The Lion King at the Minskoff

The large wooden lion head, hanging from the wall directly above the escalators coming up from the Minskoff Theatre entrance, suggests that there is only one play that will grace the stage inside – again and again and again. Given that it was during the Christmas holiday season, the place was packed with tourists, many of whom, I assumed, were seeing the stage version of The Lion King for the first time.

I must admit, seeing the paper sun basked in an orange and yellow light and hearing the all-to-famous song, Circle of Life, creep, yet brazenly, ring in my ears, brought a tear to my eyes. For some reason, seeing animals with awe through an artistic medium, whilst being accompanied by appropriate music, makes me cry. I admittedly cry when I see the ending of the film The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where the second planet Earth is jump-started and the life cycle begins. The images are rather objective but awe cannot help but creep in, causing me to have this inexplicable emotional reaction.

The Lion King was not the Disney film that I watched over and over again. In fact, the Disney films that I did find myself watching repeatedly were: The Fox and The Hound, Tarzan, Hercules, Dumbo, and Robin Hood. I specifically really liked The Fox and The Hound, and I really can’t tell you why my childish mind at the time enjoyed a rather sad film.

Seeing The Lion King live, in a theatre in New York, was certainly a new experience. I’d seen some Broadway shows prior to this event. I’d seen Wicked, Peter and the Star Catcher, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the last of which was particularly notable because it was the first time I’d seen nudity in a stage performance. I was sitting there, thinking, this wasn’t in the movie. Then again, I’d never read Truman Capote’s novel either, so who am I to say? Although, I didn’t complain, after all, it was Emilia Clarke playing the role of Holly.

But the category, in which all these other plays pale in comparison to The Lion King, is costume design. Seeing all the animals march down the aisles was a treat, seeing the elephants, the rhinos, the birds, etc. I noticed the costumes never tried to mimic the animals completely, but they were well thought out, remembering, regardless of how accurate they were to the real animals, it was still a person beneath it all. So the lions heads were attached to beams that hooked over the actors heads, folding backwards when they were upright and then jutting outwards over their faces when they crouched like a lion. The hyenas had the same principle, with the addition of limbs. Zazu had a puppeteer, something that was actually addressed directly in a strangely Meta moment. Timon was a puppet as well, while the costume for Pumba, was essentially, his head that covered the entirety of the actors body. But all of these costumes allowed the actors to move gracefully in perceived animal movements.
The play was very similar to the film as well. So watching the play, I kept wondering, “How are they going to deal with the stampede scene?”

Well they dealt with it, and they dealt with it well, creating perspective through layers in order to really create a claustrophobic scene that was at the same time, wildly epic due to the dynamism of the movement that was happening through the depth created via stage design. It was the first account of when I truly saw the, lets call it the z-axis, utilized so explicitly. Another case was when the giraffes leaned their heads forward, almost touching the audience sitting in the front row.

There were cheeky moments that were at once references to the film as well as a reference to contemporary Disney. In the film, Zazu, while a prison to Scar, sings It’s a Small World After All, the wildly accepted “annoying” song of Disney at the time. In the play, when I saw it, Zazu sings Let it Go. It is one of those changes that makes me chuckle, but I’m both slightly annoyed yet charmed at the same time.

There was one thing that confused me more than anything. They changed Rafiki to a girl. I don’t know why. I get that there aren’t that many female characters in the film, but what does this add? Perhaps it adds female wisdom. But I found myself more confused then thinking, oh, that makes sense. It came across as a rather trivial shift that could have been handled better to justify it more precisely, but then how can you without changing a classically adored film like The Lion King?

I can’t say that I would have hated this play going into it. I knew I was at least going to enjoy it. I never knew how to critique theatre, but I found myself seeing why some things worked and others didn’t because I had the film to compare it to. I can’t say I’m an expert on theatre yet, nowhere near that level in fact. But I certainly appreciate it just a little bit more.