the circle of life...
the lights turn down. the percussionists are doing some last second tuning. and then the spotlight shines front centre, and you see this heavily painted person who looks like a shaman. "nan ts'ngonya ma bakithi baba", she starts chanting in zulu, whilst facing the left balcony. "sithi hm ingonya ma", the chorus joins in. another light focuses on the balcony where you see a barely dressed african with a gnu headmask who starts chanting back to the shaman. the chorus fills in yet again. the shaman chants again to the right balcony and another gnu headmasked african chants back. on stage, the lights start fading in, and a a lady in brown leotard appears on stage. attached to her hips is a cheetah puppet. the hind legs are attached to her legs. the forelegs are controlled by sticks. the movements of the cheetah's head are controlled by wires connected to the head of the puppeteer. along the aisle of the stalls section, a procession of "animals" march their way onto the stage. the most amazing is the elephant, which consists of a person in each of its legs. considering the dimensions of the theatre and the puppet, it would probably have been assembled after entering into the theatre. they all join up on stage and a veritable menagerie of animals is the result. all of these combine to provide an overwhelming sensory experience. in the centre of the stage is a spiral stairway that represents pride rock. up onto it climbs a guy who looks like some native american chieftain, except with a lion totem mask. with him is a female with a lioness mask. and the shaman joins them at the top to show the cub to the ensemble of animals.
the above goes nowhere near doing justice to the spectacle that was the opening song of the lion king: the musical. the musical does not try and make the characters look cute. the costume design did not try to fool anyone into thinking that there aren't any humans involved. as you can see from the pictures, the costumes are simply exquisite. i'd pay to watch it again, if just for the first 5 minutes. the musical was truly one of the best experiences of my life.
the rest of it was an equally magical experience, especially the scene in which simba speaks to the ghost of his father. what wouldn't i give to watch it again...
the above goes nowhere near doing justice to the spectacle that was the opening song of the lion king: the musical. the musical does not try and make the characters look cute. the costume design did not try to fool anyone into thinking that there aren't any humans involved. as you can see from the pictures, the costumes are simply exquisite. i'd pay to watch it again, if just for the first 5 minutes. the musical was truly one of the best experiences of my life.
the rest of it was an equally magical experience, especially the scene in which simba speaks to the ghost of his father. what wouldn't i give to watch it again...
