Lion King - Review

The road version of the Broadway musical of The Lion King is in town for a few weeks and Clara had snagged us tickets some months ago. We went last night - yeah, a work and school night, which made for a late night but you know, that's just how we roll around here. Clara'd managed to get us good seats - I think that should be yet another department she should be in charge of - and so we settled in for what we'd heard would be a great show.

Of course, we weren't disappointed. My favorite things about the show were the costumes and the puppets and sets. You always had the sense you were seeing something extraordinary and how they managed to pull off some of the scenes from the movie was quite clever. The wildebeest stamped was especially effective with the forced perspective of the puppets giving you a sense of greater depth than there actually was.

Since we're a rabid Disney family and since the movie has been a part of our lives since Rachel was born and throughout all of our numerous trips to Disney, the expansion of the story with extra songs and scenes were the least effective parts for me. Time to check my watch. But if there's someone out there who's new to the story, maybe they found it fascinating. Still, though they weren't my favorite parts of the play, the scenes were as effectively staged and choreographed and sung as any other original part of the story.

The play's been around for a while and the show's playbill says it's been seen all over the world. I'm glad it finally came to town and we got a chance to see it. Quite an accomplishment.