I'm so sorry for the late post but I just got home from the Lion King at Mandalay bay. It was BRILLIANT! I loved it so much! In class we discussed why artists choose certain materials and the impact they have. This production was a perfect example of that concept. The costumes and the set were half of the excitement and emotion felt. The costumes were authetic and simple but at the same time extremely elaborate and magnificent. The animals looked so real and were so lively. Even more important than the materials used was the movement of the costumes. Some of the lions' headpieces were attachted with a large wire that allowed the head to swoop up and down when needed making it look so real. The female lions were stunning. They had beautiful headpieces and wore long sheet like material that draped from their sholders to the floor. This created a feminine like quality that truly breathtaking. In the final scene the animals were marching all around the stage. I thought it was so clever to have some performers in full costume as if they were the animals while others were part animal part human and could walk upright.
The dance was my favorite part. It was a comination of modern, ballet and athentic African stomp. Dance is so amazing. It was used as entertainment sometimes and other times used to portray an animal's movement. It is wonderful the way dance can be used to simulate a fight between two lions or the grazeful movemenet of another. The dance is what made it real. The performers became their characters through the movement of their bodies.
I also loved the music, I even purchased the soundtrack on the way out! If I can figure out how I will try to put it on my page for everyone to hear! It was such an emotional experience for me, it sounds cheesy but some of the songs were very beautiful. I was surprised by how fabulous their voices were especially the two little kids, even while they were dancing! Another neat thing about the theatre was the side boxes where the drummers sat and played. They were so close that the audience could see their every movement. They used so many different instruments to make the various nature sounds. Seeing them play added to the overall experience of the music and feeling.
The set was exquisite. It could have been a performance in and of itself. I kept noticing the lighting. Everytime the backdrop was a lighter shade there was a shadow of the characters or the birds flying around on sticks or the grass along the stage. It made everything seem so real. I loved the way that dancers were used as part of the setting. Some were elaborate bushes and flowers, while others simply leaved across the stage with leaves or palms in hand. My favorite were dancers in nude outfits with grass wrapped around their bodies. They layed on the ground as grass and then moved in coordination with the other charcters on stage. At one pont animals were shown on the screen then litterally rolling over one level of stage, then another and another, and two rows of animals were actually on the stage. The whole while each row of animals bacame larger making it look like stampead down the mountain.Toward the end the stage went black and little stars shown everywhere. They slowly formed a lion's head and then the end some how materialized into this magnificent piece, that slowly swayed and spoke. In the final scene I fell in love with the bright orange sun given a yellow glow by the lighting as it slowly rose up and into the ceiling.
I couldnt have been more happy with the show, I loved it and would see it a millions times!