I went to see The Lion King theatre production in the Lyceum Theatre, London on 22nd March 2023 with my family. It included many different art forms such as singing, dancing, acting, music and puppetry. The many beautiful costumes, obviously had talented artists and textile designers working on them. Artist, Julie Taymor worked on most of the costumes and sculpted all the original masks with clay, and she also designed most of the outfits and background scenes. I've seen a few theatre productions in London, so this wasn't completely new to me, but it was very different from the others. The Lion King had many beautifully created puppets and the face and body paintings were outstanding, the overall effect to make the audience feel like they were actually in Africa! They also included new ways of singing and dancing in an African style and always mimicked the animals movements to such perfection you would be lost in the performance. I enjoyed the whole show. The clever use of puppets was incredible! I had three favourite scenes. "The circle of life" being the first song that was performed was in my opinion one of the best parts of the show! Actors were dressed up as animals like gazelles, zebras, rhinos and giraffes dancing up on the stage and walking down the aisle. A massive puppet elephant came up right next to me and my family! The sheer size of it was breath-taking! The song "be prepared" and the scene around that was also amazing. The elephant graveyard was designed and made so well, with the whole scene moving as the song was being performed. I also thought the hyenas were cast perfectly and the costumes were awesome! Another of my favourite scenes was where Mufasa (Simba's dad) dies. Usually my least favourite part, but in this production I just thought how they did the stampede was extremely clever! If I had to change one thing it would be the scene around the song "just can't wait to be king". I really love this song, but I disliked how they interpreted the animals and changed it a lot from the movie. The animal costumes in this part of the show were very bright colourful and odd looking, unlike the other creatures in different scenes. In the film they are just ordinary animals like the rest, but they were obviously trying to go a different way, by making the animals look like they are part of Simba's imagination. When I watch a theatre production I always try to take inspiration from the actors, as I'm part of a youth theatre group. I love to watch the dancing and singing. I aspire to be on a bigger stage one day myself! It was clear that from peoples expressions and reactions and the massive cheering at the end that everyone really enjoyed the show! My family were particularly impressed with the puppets. I would definitely recommend this breath-taking show to others!
The King of all Shows - Lion King Arts Review!
Watched the Lion King Production in London, this is my review of the event.
Very well written and informative review. Interesting background information on the costumes and backgrounds followed up with a balanced review of the performance. Quite fancy going to see this myself.