Mufasa's Lion King Review

The Lion King

The lion king is an incredible musical about a young lion named Simba and how he fights for his kingdom. The show starts with the song ‘The Circle of Life’. The music was amazing, filling the whole theatre with beautiful sound and creating a wonderful atmosphere. As the play goes on the sets change and new characters appear. I felt that the set was surprisingly basic for such a hit show. I was expecting more detailed sets with perhaps some bigger movable pieces such as bushes and trees and other rocks. However, maybe this helped us, the audience, focus on the action and the characterisation.

The main features of the set were: Pride Rock , which rose up on a turntable ; the buffalo stampede , which were two logs with wooden buffalo attached to them, and as these spun round, it gave the effect of the buffalo running. There was also a rectangular block which simply rose up and down. This brought up many different things, such as Mufasa’s dead body, which was an unusual and effective way to introduce things onstage.

My two favourite characters were Pumba, the warthog, who was really funny, and Nala, the lioness, Simba’s true love. I liked Nala because she was very brave and clever. I thought Pumba’s costume was really ingenius because the actor’s hair was styled like a warthogs, all black and spiky and his arms operated the character’s mouth . The actor’s legs were used as the front legs and the back legs were just attached to the costume.

Altogether, I thought the show was brilliant. I have seen the film, so I knew the story, but the theatre really brought it to life. I loved every minute and would definitely recommend it to anyone who would like an evening at the theatre.

By Francesca