Lion King!

well i thought i should write something about this, been planning this for a little while to make Marie’s first ever theatre show a special one. and i have to say it does live up to its hype and advertising.

Lion King is currently in the Lyceum Theatre, near strand and is based very obviously on the Disney classic with Music written by Elton John and Tim Rice.

i originally thought it was going to be a play with good costumes and good music but i wasnt expecting to be blown away by the whole “Experience” of the Lion KIng, from moment one you are immersed in the show with some of the actors opening the act from some of the VIP boxes – with spectators in them as well and with the some of the animals(not live)/puppets/cast coming in through the stalls and onto stage including a large elephant.

now i mention puppets or animals its not puppets in the strictest sense that you would naturally visualise but what i can only describe as a synergy between masks/costumes and people, so the lions had like a headress/mask the hyenas had similar headdresses etc etc.

my geek side comes out now when i say it truly was a technical spectacle with a stage that rotated, lowered, raised and even the pride rock staircase came out of the floor to a good height as well.

in terms of the performance, it was grand and the show has cast a great balance of holding true to the film and written music yet having some interaction with the audience and some good comic moments. the quality of the acting was top notch and so was the singing too. i really cant pick a favourite character/actor because quite frankly they were all pretty outstanding and really really made the characters come alive. particular mentions are the classic comic duo Timon & Pumbaah and Zazu and Raffiki which were played with a uniqueness that captures the essence of the film characters but still they took on a newer edge which was funnier and more alive than the film could do.

we went on a saturday evening and we managed to get front row of the grand circle (top deck) and the view was quite excellent, we were a touch high but it definitely did not hinder us from seeing any of the action, if anything being that slight bit further away allowed us to take more in because there truly was lots happening at times  and being able to immerse ourselves in the whole thing helped a lot. the theatre was fully packed and all in all it was an excellent show.

i dont think i was very good at reviewing this and i think i was biased but i think my bias is good because you should really go and see experience it!