Disney's 'The Lion King' A Majestic Achievement

The Lion King is likely the best stage musical ever done for children. Its opening number, 'Circle Of Life,' is certainly the best or one of the top three opening numbers ever created for the musical theater.

While its accomplishments are enormous, The Lion King never again reaches the heights of musical theater nirvana displayed at the top of the show. The Lion King is Julie Taymor's theater baby. She designed the costumes, directed the show, worked with Michael Curry on mask and puppet design; she even contributed some additional music and lyrics to Elton John and Tim Rice's pleasant and serviceable score. She displays glorious work in THE LION KING.

'Circle Of Life' has become part of that elite group of theater happenings that once seen, will never, ever be forgotten. The number is simply incredible. The magnificently designed half human, half costume jungle creatures emerge from all over the theater, eventually gathering on the stage in a display of beauty and wonderment we are never likely to see again. The animals have been summoned by the powerfully exciting voice of Phindile Mkhize as Rafiki to welcome The Lion King's (Mufasa) newly born cub, Simba.

Two boys are credited with playing the part of young Simba, Trevor Jackson and Cody Ryan Wise. I am not sure which child played the part on opening night, but his performance was simply great. The other standout performance in this tour is L. Steven Taylor as Mufasa. His performance of "They Live In You" is sublime and deeply moving.

This song and the aforementioned "Circle Of Life," are the only truly memorable musical numbers in this show. Songs that have gained fame from the film, seem to fall flat recreated here, and at times are somewhat "cheesy."

"I Just Can't Wait To Be King" was a fine production number and certainly well done. However, it never reached the level of glee that we would have expected. Similar can be said for "Hakuna Matata," perhaps the most tuneful, memorable song from Disney's The Lion King film. It is fine as presented here, but it is a major disappointment.

These two songs seem under choreographed by Garth Fagan and never build to goose bump levels we always hope for in the theater. In fact, Mr. Fagan's work seems lacking in many parts of the show. Some of the dance numbers are simply too long and this accentuates the tedium of the often sluggish book provided by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi.

The Lion King has a great story at its core. Most disappointing are the music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice. This show will never be considered to have one of Broadway's great scores. The best songs are the hits we know from the film. The additional songs written for the stage show, mostly seem like filler.

I can't help but thinking that all the creatives spent 90% of their time working on the impossibly ingenious opening number and the rest of the show took a bit of a back seat. Yet again I must say that "Circle Of Life" will never be forgotten by this writer and indeed, it alone is worth the price of admission to the beautiful spectacle that is THE LION KING.  The final performance of THE LION KING at The Broward Center is June 3.

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