Lion King Rant — Page 2

I liked it....but I was watching it through the lens of my kids' eyes.



Different strokes.

I wish Disney would have let Julie Taymor adapt it as she originally envisioned with the movie essentially being Act 1 and Act 2 being about Simba in Las Vegas fighting Papa Croc.

I saw it in Toronto a number of years ago. I agree that the opening number is astonishing, and there are moments of beauty and cleverness here and there, but for the most part the original idea (telling the story using puppets) isn't followed through on, which makes it sort of hit and miss.

"I Just Can't Wait to Be King", for example, was nothing more than the two juvenile leads sitting on some kind of big exotic birds and making their heads bob back and forth. For like, five minutes. It got old after two. Given how active the number is in the movie, that surprised me.

"Can You Feel the Love Tonight" was equally dull. It really just consisted of the two leads singing while dancers wearing huge flowers and vines walked around the stage. Yawn.

It's like the creators used all of their talent for the opening number and the big show pieces like the stampede and "He Lives In You", and didn't care about the rest of the show.

I've only seen the tour, I guess about 10 years ago.

It suffers because- like Aladdin- it is a bloated show. The movie is an hour and a half- the show adds an additional hour. But what's added? Not a whole lot of substance. The songs added for the stage version are lackluster. No new ground is broken. No new insights into the characters are made. We see some very lovely stagecraft, for sure. But nothing really compares to the thrilling opening- the stampede, perhaps. Some parts of it fall flat (the hyena dance break in "Be Prepared" is truly inexplicable).

I'm surprised it continues to endure so strongly.

Lol...and I didn't care for Beauty and the Beast.

I didn't love or hate it. It was ok. I won lotto seats a few months ago. I wouldn't pay more than that to see it. It was the people around me that bothered me the most. Obviously tourists and first timers at a show. Taking videos,pics,talking and eating during the whole show.

what I hated about it was the AUDIENCE. Holy crap. I never got around to seeing this until a year ago when my parents came to town. They always wanted to go after falling in lvoe with the opening number on the Tonys.

But almost every. single. person. was on their phones the whole time. I had to repeatedly tell the people in front of me to put their phones away b/c i didnt spend $147 a ticket to look at their facebook feed. They looked at me like I had two heads as if it was the most outrageous thing to ask. Half of the party in front of me actually fell asleep...which is a pretty damn expensive nap. And at the end of the show, everyone leapt to their feet and whipped out phones, cameras, camcorders, ANY device on them to record the show. But of course I had already seen two people a few rows from me who had recorded the entire show. I guess the ushers gave up on trying to police all of it.

Whats more disappointing is that the performers simply weren't giving it their all. And I say this as an actor, knowing how hard it is to keep something fresh over a long run. But what was happening up their was unacceptable for the prices being charged. They opened with great energy, belting the crap out of the first few songs (and Circle of Life might just be the best opening number in Broadway history. Its beautiful), but then it was like they slowly leaked out their energy and looked bored by the end. I didn't want to say anything about my disappointment to my parents, thinking "maybe its just me, and I've seen too much theatre and I'm being to critical". But my parents both expressed being letdown saying "did you notice how they weren't even singing out? I couldn't believe that! They're on Broadway!" I guess this is why you catch the "tourist" shows right when they open.

I will never understand the appeal of this show. I agree, the first 10 minutes are magical and then the most boring show ever written. Elton's John's music is horrible, seconded only to that horrendous noise fest he made years later, "Aida"

I remember being intrigued and entertained by the opening number as well. And after that, I just don't remember much about it. Of course, it's been a LONG time since I've seen it.