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The Lion King
Jan. 2nd, 2006 02:28 pmLast night, my mother, her friend, and I went to see the stage production of The Lion King. We had wanted to see TLK on Broadway ever since it came out, but a touring company came to Norfolk before any of us made it to Broadway, so we ended up seeing it at Chrysler Hall.
I have to say that it definitely lives up to the hype. The opening scene alone was worth the ticket price for me and judging by all the cheering and clapping, a lot of people agreed. I had heard a lot about the costumes, but I was shocked at how elaborate they were, and they actually looked like real animals. My favorite were the giraffes. The actors stood on stilts for the hind legs, held long poles for the front legs, and wore long necks with heads at the top on their own heads. They were some of the first animals to come out on stage and I was so busy looking at them that I didn't notice that the rest of the animals were coming in the side doors, so I got a surprise when a life-sized elephant strolled past and I saw a couple of animals I couldn't identify up in the balconies.
The play was very true to the animated film, with the addition of several extra scenes and musical numbers. The most major change was when Timon and Pumbaa had to distract the hyenas at Pride Rock. Instead of Timon dressing in drag and doing the hula, he did the Charleston, to a different song than the "yup, yup, yup" one. EDIT: I was wrong. The biggest change is that the character of Rafiki is female in the play; in the Disney film Rafiki is male and voiced by Robert Guillaume. I think all of the added stuff really helped flesh out the story, scenes like Sarabi and young Nala mourning the deaths of Mufasa and Simba, Scar complaining about not being as beloved as Mufasa and thinking it will be solved by taking grown up Nala as his queen (she isn't having it), and grown up Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa being nomadic being Simba can't find a place where he is comfortable, and Simba sneaking up on Timon and pouncing because he can't shake the urge to hunt.
I really enjoyed the play and the rest of the shows are probably sold out by now, but if not, I might try to see it again.
I have to say that it definitely lives up to the hype. The opening scene alone was worth the ticket price for me and judging by all the cheering and clapping, a lot of people agreed. I had heard a lot about the costumes, but I was shocked at how elaborate they were, and they actually looked like real animals. My favorite were the giraffes. The actors stood on stilts for the hind legs, held long poles for the front legs, and wore long necks with heads at the top on their own heads. They were some of the first animals to come out on stage and I was so busy looking at them that I didn't notice that the rest of the animals were coming in the side doors, so I got a surprise when a life-sized elephant strolled past and I saw a couple of animals I couldn't identify up in the balconies.
The play was very true to the animated film, with the addition of several extra scenes and musical numbers. The most major change was when Timon and Pumbaa had to distract the hyenas at Pride Rock. Instead of Timon dressing in drag and doing the hula, he did the Charleston, to a different song than the "yup, yup, yup" one. EDIT: I was wrong. The biggest change is that the character of Rafiki is female in the play; in the Disney film Rafiki is male and voiced by Robert Guillaume. I think all of the added stuff really helped flesh out the story, scenes like Sarabi and young Nala mourning the deaths of Mufasa and Simba, Scar complaining about not being as beloved as Mufasa and thinking it will be solved by taking grown up Nala as his queen (she isn't having it), and grown up Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa being nomadic being Simba can't find a place where he is comfortable, and Simba sneaking up on Timon and pouncing because he can't shake the urge to hunt.
I really enjoyed the play and the rest of the shows are probably sold out by now, but if not, I might try to see it again.
