I saw The Lion King musical last night.

Cafe Society
1

I’m a curmudgeonly, old broad, so I’m not much for musicals. My usual response is something along the lines of ‘yeesh, you couldn’t just say that?’ or ‘christ, enough with the singing already’ or ‘lemme guess, another song, right?’ What can I say; I don’t really go fo all that singing.

Originally, my husband was supposed to take our two oldest sons to see it; I was going to stay home. There were three other family members going, but one had surgery, so I got his ticket.

The opening scene was spectacular. The animals gathering at Pride Rock was a sight to behold. The giraffes, elephants, gazelles and the rhino were just amazing. The music and singing were top-notch. For the first half, I was enthralled. I had resigned to purchase season passes for the theatre and start making up for lost time. How had I gone this long without seeing musicals on a regular basis, I asked myself. I was going to start with seeing The Lion King again, move on to Mama Mia, give Evita a whirl and finish the year off with Hairspray.

At the beginning of the second half, I alternated between boredom and annoyance. I just wanted the damn thing to end. Christ, what more could there be to sing about? Move it along! I did find the formation of Mufasa’s face in the night sky to pretty moving, though. And the end was just like the beginning; all the animals gathering at Pride Rock. That was very cool.

All in all, if you’re like me and you’re not much for musicals, I still say you should see The Lion King. Rafiki’s portrayal was very creative. I think he gets my vote for best character. The dancing was great. I found Timon’s accent to be a little too New Yorkish, but Pumbaa was spot-on. I thought Simba was a little bland, but he was in the movie, too. Mufasa and Scar were very well portrayed. Nala, well, I thought she was annoying (the grown-up Nala, not the kid).

I think I will see Hairspray, though. If the show is anything like the movie, it will be tons of fun.

2

Glad to hear you liked it. I just bought a ticket for Birmingham (3rd row, center- yay!) for September and have been looking forward to it. I love the song Mameleh.

3

I saw the musical when it was still in Toronto. I absolutely loved the costumes, sets and costumes. I was kind of bored by the actual story itself because I’d seen the movie, but it was very visually stunning. I’m glad you liked it.

4

I saw it a couple of years ago on Broadway and had pretty much the same reaction you did. The opening number was so wonderful I could cheerfully have watched that three or four times and skipped the rest of the musical. Maybe because I’ve done a fair amount of amateur theater, the parts I enjoyed were the ones that explored (and pushed) the boundaries of what can be done in a theater, like the opening number or the wildebeest stampede.

Which is odd, really, because I saw Wicked and found the reliance on theatrical special effects off-putting. Go figure.

5

We saw it pre-Broadway in Minneapolis. It was fantastic. Saw it again when it traveled. The traveling cast was significantly weaker than the original cast (the traveling cast was great, the original cast was “oh-my-fucking-God” incredible).

But the costuming is what makes that show. And the music. The musical has better music than the movie.

6

I finally saw it when it came to Seattle over Christmas.

The movie was better (the actors were ok, the dialogue worked better as animation). The dancing was fantastic. At the end, I wanted to give a standing ovation to the production team (costume, set design, light design, staff, and crew). It was the most technically amazing show I’d ever seen.