Archive for November 5th, 2012
Lion King Dazzles with Pride, Joy – Musical at Orpheum Theatre Review
Lion King is currently performing at Orpheum Theatre – San Francisco stage and continue through Sunday, January 13, 2013. SF Examiner Arts Editor Leslie Katz reviewed the musical as ‘Lion King’ dazzles with pride, joy. Here is the review:
It’s easy to understand why the show, at the Orpheum Theatre through Jan. 13, is the biggest Broadway money-maker of all time.
“The Lion King” isn’t your basic musical: It’s a gigantic, fluid piece of visual art for kids and adults. It also happens to have catchy songs and a touching and funny book based on a huge hit animated family film.
Director-puppet maker-costume designer and co-lyricist Julie Taymor is a genius. Her extraordinary reinvention of the Disney movie about the lion cub Simba’s tumultuous coming of age exemplifies the unthinkable heights to which the creative mind can soar.
From the first strains of Rafiki’s (Buyi Zama) opening song “Circle of Life.” and the grand entrance of the most amazing ever life-sized puppet animals – an elephant, rhino, giraffes, antelopes, a cheetah – the audience is mesmerized.
These aren’t big plush toys. Taymor and puppet design partner Michael Curry’s creations are both naturalistic and fantastic. Ingeniously composed using carefully calibrated masks and fabric, they complement, rather than cover up, the actors. At least half the fun of the show is trying to figure out how the performers manipulate their complex outerwear.
The dancers’ costumes are equally amazing. Wearing headdresses of squares of sprouting blades, they set the stage in African grasslands in an opening scene.
With a book attributed to Roger Allers (movie co-director) and Irene Mecchi (screenplay co-writer), there are nods to the cartoon: Wisecracking meerkat Timon (Nick Cordileone) and sidekick warthog Pumbaa (Ben Lipitz), who befriend Simba (Jelani Remy) after he’s banished from his home, have a cute shtick and clearly resemble their movie counterparts.
But “The Lion King’s” unending wonder is in its ingenuity, from an amazingly crafted, massive stampede in which Simba’s noble father Mufasa (Dionna Randolph) dies, all the way down to a teeny, scurrying shadow puppet mouse.
The score, including the ballad “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” the feel-good “Hakuna Matata” and African-flavored act-openers “Circle of Life” and “One by One,” sounds terrific sung by the powerfully voiced cast.
Read the complete review {Via SFExaminer.com}
Lion King will be in San Francisco CA will continue through January 13, 2013. Buy Lion King Orpheum Theatre San Francisco Tickets Online at discounted prices – Save $10 on Orders of $350 or more, Use code AFF$10.
