Every once and a while, a moment comes along that makes time irrelevant and forces you to question everything you've become. This moment grabs your heart and squeezes out every bit of love and emotion. It casts aside doubt, fear, and hate. It puts a smile on faces and tears down cheeks. This past weekend, I experienced such a moment.
Since I was 10 years old I have been in love with a movie. Of all the movies that I have seen in my life, one has always stood out as my personal and professional favorite. The Lion King captured my imagination at age 10 like no movie before it, thrusting me into a love affair with its music (my first audio CD was the official soundtrack), it's art (I spent years perfecting my lion-drawing skills), and its story (read: absolute perfection). I never hesitate to tell anyone that it is indeed one of my all-time favorite films.
Saturday night I finally, finally, finally, finally was able to see the stage musical version of Disney's The Lion King. For as highly-praised as it has been for the past decade, it's the one piece of The Lion King universe that has always eluded me, simply because I've never been able to get to New York to see the original production. When I heard it was coming to Toledo, I knew that I had to go.
The experience was top-notch from front to back. I've only seen two professional stage productions in my life, and it looks like The Lion King will be the one to beat. I sat awe-struck for three hours as a myriad of costumes, dancers, lights, props, and of course music, paraded around the stage and aisles of the Stranahan Theatre, replaying my most important movie in powerful musical form. The original Lion King songs are redone masterfully on stage, and the additional songs were plenty catchy or immensely original (the African chant stuff never got old).
I knew that something was happening to me from the get-go: halfway into the opening song, "Circle of Life," I was crying like a baby. Perhaps not for any particularly sad reason, but because I was experiencing my childhood joy in a way that I never have before, and seeing the harmonious combination of music, dancing, and lights just put me in a place that I rarely experience: absolute bliss.
Of particular power to my senses was the "Circle of Life" opening scene/song (elaborate costumes, dancing, and intense music). Shortly behind that was the "I Just Can't Wait to be King" segment, which was fun and colorful all over. Interestingly, I found the scenes not featured in the original film to be the most interesting. The Lion King story is far more fleshed-out on stage, with a menacing look into Scar's faults and fears as a character, while the impact of his rule over the Pridelands is more explicit via characters such as Sarabi and Nala. Simba's change near the end certainly carries more weight in the musical than the movie - the impact of his actions is far more emotional on stage than in the film.
I can't begin to describe the raw impact that seeing The Lion King on stage has had on me. I've waited for ten years to see this production, and it feels like a completion of my journey with the entire Lion King universe. In many ways I feel like my childhood is now complete, and I can go on with growing up. Even so, I know that The Lion King will always be what defines my childhood, and I will always turn to it - in any form - to relive the best years of my life. Why would I want to do this? So I never forget who I am, of course.
B3 out.
No comments:
Post a Comment