BWW Reviews: THE LION KING Tour Captivates Memphis

It's only fair to start with a confession: I have purposely avoided seeing "The Lion King" on stage for seventeen years.

You see, when the Disney movie came out in 1994, I was raising two small children. (If you need further explanation, ask any parent shepherding tots through Frozen Mania.) For several seasons, I lived wall-to-wall with Simba and his clan. Not only were they insistently played on the VCR, but they popped up in Happy Meals, frolicked on flannel sleepwear, graced the pages of bedtime books, topped birthday cakes, grinned at my bleary, pre-coffee eyes from the lunchboxes I packed every morning, and on and on and on . . . . Once a story is commercialized, franchised, and merchandised, my enthusiasm wanes.

Even though this is one of the most popular shows of all time, and has been garnering top awards for years, it was with reticence--and a daughter who once had to have a Lion King hat and mittens­--that I took my press seat at The Memphis Orpheum last night.

Then the lights dimmed, and along with a full house, I was transported to sunrise on the savanna in an opening number that included not only a full orchestra, African percussionists, singers, dancers and a menagerie of exquisite puppets, but also exotic giraffes operated by stilt walkers, and a thirteen-foot elephant making a grand entrance down the orchestra aisle.

Need I mention that for the next two hours, I sat spellbound?

Julie Taymor's vision, brought to life with Michael Curry's expertise in puppetry, and Richard Hudson's set design sweeps us into a world unlike any other­­--on an epic scale. The tale is told through a combination of storytelling, acting, puppetry, song, and dance.

More spiritual than spectacle, this is a magnificent show. Its arresting beauty is born of elegant sensibility, and organic materials, not splashy contivance or flamboyant excess. Their team of talented mask makers, sculptors, puppeteers and artisans spent 17,000 hours building the anthropomorphic animal characters for the original Broadway show. Assuming that love = attention, the masterful level of detail in this production is art at its finest--an expression of love.

Though our seats were excellent, and the macro-was jaw-dropping, there were many times I wanted to zoom in closer, examine every costume, peek at the score with its penciled in notes, ask every actor about their character development process . . . Then I reminded myself that nobody really wants to see the magician stuffing the rabbits into his hat. Thus, I silenced my analytical mind and simply took it all in like a child: phenomenal music by Elton John and Tim Rice. Fascinating performances - most notably by the chilling Patrick R. Brown as "Scar", the commanding L. Steven Taylor as "Mufasa", the transcendent Tshidi Manye as "Rafiki", the charming Drew Hirshfield as "Zazu", the astoundingly beautiful Nia Holloway as "Nala, the brilliant broad comedy of Ben Lipitz as "Pumbaa", and Nick Cordileone as "Timon," and the handful of charming, relatable kids (who I refrained from naming because they alternate leads between performances). In this tour de force, each ensemble player inhabits more than one demanding role.

Pulling off this extravaganza is a superhuman feat. It boggles my mind that this company has to also pack up and travel. But travel it does. (We're talking hundreds of costumes and puppets, elaborate sets, and 134 talented people.) This season will take them from their curren Memphis debut to Louisville, Cincinatti, Des Moines, and finally, Philadelphia.

Despite my unabashed delight in this show, I'm a critic, not a promotional writer, so to earn my keep, I must mention the two scenes that missed the bullseye:

The pivotal point where Mufasa snatched young Simba from the jaws of death by hyenas felt unfocused. It missed the opportunity (obligation) to draw the audience in, create tension, and allow us a delicious sigh of relief when the cub was swept to safety. (I couldn't tell what we were supposed to be seeing -- an innocent child shambling through danger, or a child rendered passive from terror.) The emotional energy wasn't calibrated right, and we were hurtled through too much chaos too quickly to internalize and invest.

Mufasa's death was another missed opportunity. The scene was paced so that our emotions were pulled out of hot water too quickly to steep, leaving us with a weak taste that only hinted at what we were hoping to savor. Strong storytelling means knowing when to linger.

Those two demerits aside, revisiting this journey with my daughter, decades after its cinematic debut, was a profound delight. What a privilege it was to rise along with 2,400 other visibly moved people, to cheer that gorgeous grand finale celebrating the circle of life!

The Lion King plays Tuesday February 3rd - Sunday, March 1st at the Orpheum Theatre 203 South Main Street.

Tickets are available at LionKing.com and at The Orpheum Box Office (901.525.3000), the ticket counter at The Booksellers at Laurelwood, and all Ticketmaster centers.

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