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Brief Look at the Lion King Musical

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Submitted By jeremyjaniak
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This short clip depicts the opening scene from the musical The Lion King with singing and dancing to the song The Circle of Life. As the sun slowly rises many different animals celebrate the start of a new day, or the circle of life. This Lion King scene is a very visually appealing musical and makes use of not just the stage but the full arena and actors in costumes and using props are shown walking down the aisles of the theatre. While in the clip that was viewed had a very limited amount of a scenery the use of costumes, characters and puppets told this part of the story very well. In fact for some of the costumes you would need to look hard for the actor controlling the puppet as your mind you not even realize that there is an actor under the costume. Overall the costume design along with the choreography makes for a visually stunning opening scene. One gets a sense of a three ring circus where so many things are happening that there is no way you could take it all in at once as your eyes and head swivel from side to side in an attempt to capture it all.
The Lion King musical is a classic coming of age story along with a good versus evil aspect. The opening scene shows the sun rising and the musical number The Circle of Life playing. The sun symbolizes the pattern of night to day and day to night, the same pattern of life to death and death to life. Simba along with his father share the protagonist role in the musical and represent good. Simba is the king’s son, the perfect son to the perfect king/father, while Scar the brother of the king and uncle to Simba would be considered the antagonist and evil. Initially Simba’s farther starts out as the protagonist leading and teaching Simba the way of the world. After Simba’s father’s death Simba assumes the protagonist role. Throughout the musical Scar – the antagonist- - attempts to put Simba in harm’s way so Scar can claim the role of leader of the lands. With the death of the king Simba runs away thinking it is his fault based on what Scar has led Simba to believe. As Simba grows older he eventually realizes that his father’s death was not his fault and he must return to claim what is his – and to complete the circle of life. The Lion King also has a heaven and hell or religious influence within it. Simba sees and hears his farther speak to him from the stars or the heavens, Scar is seen entering what could be interpreted as an underworld to plot and plan against Simba.
The Lion King musical debuted July 8, 1997, in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to Broadway in October 15, 1997. It is based off of the 1994 animated movie from Disney under the same name. It stay on Broadway from 1997 until 2006 where it was moved to make room for Mary Poppins. Currently The Lion King Musical is the fifth longest running play in history and is still showing in many theaters across the nation including the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway, with eight shows playing weekly. To date The Lion King Musical has played in 18 different cities and in 14 different countries with over 6,000 performances and has grossed over 850 million making it one of the most successful Broadway musical ever.
The musical does have some slight adaptions from the movie, some male roles were changed to female roles and some additional scenes were added to help explain the story line. In 1998 The Lion King Musical was nominated for many Tony awards and won for best musical, best scenic design of a musical, best costume design of a musical, best lighting of a musical, best choreography, best direction of a musical. It also went on the win numerous drama desk awards, and a theatre world award. One of the most compelling aspects of the musical is the use of costumes to portray the characters. Most of the animal costumes require the actor to be in the costume and control the other half, the actors in the giraffes use stilts to depict added height, and some of the lioness costumes have the actors being the lioness’s back legs and using controls to move the front legs and heads. The actor’s ability to mimic their corresponding animals helps to sell the audience that they are watching real animals, not just costumes.
As evident by the number of awards The Lion King Musical won the critical response to the play was and is high. Comments with headings of “Get Lost in the Performance of The Lion King”, “Get In Touch With Your Inner Child at The Lion King”, and “Breathtaking Performance of the Lion King” are heard. It appears the overall response to the Broadway version is high with little to no bad feedback. In fact New York Times ran a review that stated The Lion King Musical Broadway show is such a wonderful performance, the costumes are incredible even by New York standards, from set design to the songs and everything else makes a memorable experience. “This play is definitely something you’ll want to see while in NYC.”
However, not all reviews have been as flattering, when researching for reviews some attendees that have viewed both the Broadway and off Broadway performances do not give nearly as high of credits to the off Broadway shows. This could be in part due to the numerous showings across the county, the limitations of different venues, and of course the need to use additional actors other than the original cast.
The true test of success for The Lion King Musical is its ability to still draw crowds all over the world and its continued success after 6,000+ shows.

Works Cited

The Lion King. Web. 9 April 2013.

The Lion King. Josh Wilmes. Web. 9 April 2013.

Review Centre. Web. 9 April 2013.

Wikia. “The Lion King Musical.” Web. 9 April 2013

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