Rafiki loses it during TV performance

I've never seen the stage version of this, but I'm seeing it next month. I feel like I'm going to be disappointed now, haha.

Updated On: 1/10/13 at 12:40 AM

this is a very misleading thread title.
but a very exciting performance to watch.

There's nobody losing it- she has beautiful control.

And it's nice to see a little fire and life have returned to a show that had become very stale!

Her name is Brown Lindiwe Mkhize, and I think she's still doing the show in the West End. A thrilling Rafiki. I hope she's able to bring her talents stateside one day.

Mind you that is still quite tame when compared to the early days of the show.

Back when the show first started (and the early days of the Toronto production in particular) Rafiki would basically improvise chants in that song. Most of the time it worked well because Rafiki was usually someone who knew the languages used in the chanting. Sometimes it went overboard (which I personally liked). Original Broadway rafiki who is credited with creating most of the chanting often changed it up night to night. Saw the original Toronto Cast and Rafiki there basically chanted all through the last chorus when Simba was singing and it worked well, and not just the chants they use now (because they have since standardized the chanting) but she threw in chants used in other places in the show, it was wonderful.
But then I saw a bootleg with a Rafiki who was american and obviously wouldnt be fluent in zulu or the other languages they use so she didnt chant at all. So they later standardized the chant to what is used in the video, which for me sort of killed the energy of the song sometimes.

This rafiki may seem kind of wild but when you see her other performances of the same song on other tv shows (they are all on youtube) you will see that it is very similar from tv show to tv show (and that being the standard, condensed version of the song they try to work in as many 'inflections' as possible.

The current Rafiki on broadway, brilliant and charming as she is, doesnt come close to that level of energy the last few times I saw the show, in fact sometimes she flat out doesn't bother with the last set of chanting.

If you also listen to the song on the other foreign language recordings it is pretty much the same now, only the Paris recording she added in a bit more chanting. Personally I am looking forward to if they have a Brazil recording because the Rafiki that use to be in the US tour (can;t spell her name so wont even try) is going to be rafiki there and she has an excellent voice.

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She is awesome! It's so nice to actually see nuance in a performance. That Simba looks like a stud.

Chills. AWESOME performance.

I was expecting something different based on the thread title. Like Rafiki breaking character and going on some terrifying rampage during the performance. It was great though.

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I saw Buyi Zama this summer in Houston, and I prefer her performance to this one, but this one is great. My second favorite Rafiki (that I've seen) is Fredi Walker.

Wow, I actually really like it. She went for it and it worked better than I've ever seen it performed.

That was reminiscent of Pentecostal speaking in tongues.