Posts Tagged ‘Lion King Musical Review’
The Lion King Landmark Theater VA Review
Lion King is currently performing on tour at Landmark Theatre VA in Richmond, VA.
The Lion King is one of the most profitable, longest running Broadway musicals around. But if you want an experience that is its own theater entity, that takes inspiration from the movie and then runs with it to wild, unexpected places, you’re not going to consistently find it here. The first 10 minutes of Disney’s Broadway musical, “The Lion King,” are the stuff of theater transcendence.
A perfectly formed giraffe crosses the stage of the Landmark Theater, and you have to work backwards to realize it’s actually a human in costume. An elephant ambles down the aisle, and it is somehow rooted in the earth and simultaneously the stuff of pure, weird imagination.
But every time one of these moments happens and you feel like you’re watching the story of “The Lion King” in a completely new way, the next moment the musical grows timid and hurries back to an exact replica of the source material.
The musical, like the film, follows the arc of the young lion, Simba, whose wise, ruling father, Mufasa is killed by the nefarious Uncle Scar. Scar and his band of hyena followers take over the lands of Pride Rock. Simba is exiled to the jungle where he finds zany friends, Timon and Pumba, and ultimately the courage to return and fight. The rest is Disney history.
The biggest challenge of transitioning this story to stage is the fact that all of the characters are African animals. It could so easily be laughable. But this is where “The Lion King” musical is at its most inspired. Costume designer, Julie Taymor, along with her mask and puppet design partner, Michael Curry, will go down in Broadway legend for what they’ve done.
I’ve never seen a faster standing ovation than I did at the Landmark at the end of “The Lion King.” And it’s well deserved, because this musical is unlike anything you’ve probably ever seen. Its story is solid, because the film’s story is such a classic, well-constructed arc. Elton John and Tim Rice’s music and lyrics, including all of the film’s songs, are also solid and familiar. All of that makes for a very good musical.
Read the complete review {Via Richmond.com}
The Lion King runs through March 11 at the Landmark Theater. Buy Lion King Richmond VA Tickets Online, Use Code AFF$10 to Get $10 OFF on Orders over $350!
Lion King Musical at Hippodrome Performing Arts Center – Review
The Baltimore return of Disney’s The Lion King opens Friday, December 9 at 7:30 pm at the Hippodrome Theatre for a limited engagement of five weeks through Sunday, January 8, 2012. The show’s 14-week premiere engagement in 2005 played a sold-out run and box office smash at the Hippodrome Theatre.
Judging from all of the smiling children at a recent performance, this show is a wonderful family activity for the holiday season. The kids weren’t the only ones smiling, laughing and pointing, because “The Lion King” knows how to please a crowd.
This theatrical fact is loudly announced in the opening number, “Circle of Life,” in which the performers parade down the aisles and then claim the stage as their own. You plainly see the actors supporting the schematically constructed elephants that majestically march down the aisles.
The birds flying overhead are set in motion by people holding lofty poles; indeed, when one of the birds accidentally got snagged by the overhead balcony, the guy holding that pole earned a round of applause for finding a way to free it without injury to the puppet. And there are performers on stilts that facilitate their angular, forward motion as long-limbed giraffes.
One of the most ingenious design decisions was to create animal masks that do not cover the performers’ faces, but instead hover just above their heads. This presents us with both the animals’ fixed expressions and the more mobile human faces emulating those expressions.
The distinctive look of “The Lion King” is further enhanced by Donald Holder’s lighting design, which bathes Richard Hudson’s spare scenic designs in environmentally evocative splashes of pure color. You don’t doubt that the sun is shining when yellow light suffuses everything in sight.
As for the story, adult viewers will note that it’s a thematically blunt tale about a young male lion, Simba (Niles Fitch, alternating with Zavion J. Hill), that mourns the death of his lion king father, Mufasa (Dionne Randolph), and also contends with Mufasa’s villainous brother, Scar (J. Anthony Crane). Young Simba also takes a friendly interest in a young female lion, Nala (Kailah McFadden, alternating with Sade Phillip-Demorcy).
After spending years growing up on his own, the now-adult Simba (Jelani Remy) returns home to claim his throne. This means jousting with his nasty Uncle Scar, and also taking some time out for a courtship with the now-adult Nala (Syndee Winters).
Although only J. Anthony Crane’s hilariously mean performance as Scar qualifies as a standout performance among the principal roles, this is a vocally capable cast.
Read the complete review {Via BaltimoreSun.com}
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Long-Running Show The Lion King Retains Freshness
The Lion King is currently performing on tour in Ottawa, ON Canada. At National Arts Centre Southam Hall from Sunday, July 14 to Sunday, August 7, 2011.
When Julie Taymor’s musical production of Disney’s The Lion King opened in 1997, it was immediately hailed as a theatrical game-changer. Taymor’s adaptation of the popular animated film used animal puppets, exquisite masks, African-inspired costumes and traditional South African choral music, creating a visually astonishing, emotionally stirring spectacle that, nearly 15 years later, has lost none of its freshness or power.
The show’s lifeblood is its music. There are all the well-known hit tunes from the film, of course—Circle of Life, Can you Feel the Love Tonight, Hakuna Matata. But if you’re not a fan of Disney pop (guilty as charged), you can console yourself with the marvelous supplemental music by South African composer Lebo M. At the risk of offending countless Elton fans, the show would have been even better if it had been scored entirely with Lebo’s rich vocal harmonies and uplifting rhythms.
As young Simba and Nala, Niles Fitch and Kailah McFadden held their own with plenty of charm and charisma (along with out-wrestling her pal, McFadden is the better singer of the two). Nick Cordileone and Ben Lipitz, playing comic-relief duo Timon and Pumbaa, were the most similar to their cartoon counterparts.
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Lion King Musical Toronto Review
The Lion King music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice, with additional material by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor and Hans Zimmer, book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, directed by Taymor (Mirvish) is currently running at the Princess of Wales (300 King West, Toronot ON) Runs till June 12, 2011.
Lion King Musical Toronto
A bit of luster has come off the crown of The Lion King, which was one of the boldest, most visually inventive musicals in its day. This is the touring version of the Disney musical and not the resident production that roared at the Princess of Wales for several years in the early 2000s. So a few of director/designer Julie Taymor’s jaw-dropping stage effects have been scaled down.
But the sets and costumes continue to be the show’s chief draw, from the famous opening number onwards, as carefully designed puppet monkeys, birds and even a big ol’ lumbering elephant come down the theatre aisles, all to the rousing strains of Brenda Mhlongo’s baboon Rafiki and the hall-filling chorus.
The original songs themselves and the pacing in the long first act, however, are tougher to sit through. The story – about young cub Simba’s reclaiming of his birth right after the death of his father Mufasa – remains the same. There’s still lots of mythic weight in that journey about letting go of childish things and fulfilling one’s responsibilities.
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