Lion King, the Musical

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The Lion King is one my favorite cartoons of all time. So when I saw that the musical version was being presented in Las Vegas by Disney Theatrical at Mandalay Bay, I just had to convince either (or both) of my parents and my brother to watch it with me... the other option, which was also good, was Cirque du Soleil's The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage. The Lion King eventually won because my mom opted to go shopping that afternoon and LOVE did not have a performance before my brother's flight back to San Francisco.

One thing I noticed about The Lion King musical: it was a crowd-drawer. Families came in droves to watch it! No surprise there. The puppetry and the costumes were great; the stage decorations and the lighting did not draw attention away from the characters; and the actors -- particularly those behind Timon, Rafiki, Simba (the cub and the lion), Scar, and Zazu -- were superb. Then there were the songs; aside from Timon and Pumbaa's "Hakuna Matata" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" duets, I liked the songs that had a strong African feel to them... it's as if I were sitting on the grass amid the giraffes, zebras, antelope, rhinos of Pride Rock.

At the heart of all these creative inputs, what make The Lion King the success that it is is its beautiful story: a child had run away from his problems but he eventually returned to face them and to take his rightful place in the Circle of Life.

With that being said, I still couldn't get over the elephants walking down the aisles of the theater.

Great show. Catch it on its final stretch in Las Vegas! Curtains close a final time on December 30th, 2011.

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