Lion King mesmerises Lion City

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THE buzz at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre fell silent as the familiar African chant of “nants ingonyama bagithi baba” reverberated across the packed 1,600-seat theatre.

RULER OF PRIDELANDS: Jee-L Guizonne plays the great warrior King Mufasa (Paris Production photo by Brinkenhoff Mogenburg © Disney).

All eyes turned towards the stage where Gugwana Dlamini appeared, belting out the riveting intro of Circle of Life, the iconic song for Disney’s all-time classic – The Lion King.

As the curtains rose to reveal a backdrop depicting the break of dawn, the chants of Dlamini who played the wise baboon shaman, Rafiki, were joined by a pair of gallant giraffes, played by professional puppeteers, strutting on stilts on all fours, while another mimicked the motion of the elegant cheetah stretching himself before sauntering his way across the stage.

But nothing could have prepared the audience for the next scene as an exotic procession of animals slowly made their way down the theatre’s aisles, drawing ‘oohs and aahs’ and thunderous applause from the audience.

From birds swooping past the audience to the majestic elephant treading his way to the stage, it was a sight to behold as performers in skin-tight body suits, costumes and makeup imitated the animals’ gestures down to a tee with their movements and choreography that brought the animals to life.

On stage, the majesty of the Serengeti Plain began to form as the animals gathered to pay homage to their ruler, King Mufasa and his wife, Queen Sarabi who presented their new-born heir, Simba, atop Pride Rock to their kingdom, thus marking the opening of the award-winning The Lion King broadway musical which has been brilliantly re-imagined by renowned director Julie Taymor.

Singapore is the latest leading city to host the internationally acclaimed show after sell-out performances in New York, London, Hamburg, Tokyo and Las Vegas.

Seen by more than 50 million people the world over since its debut in America in 1997, the show will treat audiences in the City State to unbelievable performances by a talented cast of 51 (for the Singapore production), comprising the cream of the crop of The Lion King performers from eight countries and five continents, including veterans of the acclaimed London and Paris productions.

Much like the beloved animated movie but with more vigour and sentiment, the musical brought into Singapore by BASE Entertainment, has been developed specifically for the region and the Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands, filled with non-stop musical changes, dance moves while the actors donned multi-dimensional costumes, giving them the ability to create a wide range of emotions each character expresses.

For instance, the mechanically operated lion masks of King Mufasa and his villainous sinister brother, Scar, played by Jee-L Guizonne and Patrick Brown respectively, allowed the actors to express feelings of pride, anger, intimidation and more.

Brown told thesundaypost that learning to handle the robotic mechanism of his mask was no easy feat, even admitting that the experience was terrifying initially.

“I’ve never done The Lion King before, so I had to learn everything from scratch and it took a while to work out how everything worked – which was also one of the reasons why our rehearsals were so long,” he explained.

Joining the Canadian actor, whose experience in theatre has spanned more than two decades, during the interview was Jonathan Andrew Hume in his lead role debut as Simba, the lion prince, destined to be the king of the Pridelands.

Unlike Brown, Hume has been part of The Lion King production at London’s West End for the past 10 years, starting in 2001 when he was just 17.

“Though I’ve done the show for a decade, coming here to Singapore, I’ve taken it as a brand new show and rehearsals were really great because it allowed us to explore the characters and get the best out of the scene,” said Hume, a London native, who has played the role of a rhinoceros and a hyena and was also the understudy for the Simba character for five years.

Performing eight shows a week, Hume and Brown both acknowledged that while it could get physically and emotionally tiring, they were all out to give their best performance every time to ensure the audience had an unforgettable experience.

“I think it’s important to remember that live theatre is a conversation. It’s a dialogue between the audience and the people who are on stage,” Brown pointed out.

“Every night, the group dynamics of the audience are slightly different. We are all in a different place and every night, it happens only once, and it never happens again in the same way, which is what is unique about live theatre.

“One of our concerns initially was that the Southeast Asian audience might be more reserved – which is not in the case at all. They’ve been very responsive and vocal and they have really embraced the show and had a great time.”

Apart from delivering the same Broadway-quality standards, spectacular music, dance, sets and costumes that have made it a worldwide phenomenon, the musical also has some local elements to make this production unique to Singapore.

This added highlight brought the house down as the audience applauded and roared with laughter listening to the straight-talking, yet adorable, meerkat Timon, played by Jamie McGregor, utter “xie xie ni” (thank you in Mandarin) and slip in some “lah” here and there.

Said Hume: “I remember in the original preview section when we first came out with one of the localisations, the audience literally laughed their heads off and applauded it, and we were looking at each other, thinking do we wait, do we continue the scene.  It’s been interesting to see what people here react to.”

Another highlight was the nail-biting wildebeest stampede scene in sync with that of the 1994 film – from when lion cub Simba clung on for dear life, crying for help, to the gut-wrenching sequence where Scar murdered King Mufasa by pushing him off the cliff into the treacherous sea of galloping wildebeests.

Through the impressive combination of intricate puppets and costumes, great chemistry from the talented cast along with an explosion of stunning effects and unforgettable enchanting music from the original animation such as I Just Can’t Wait to be King, Hakuna Matata and Elton John and Tim Rice’s Academy Award-winning Can You Feel the Love Tonight, the musical is a heart-warming story-telling that will have adults reliving their childhood memories while creating a memorable one for the children.

Indeed, The Lion King musical is a highly recommended show you have to watch for yourself at least once in your life as it is a spectacular theatrical experience that will definitely last a lifetime.

The Lion King plays every Tuesday to Sunday evenings at 8pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Tickets, priced from S$65 onwards, are available at the Sands Theater Box Office at the Marina Bay Sands or via the Internet at www.thelionking.com.sg.