Review: THE LION KING IN CONCERT, Royal Albert Hall

Back in the summer of 1994, Disney's latest animation film The Lion King raked in almost $1 billion at the global box office. After several sequels and long-running shows on Broadway and in the West End, the film is now celebrating its 30th Anniversary and the Royal Albert Hall is giving it the epic Films in Concert treatment.

Featuring Chineke! Orchestra and London Community Gospel Choir, conducted by Sarah Hicks, this event is a timely reminder of the enchantment of the film, both visually and audibly. Hicks brings out huge amounts of emotion in the score, with the orchestra on fine form throughout.

The Lion King, loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, follows the story of young cub Simba who is destined to succeed his father Mufasa as leader of the pride. However, his evil uncle Scar has his own plans to take the throne and frames Simba for Mufasa's murder and banishes him. Simba grows up away from his pride with only friends Timon the meerkat and Pumba the warthog until his childhood friend Nala convinces him to fulfil his destiny and take his place as King of the Pride Lands.

The film features a luscious score from Hans Zimmer and also featured five original songs written by Tim Rice and Elton John, marking their first-ever collaboration. Zimmer won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for the Best Original Score, and three of the songs were nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 1994. The soundtrack was a huge commercial success and remains the best-selling soundtrack of an animated film.

Songs such as "Circle of Life" are incredibly familiar, but the whole score is a majestic and beautiful instrumental accompaniment to the story's spiritual elements. Zimmer uses a lot of panpipes and woodwind to really evoke the vast expanse of the African landscape.

The film had an all-star cast involved, with James Earl Jones as the wise Mufasa, Rowan Atkinson sardonic and pompous as the courtier bird Zazu and Whoopi Goldberg as the head of a trio of hyenas. The wonderfully sarcastic Jeremy Irons gives mellifluous vocals to sinister Scar, but, to be completely honest, cannot sing for toffee.

We begin on a high point with "Circle of Life" performed by the London Community Gospel Choir which is on cracking form giving a spine-tingling rendition. It is sweeping, emotional and grand: one of the truly great Disney songs. It matches the rich imagery of the animation; as the sun rises over the African jungle, the animals assemble as the anthemic song builds over the animals’ sounds to a roaring crescendo when they come together.

Zimmer uses a choral element a lot in the film and it's a pity that this is only time we hear from the live choir, as they are fantastic.

One of the strengths of the the score is the additions of fun tracks such as "I Just Can't Wait To Be King", which perfectly captures Simba's childish mania at playing around with his friends and, like children can be, it is cute but also slightly irritating.

I'm fairly sure that those who were traumatised by the death of Bambi's mother would find their children were similarly affected by Mufasa's death when this film was released, which is brutal and very graphic. Apparently Zimmer listened to a lot of Brahms for inspiration for “Mufasa Dies”, and it reflected in the grave requiem-like sound of the piece. 

The now-iconic “Hakuna Matata,” which everyone knows basically means, “Don’t worry, be happy,” and is sung by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella with delightful irreverence.

The love theme, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", won the 1994 Oscar for Best Original Song and a Golden Globe and Elton John’s version won him a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It stands alone as a wonderful piece of composition and has stood the test of time in sounding as good now as it did 30 years ago. Here we had a special performance by Leigh-Anne, formally of the band Little Mix before the film.

To complete the event, we were treated to a sweeping live rendition of "He Lives In You" from the West End production, complete with the show's famous swooping birds, in celebration of an incredible 25 years of the stage musical.

A suitably celebratory event for the film's 30th anniversary. A wonderful film, with a brilliant soundtrack.

The Lion King In Concert is at The Royal Albert Hall on 6 July at 7.30pm

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