Stephanie and I went to go see the Lion King, the Broadway performance, this last Wednesday (April 19th) for her birthday. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. My first thought when Stephanie said that she wanted to go see this was, “oh great, now I have to watch men in tights dancing around re-enacting a cartoon that I saw over 13 years ago.” But I’ll admit, I thought the performance was great! There was only one scene where the “men in tights” came out and did a dance and thankfully it was only five minutes. What’s funny about that five minute dance is that, in my opinion, it had no context. It was during the “can you feel the love tonight” song that they came out and danced. What it symbolized was beyond me. You could argue that it symbolized their feelings for each other but I don’t buy it.
Aside from the five minute out of context dance, the play was great. The entire story was told in a way that mad you feel like you were actually watching the movie again. The lines, the subtle humor, the scenes, and the music everything came together wonderfully. If there was one thing that I could negatively comment on, besides the five minute dance, it would be that the stage was too small. This is obviously no fault of the performers. The Majestic is nice but it’s just too small. On the flip side, since it’s relatively small it made it easy for anybody to see what’s going on. If the Lion King comes to your town/city, go see it.