Lion King Tour

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 12:12am

Sorry to start a new thread for this but I searched and didn't see one. I saw the Lion King tour tonight (Chicago) and the sound was terrible. I'm wondering if there was something wrong or if it's always this bad?  It ends its Chicago run tomorrow and was here for several weeks so it's not like it they're still working things out. I could barely hear anything. (And I usually have no issues.)  Fortunarely it was an open captioned show which came in handy because I read quite a few of the words!

 

It was my goddaughter's first big show and fortunately she didn't know the difference! She loved it!!!

[conealpetterson]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 5:40pm

I saw the Lion King tour in Orange County in October and it was a huge disappointment.  There were a lot of sound issues with the microphones and the Nala, who was an understudy, was just awful.  She was so off pitch, I could see people all around me cringing as she sang Shadowland.  I've been to quite a few Broadway tours and have never witnessed such a disappointing performance.  I saw the tour years ago on the original tour and it was a lot better. 

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 8:59pm

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. 

[Tag]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 9:13pm

"It felt like they were just like "we can do this on the cheap…"

This tour is anything but cheap.  I don't understand how anyone watching this tour could come to that conclusion.

"Pride Rock also looked like a pretty cheap set piece. Is it more impressive on Broadway?"

On Broadway Pride Rock rises/spirals out of the floor.  There's also a large downstage elevator not present on the tour.  And on Broadway the entire upstage floor is on hydraulics and raises up to form a raked stage at certain moments.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 9:34pm

I saw it pretty early on its chicago run and thought it was fabulous. I'm pretty sure shows are getting worse sound designs as the years go by so you might want to get used to it. 

[ChiTheaterFan]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 10:29pm

The costumes looked expensive but the Pride rock set piece did not. I've seen plenty of shows on tour lately and I've never had a problem hearing anything so I don't think this can just be par for the course sound. I couldn't hear any of the leads at all and I could barely hear the ensemble. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 11:07pm

I think the prose rick tour set peice was a genius solution to actually tour it.

[asmith0307]

Posted: 1/18/16 at 1:18am

I saw the tour the first week in Chicago, and the sound was fine. I think it may just be a performance-to-performance issue.