OK that was my reaction too. I'd never seen the Lion King before. I'm not really into the Disney musical thing and I knew I'd heard the costumes would be great but in the end it's still the Lion King. But I finally went because my goddaughter was in town and it was her first show. Fortunately she loved it and didn't know any better but after she went to bed, I asked my mom "was it just me or...." And she said "yeah that was not very good." I didn't think any of the performers sounded great but the sound was really really quiet so maybe it was that. (I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.) Definitely underwhelmed.
Pride Rock also looked like a pretty cheap set piece. Is it more impressive on Broadway?
It felt like they were just like "we can do this on the cheap and still sell tons of tickets because it's the Lion King." (They're not wrong. It was packed.) I'm used to a higher caliber of touring shows. Usually the shows we get in Chicago are top notch.