The Lion King, Burswood, WA

The Lion King
stage musical

at Burswood, WA

rated 5/10: not very exciting

Put it this way: We sat in row Z, right at the back. To clearly see all the action on stage, I wore my distance glasses. After the interval I didn't bother.

The story was simplistic. Why should the hereditary ruler bring the rains ? Is this some anointed monarch myth ? Does anyone really believe that lions -- or the equivalent human killers -- really care about preserving "the circle of life" ?

Putting aside all thoughts of reality... The story was simple but not objectionable. If I read it as a book I would say, Pull the other one ! As a musical, story is just a means of linking the songs...

Remember Queen, the Musical ? The story was rubbish but the music was brilliant. Which meant that the overall show was also brilliant ! If you liked the music...

The Lion King music is forgettable.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight... Yes, I can remember that one ! But it's a ring-in, not written specifically for the show. Of the other songs -- none stick in my memory. Neither words not music. Worse yet... While listening, my feet were not tapping, I had no urge to hum along. Boring and forgettable tunes.

Ooooo... a significant moment... How will we indicate that with the music ? I know ! We'll hit the drums, very hard ! Ooh, and flash the lights... No, sorry, that just doesn't work for me.

The costumes... are very complex. Some are even good. The warthog costume is excellent ! The giraffe costumes are very clever. The lions... are stupid.

The lion costumes are vaguely lion-coloured outfits with lion faces on top. Like, hats with a lion face. When I look at a person I focus on the face. That's standard human behaviour. To be specific: when a human looks at another human they spend most of the time looking at the eyes, with occasional glances down towards the mouth.

The lion-face hats -- above the eyes, even above the face -- are as good as invisible. So you have a group of actors in loose brown onesies. Wearing hats that -- on the rare occasions that you notice them -- look a bit like lion faces.

And why do only two of the lions have tails ?!

The hyaenas are even worse. They each have a head on a spring. The head can be lifted up, down, around... but it still looks like a head on a spring. (Except from the front three-quarter view, where it does look quite effective.) And because the head is on a spring -- rather than solidly connected to the body -- what I see is a person in a costume. With a head (on a spring) held in front of the chest.

The costumes are complex. Puppet-style, apparently. The warthog, the wildebeest, the giraffes and perhaps the meerkat, are excellent. The rest are just people dressed up -- poorly -- as animals.

Still, we were there for the experience. As a celebratory outing: dinner and a show. As an experience, we enjoyed it. Not as good as Les Miserables, said my partner. Not as good as reading a book at home, I thought. But an enjoyable outing.

Somewhat spoilt by what we read in the next day's paper...

Apparently, the show has not yet opened... What we saw, apparently, was a preview... So why did we pay full price ?!

We saw a preview. Does that explain the boring songs ? The singers are still learning how to involve an audience ? Will the experience improve, once the show has "opened" ?!

Were we an audience of fools who paid for the privilege of helping the cast prepare for the less gullible audiences ?

It was a disappointing show, but enjoyable.

Now we feel that, in fact, we were cheated.

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"Let not the sands of time get in your lunch" ... per Ginger Meggs