There is no more wondrous beginning of any musical in history than the opening scene of Disney’s The Lion King.
Gathered together by the ceremonial conjurings of mandrill Rafiki (the blazing Mukelisiwe Goba), the animals of the veld meet at Pride Rock to honor the birth of Simba, lion heir to the kingdom. Elephants, gazelles, cheetahs, giraffes, exotic birds, lionesses, hippos – all puppets manipulated by dancing actors – parade down the aisles of the Hobby Center and march toward the stage under the African chants of Lebo M. Mark Mancina and the cinematic underpinnings of Hans Zimmer.
It is the most glorious start; theater magic via director/costumer/puppet designer Julie Taymor at its most beguiling. It makes you weep at how clever it all is. How right and true. How utterly uplifting. This is theater prestidigitation at its most potent.
About four minutes in, just when the animals are ready to sing Elton John’s majestic anthem “Circle of Life,” the onstage lights went black and the curtain came down. “Technical difficulties” said the stage manager, “Please stand by.” Twenty minutes later, the show resumed. The climactic Pride Rock scene where father Mufasa (Gerald Ramsey) and mother Sarabi (Jennifer Theriot) elevate their offspring to theobeisance of the animal kingdom had been excised, and the show restarted with Scene Two where Iago – like Uncle Scar (Peter Hargrave) declares his evil intentions to usurp his brother’s throne.
If you were new to Lion King, perhaps you wouldn’t notice the coitus interruptus, but the show suffered from the missing climax. Elton John and Tim Rice’s iconic song caps the opening scene and should leave us breathless along with the eye-popping theatricality. The opening night audience didn’t experience this transformation. Did they even notice?
I certainly understand why they couldn’t start from the beginning; it would have forced the show into overtime, which is anathema to producers. But this wasn’t the worst problem.
The mixing and amplification were horrible. There was a strange reverb that rendered even the dialogue passages incomprehensible. What is it about the maw of the Hobby Center that many touring shows can’t be deciphered? Lyrics sound garbled, dialogue sounds like Sanskrit. We’ve been complaining about this problem since the Hobby opened, but nothing has been resolved. Have patrons complained? They should. They’re missing half the show.
Grumbling about The Lion King, even on tour, is a losing battle. The Tony Award-winning show (1997) is a juggernaut, a classic, an audience favorite. The characters are icons; the songs you can sing in your sleep. It brings in bags of cash wherever it plays, and the plush souvenir toy of Simba probably outclasses Barbie.
Yet this musical is full of timeless beauties. African-inspired in design, the costumes and masks (Julie Taymor and Michael Curry) pulsate with color and striking design; the lighting (Donald Holder) gives us pumpkin and lapis lazuli and emerald; the impressionistic sets (Richard Hudson) render grasslands, rivers, and wildebeest stampede with flair – the drought is brilliantly conveyed by a watery blue circle of cloth drawn into a hole in the floor; and Garth Fagan’s choreography blends ballet’s attitudes with indigenous African dance moves. Under Taymor’s inspired imagination, the musical is all of one piece, based on a
beloved Disney cartoon, but given phenomenal life on stage.
But how can you play a 2-D animated character and give it 3-D animation? Nick Cordileone and John E. Brady, as meerkat Timon and flatulent warthog Pumbaa, steal the show with their comic antics, as does Nick LaMedica as nervous African hornbill Zazu, majordomo to Mufasa. Why we can clearly understand them and none of the others is beyond me. Other than Ramsey’s regal Mufasa and powerhouse Khalifa White as grownup Nala (although nixed by the over-amplification), the rest are fine, standard Broadway-tour performances. How can they be anything else in a show where their characters have been congealed
since the classic 1994 animated movie?
The Lion King is beloved – like Les Mis, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, maybe Hamilton. It’s a cult. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I just wish the Disney juggernaut with its bottomless resources could figure out how to make this touring show sound intelligible. They’ve got the look down – it’s mind blowing and like nothing else ever on stage – but can’t we hear the magic, too.
The Lion King continues through August 4 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays; 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-315-2525 or visit thehobbycenter.org or broadwayatthehobbycenter.com. $35-$140.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
