{"id":271,"date":"2011-01-12T05:34:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T05:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/?p=271"},"modified":"2011-01-12T05:45:35","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T05:45:35","slug":"the-lion-king-is-theatrical-perfection-at-its-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/the-lion-king-is-theatrical-perfection-at-its-best\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lion King is Theatrical Perfection, at its Best"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lion King Musical is constantly surprising in its storytelling methods, based on African traditions of drumming, chants and rituals. The show takes the audience into a mind-expanding world where dancers with swaying straw skirts and headdresses of foliage become grasslands, and cloud shapes manipulated on long sticks suddenly merge into a giant lion mask.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_273\" style=\"width: 418px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/downloads\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/lion-king-brenda-mhlongo.jpg');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/lion-king-brenda-mhlongo.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-273\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-273\" title=\"Brenda Mhlongo performs as Rafiki in The Lion King\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/lion-king-brenda-mhlongo.jpg\" alt=\"Brenda Mhlongo performs as Rafiki in 'The Circle of Life,' the opening number from 'The Lion King.'\" width=\"408\" height=\"268\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-273\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brenda Mhlongo performs as Rafiki in &#39;The Circle of Life,&#39; the opening number from &#39;The Lion King.&#39;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Elton John&#8217;s songs, and especially the additional music by Hans Zimmer and Lebo M, enhance the show with haunting choral and percussion work. Garth Fagan&#8217;s choreography adds engaging energy, from leaping gazelles to stalking lionesses.<\/p>\n<p>The large cast requires alternates and understudies for most roles. At Thursday night&#8217;s official opening, Ntomb&#8217;Khona Dlamini made a lovable, irascible shaman, Rafiki, Kolton Stewart a cheeky Young Simba, Madai Monica Williams a sassy Young Nala, and Ta&#8217;Rea Campbell a feisty adult Nala.<\/p>\n<p>The second act slows down a bit with several unnecessary songs and plot diversions, but it&#8217;s a small price to pay for such a life-affirming, lessons-giving piece, a true family musical.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Lion King&#8221; is a prime example of what musical theater can and should be.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lion King is currently playing on tour in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/lion-king-durham-performing-arts-center.html\">Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham-NC<\/a>. Get $10 OFF on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/lion-king-durham-nc-tickets.html\">Lion King Durham NC Ticket<\/a> Orders Over $350! Use Code AFF$10.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 a2a_target addtoany_list\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nwpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lion King Musical is constantly surprising in its storytelling methods, based on African traditions of drumming, chants and rituals. The show takes the audience into a mind-expanding world where dancers with swaying straw skirts and headdresses of foliage become grasslands, and cloud shapes manipulated on long sticks suddenly merge into a giant lion mask. Elton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 a2a_target addtoany_list\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[132,48,51,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276,"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lionkingbroadwayticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}