in, and found our seats. It was then that I became greatful that I was not afraid of heights (though I am afraid of falling from heights...), as we were in the third row from the back ^^;; So we sat down, got comfy, and about twenty minutes later (and yes, we were counting down the minutes), the lights went down.
Oh. My. God.
The sun rises over the stage, with Rafiki (played by a woman in the show) standing in the middle of it in a full shaman's costume to issue the opening call. "Nants ingonyama bagithi, Baba..." And then the giraffe walks across the stage, and it all goes from there. I mean, by the time the elephant and the rhino make their way down the aisle (yes, you read that right), you're already completely spellbound. I wanted to jump up and start applauding wildly--and it was only the opening scene.
We've got all our favorites back on the stage. The two kids who played young!Simba and young!Nala were amazing--especially the girl who played Nala. She had enough attitude for ten. Timon and Pumbaa were as hilarious as we've come to expect from them ("Well, whaddya want me to do? Dress in drag and do the Charleston?") Mufasa was also quite impressive--not quite the vocal timbre of James Earl Jones, but he did the part great justice. The way the lion characters moved was really interesting, too.
Everyone was extremely well-cast, but the performance that had me the most impressed was Scar. I don't have my program in front of me, or I could give you a name, but He. Was. PHENOMENAL. He had the whole evil-sarcasm thing down to an art, as well as the big, booming voice to back it up. And yet during "The Madness of King Scar," he was absolutely hilarious...and then creepy O_O
Another surprise was what they did with the character of Zazu. In the movie, I always thought he was kind of annoying. In the show, he's hysterical. Right before they sing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," a curtain drops from the ceiling. He stares at it, then whips around to face the audience and shouts, "Hey! This wasn't in the cartoon!" A little later on, he grumbles that it, "looks like a shower curtain from Pier One." He had the entire theatre rolling in the aisles.
All our favorite movie songs, and then some. I've been a devotee of the soundtrack for a long time, so I knew what to expect on this frontier, more or less. There are three entirely new songs written for the musical. "The Morning Report" is Zazu's song, which can also be seen in the DVD release of the movie. "Chowdown" is a song given to the hyenas (Bonzai, Shenzai...and Ed). "The Madness of King Scar" opens Act II, though they cut the funniest part of the song :(
They also took several of the themes from the movie score and developed them into character songs. Simba gets "Endless Night," from the scored "Beneath the Stars." But the real treat in terms of new music, IMHO, is Nala's song. It's taken from the theme that plays at the end, after Simba defeats Scar and the rain is falling over Pride Rock (called "King of Pride Rock" on the soundtrack). It becomes Nala's theme, titled "Shadowland," and is probably my favorite song in the show. It's also the point where you find out why Nala left the Pridelands--yay for character development!
Another great song--almost an anthem of the show--is "He Lives in You." The reprise of it, I mean. That's the point where Rafiki convinces Simba to go back. Starts off slowly, then picks up until suddenly the curtain goes up and there's the choir, in African costume *dies*
I'm going to start with the costumes/puppets. The lions all had these masks on the top of their heads; Scar's could come down in front of his face when he was stalking around. The animals were all people--like, the giraffes were people with stilts on their hands and feet and a big headpiece. Rafiki looked like a shaman--which was cool.
The puppets they used for Timon and Zazu were really interesting. I think the one they used for Timon is based on a Japanese style of puppetry (though I can't remember what it's called), where the puppet is attached to the front of the actor's outfit, and the puppeteer manipulates the puppet in that way. Zazu was a hand-puppet with a stick controlling the mouth, but sometimes the actor would put the puppet on his head and going right along with business as usual.
The sets were freakin' awesome--Pride Rock came in on a moving platform and spiraled to the center of the stage. There were a lot of overhangs and things that hung from the ceiling, a lot of cool effects with lights and lighting. The stampede scene (where Mufasa dies ;_;) was really cool--I'd been curious as to how they would stage that, and it was excellent.
I spent most of the show melting into a little Candyland puddle of happy-goo. It was beautiful staged. Pretty sure my ears and eyes orgasmed at least two hundred times. If you ever have the chance to see it, I advise you to go. You will not regret it, and you will not forget it.
I feel like there was more I wanted to type on it, but I can't remember what it is, and I'm not feeling too hot at the moment, so I'll leave it at that. So there you have it!