There is nothing subtle about 'The Lion King', whose lurid colours and costumes would make a rainbow feel monochrome. And the show's story, of a lion cub struggling to accept the responsibilities of adulthood, is so clunkingly formulaic it's myth-making by numbers. Simba's flight, and then his return to his rightful destiny as king of the pride is your archetypal adventure yarn, hard-wired to strike a chord in all of us. At its best, Julia Taymor's production is a carnival. But there is a hole at its heart where an engaging story might be.
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2 comments
This show was so over-whelming I almost cried! The costumes are amazing and I loved the animals walking along the aisles. The songs were amazing and it held my attention completely. I would highly recommend seeing this esp. with children who know the Disney film.
A veritable feast for the eyes, The Lion King could not be faulted in terms of the incredible set and costume designs and attention to the small details. The peripheral characters, for example the baboon and Timon and Pumba were portrayed incredibly by actors with a strong natural talent for theatre and brilliant singing voices. It's a shame that the same can't be said of the lead characters, in particular the children playing the young Simba and Nuala. When going to the theatre i don't appreciate having my ears assualted by screeching and deeply unpleasant voices which cut right to the very core of my nervous system. I could have forgiven this if their acting had been fantastic - but it was average at best, and left me for one feeling little sympathy for Simba in his darkest moments. I was most relieved when the adult lions replaced these 'stage-children', but bizarrely the adult Nuala was little improvement and her meaningful lions such as "it's like you're back from the dead" were uttered with such an intense lack of emotion i almost missed the child Nuala. Overall i would recommend seeing the Lion King for the elements mentioned earlier, as well as good (though not great)performances by the actors playing Scar and Mufasa. It was just a shame that what could have been a first class musical became somewhat second rate in light of poor performances.