A lively stage adaptation of the Academy Award-winning Disney film, The Lion King is the story of a young lion prince living in the flourishing African Pride Lands. Eventually companioned by two hilarious and unlikely friends, Simba starts anew. But when weight of responsibility and a desperate plea from the now ravaged Pride Lands come to find the adult prince, Simba must take on a formidable enemy, and fulfill his destiny to be king. Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor reimagines the popular story using some of the theater's most extraordinary stagecraft.
Chris Willman. Broadway theater is alive again. Most important - against all odds - it has innocence. The show appeals to our primal, childlike excitement in the power of theater to make us see things afresh.
Richard Zoglin. Suddenly, you're 4 years old again, and you've been taken to the circus for the first time. You can only marvel at the exotic procession of animals before you: the giraffes and the elephants and the hippopotamuses and all those birds in balletic flight.
Such is the transporting magic wrought by the opening 10 minutes of The Lion King, [director Julie] Taymor has introduced a whole new vocabulary of images to the Broadway blockbuster. Ben Brantley. The show and the playhouse are enchanting.
The unprecedented production is worth every penny. If this is Disney's idea of a theme park, we are delighted to report that the theme is quality.
