Musical audiences are the worst. Now I admit that statement makes me sound like an elitist grump, but seriously they are the absolute worst. Since the Lion King is an incredibly popular musical based on a Disney classic I had anticipated that there would be a more raucous atmosphere than say, watching a Pinter misery fest.
However what I hadn't anticipated was the gaggle of tourists sat around us all loudly live translating proceedings to their partners. Nor had I foreseen the overweight child in front of us who lost his bag of sweets and proceeded to use his mobile phone torch whilst rummaging around under the seats in a doomed quest to recover them. Neither was it possible to predict the teenager next to us who checked their phone every 5 minutes, despite the lack of a phone signal, and proceeded to mindlessly scroll through old text messages (I mean text messages what teenager does that?). Or was it possible to conceive of the thought processes behind the parents who decided to bring their two year old along who then predictably screamed it's head off.
Seriously it's 70 quid a ticket. At least if your going to make scene then sing along or something, don't just turn up and be a nuisance. All of which made it quite distracting to follow what was actually happening on the stage. Fortunately the Lion King is not imbued with either the most complex of plots or subtle subtext allowing us to cling on by our fingernails as the chaos around us unfolded.
The Lion King as a production is something of a marvel, somehow they have managed to turn an animated film about animals into a convincing stage play. The animal costumes were universally fantastic, but special mention goes to the hyenas, the giraffe and the warthog for being particularly inventive, and in the hyenas case, suitably sinister.
The same can't be said for the choreography which looked decidedly mediocre within the context of the set design. At times the dancing had all the creativity of a school play put together by jaded music teacher fed up with putting West Side Story on for the 30th year in a row.
The Lion King as a production is something of a marvel, somehow they have managed to turn an animated film about animals into a convincing stage play. The animal costumes were universally fantastic, but special mention goes to the hyenas, the giraffe and the warthog for being particularly inventive, and in the hyenas case, suitably sinister.
The same can't be said for the choreography which looked decidedly mediocre within the context of the set design. At times the dancing had all the creativity of a school play put together by jaded music teacher fed up with putting West Side Story on for the 30th year in a row.
The performances were also a mixed bag. Muphasa played by Shaun Escoffery, has a fantastic singing voice matched only by his dominating physical stature, but unfortunately he is one of the more wooden actors you'll see this side of Star Wars. Whereas Ska, played with real scowling menace by George Asprey doing his best Varys Game of Thrones impression, really struggled with the singing. Simba was just terrible at both. The real star of the show was the Baboon narrator played by Brown Lindiwe Mkhize who had both the best singing voice and acting skills in the show, although admittedly that was not a fiercely contested competition.
The pace of the show at times felt a bit rushed, pivotal events seem to happen too quickly sucking them of any tension or excitement. The songs however are brilliant and the costumes are definitely worth seeing for those interested in technical theatre. If your a fan of the Lion King then this show is amust see, if you want to go to a great West End spectacle you can find better elsewhere.
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