The Lion King

music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice

seen at the Lyceum Theatre on 16 September 2018

Now over 21 years old, this musical adaptation of the 1994 Disney film has been playing continuously at the Lyceum, but I have only just got around to seeing it (never having seen the film) thanks to a visiting Norwegian friend who suggested we go. As I have walked past the theatre many times thinking that one day I should see a performance, but always having it in mind that it would be more enjoyable not to go alone, I was more than ready to agree.

The story is a typical Disney confection of a young creature making good against the odds - alone in the world after a secure familial situation disintegrates, with a wicked relative to complicate matters, and some engaging if surprising friends along the way to help in the task of self-discovery. What is intriguing is the largely successful attempt to blend this with the realities of leonine life - hierarchies within the pride, and the fact of hunting for and eating meat - and the human tendency to rank animals - the lion as king, hyenas as mountebanks, and so on - and the traditions of African tribal music and dance (meaning, probably, sub-Saharan African, since the continent is huge and lions only inhabit a small part of it). Thus there is a lot of drumming in the music, and some of the lyrics are not in English; the dangers of cultural condescension are just about avoided.

The visual design is spectacular, the set (by Richard Hudson) a clever use of a stage revolve with an uncluttered cyclorama allowing for colourful sky effects and giving the splendid costumes and masks (by Julie Taymor, who also directs) ample space to shine. The opening scene is a breathtaking evocation of animal life responding to the sunrise over the plains, with a wonderfully inventive use of masks, puppetry, stilts and generic animal movements providing an exciting start to the proceedings. The puppetry is not as true-to-life as that developed for War Horse, but it does not need to be, as the whole ethos is less realistic. But some characteristic arm movements representing the gestures of lions giving and receiving deference within the pride give an edge to the otherwise anthropomorphic picture of a lion cub being brought to maturity by adverse circumstances.

The theatricality of the performance is what makes it memorable; any other means of representing wild animals on stage would have reduced it to mere pantomime. For a western and urban audience, the use of African musical and visual motifs emphasises the sheer otherness of the animal world, and at the same time allows the cast to mimic the innate dignity of animals somehow without looking ridiculous. Though the story may be somewhat trite, it is dressed up marvellously to be a really enjoyable entertainment.