Review: ‘The Lion King’ wows even after 20 years on stage

The gods of discounted theater tickets are smiling upon me lately, helping me to propel my self-education in the musical theater. After winning a lottery to “Cats” last month, I recently scored a $30 ticket to “The Lion King”, the third-longest-running show on Broadway. Absolute champion of the box office, this musical by Disney Theatrical Productions first opened on Broadway in 1997, three years after the animated film of the same name caused a worldwide craze. Besides New York, the Musical “The Lion King” is currently running in London, Shanghai, Hamburg, Tokyo, Mexico City, Madrid and Netherland’s Scheveningen.      

Disney Theatrical Productions

Everything about this musical is legendary, music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice, direction and costume design by Julie Taymor, masks and puppets by Julie Taymor and Michael Curry. Massive advertisement campaigns reiterate the iconic images again and again, making it hard to not want to see “The Lion King” musical. But the aggressive marketing just fed my skepticism about the show itself. Proven to be a successful money making machine, I wondered if it is a theatrical experience as good as those glossy pictures of lion-people promise. And it was.

The energizing score infused with African drums and vocals is uplifting. The sharp solos of Tshidi Manye playing a little crazy but wise Rafiki and ensemble opening songs of both acts (“Circle of Life” with “Nants’ Ingonyama” and “One by One”) are especially memorable as they carry the distinct zest of the show most of all. Simba’s Hamlet-esque journey, balanced with a message of cosmic unity of all beings, makes for a perfect story for kids and worthwhile reminder for adults.             

The landscape of the African Pridelands, where the action mostly takes place, is created with minimum sets, allowing for the inventive costumes and puppetry to shine. The stage has a number of trap doors, the main of which is a circle in the middle.  Once opened, it revels a rotating staircase, portraying the Pride Rock from which cub Simba is shown to the world. The scenic design by Richard Hudson includes other monumental elements such as a giant carcass at the forbidden elephant graveyard, a two-dimensional baobab tree and a giant sun, which rises and sets gradually. 

The costumes, designed by the director of the show, Julie Taymor, look inventive and breathtakingly beautiful even twenty years after they were created. Masks and puppets look like an organic continuation of human bodies, brought to life by Garth Fagan’s choreography. A few dancers hovering in the air with gazelles attached to their arms and heads create an illusion of a herd. The graceful glide of a dancer that is built into a cheetah puppet, or tall giraffes going about their business across the stage, create an event of its own and are cleverly used that way.                      

Playing with scale is a recurring visual theme of the show. Puppets and shadows are employed to show scenes happening “in the distance” such as Young Simba (Jordan Ture) traveling with his father, King Mustafa (L. Steven Taylor) and Nala (Adrienne Walker) chasing Pumbaa (Thom Christopher Warren). The scene in the gorge, where young Simba tries to escape from the stampede of the wildebeests, uses the same principle to create an effect of a great distance. These ancient theater techniques don’t aim to create a realistic, movie-like view of the world. On the contrary, they continue the tradition of a ritualistic theater and seem to be perfectly at place in “The Lion King”, which calls us to return to our roots.