Review: The Lion King a majestic show for the child in all of us

Calgary Herald

3 days ago

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It's been 28 years since the stage musical of The Lion King opened on Broadway, but it is still roaring just as loud and proud.
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The touring version currently at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium until Aug. 17 has been crisscrossing North America since 2002, visiting more than 93 cities, sometimes as many as three different times, and has been seen by more than 21 million people. This is its third time in Calgary, but it has lost none of its power to enchant and exhilarate. The anticipation for the opening number, in which the animals enter through the audience to attend the presentation of the new lion heir, was electric, and the applause at its conclusion was near deafening.
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Based on the 1994 Disney animated feature, it tells the story of the lion cub Simba, whose ascent to the throne of the Pride Lands is thwarted by his jealous, conniving Uncle Scar, who orchestrates the death of Simba's father, Mufasa. The plot is loosely inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet, but it is really more about family relationships than it is about political rivalry.
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This is made abundantly clear after one of Scar's attempts to rid the Pride Lands of either its king or its heir. Mufasa rescues Simba and young female cub Nala from hungry hyenas in the elephant graveyard, and then takes Simba aside to discipline him for his disobedience. Mufasa takes off his headdress so he is no longer a fierce king, but simply a father trying to teach his young son a life lesson. Darnell Abraham and the young Bryce Christian Thompson have such wonderful chemistry and because Thompson is so animated and mischievous, it's no wonder that it becomes a powerful father/son bonding scene.
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Abraham brings the gravitas essential to the role of Mufasa, making him a wise, loving man as well as an astute monarch. Thompson is a tiny volcano, always on the verge of erupting, but it's obvious Thompson is in control, enjoying the experience as much as the audience.
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The real star of The Lion King is Scar. He is the villain we love to hate, and Peter Hargrave relishes every moment he is on stage. He is slyly evil, and his sarcasm is as charming as it is deadly. His manipulation of the naive Simba is deliciously vile, so that when the adult Simba eventually confronts him, the audience is cheering at his snivelling and begging.
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As a young cub, Simba banishes himself from Pride Lands, as he wrongly believes that he was responsible for his father's death. He finds a new family in Timon the meerkat, and Pumba the warthog, a comic relief duo, played with scene-stealing aplomb by Robert Creighton and Danny Grumich. They replace the earlier antics of Nick LaMedica's Zazu, the hornbill Mufasa appointed to look after Simba.