You want to see a great musical while you are in Las Vegas? See Phantom
of the Opera (Venetian). Want to see one of the best shows? See "O"
(Bellagio), Blue Man Group (Venetian), Le Reve (Wynn), etc.
That isn't to say that "The Lion King" is bad. It may be worth seeing for
some folks, but it just isn't that great a musical. The costumes are
spectacular, the singing is great, the dancing is fantastic, the acting is very
good, the stagecraft is excellent, the costumes and stagecraft are
innovative and clever and original -- but, it is based on a not very exciting plot,
and doesn't have very many good songs.
For me, a good musical must have great songs - take any Rogers and
Hammerstein musical for instance. Unfortunately they have passed away and didn't
do the score for this musical. Instead we have lyricist Tim Rice (who did
the movie, along with Little Mermaid and many other Disney full-length
cartoons) paired with Elton John, and most of the songs just aren't that good.
I can understand why they wanted to use a lot of African music as the
backdrop for a story about lions and animals in Africa, but I think they over
did it here. The chanting-type songs go on and on, and many songs are sung
in one of the African dialects - which doesn't make for hummable tunes or
lyrics you are going to sing as you leave the theater. The Circle of Life
number opens the stage play, with a fantastic array of "animals" and the
African music woven in, and that is probably where they should have stopped it
(maybe 1 more song would do nicely in African tones/words). Instead we
have quite a number of other songs/chants.
The show is based on a musical for kids, and retains all of the original
characters, for good or ill. The comic tone (and costumes) for some of the
characters doesn't seem quite in the same tone as the more serious animals
(and costumes).
Will kids enjoy the show? Hard to say. Certainly they will be enthralled
by the costumes and dancing and will like the comic characters. But they
may fall asleep midway through (as I wanted to do...) when the action and
songs get a bit weak.
I found myself wishing that Andrew Lloyd Weber or Rogers & Hammerstein's
ghosts had been called in for a rewrite to add a couple of powerful and
tuneful songs. For example when the Lion King takes his errant son aside
(after the kid is almost killed by hyenas) and points out that the dead kings of
the past are up in the stars. I yearned for a song powerful and beautiful
song like "Memories" or "Climb Every Mountain" or something of that ilk,
but instead the abbreviated song was not at all memorable. What could have
been a good song when the evil Scar tries to seduce the young Lioness
(girlfriend of the hero lion, Simba), was annoyingly short. And so on. In
general, the music was weak.
The Las Vegas version of the show is complete, with no cuts, but actually a
few cuts or tightening of the scenes might have helped. There is a 15
minute intermission.
There is no doubt that the performances and costumes/stagecraft are
fantastic, and if you love the theater, you probably will want to see The Lion
King once. But unfortunately, in my opinion, it isn't nearly as enjoyable as
the cartoon-to-stage "Beauty and the Beast" that came from Disney.
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