Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Disney The Lion King Musical 15 Years In The West End!
I’ve made no secret of my love for Disney’s The Lion King. I’m not alone….
This is the highest grossing musical EVER generating $6.2 Billion Dollars around the world.
It literally has everything you want for the perfect night out – with music by Elton John and some of the worlds most inventive, surprising, impressive and beautiful staging, costumes, lighting, choreography, script & puppetry – it has it all.
This is truly a guaranteed hit and re-pays your £70 investment tenfold in my opinion. Without question this is still the greatest family musical in theatrical history.
If I had the choice a seeing one last final show – it would be this! I cannot think of one bad thing to say about it.
On October 16th 2014 I attended the 15th anniversary performance and fell in love with this show even more than I had over a decade ago. I found it so powerful, meaningful and moving – this story resonates with so many peoples lives.
For the kids it’s spectacular. For the adults it touches a nerve with love, loss, family and survival.
The majesty, precision, crafted script and performance of TLK is literally mind blowing. In recent weeks I’ve left most shows at the interval, or before in some cases – the Lion King continues to evolve and seemingly has more purpose the older it, and we get
Here’s our tribute, trailer and review featuring Stars including Gok Wan, Beverley Knight and even the shows choreographer / genius Julie Taymor sharing their love for The Lion King…..
Nods this evening should go to Shaun Escoffery who is so masterful, brilliant and commanding as Mufasa – he’s the epitome of this role which fully explains why he’s been doing it so long. His tone is insanely beautiful and his delivery of this character is second to none.
George Asprey also proves his genius hitting the perfect balance with Scar’s creepy, dark and unpleasant side matched with equal measure of the sarcastic, troubled and needy. His pathos is brilliant. Despite being despicable, you can’t help feeling a tad sorry for him. Amazing job!
Brown Lindiwe Mkhize steals the show as Rafiki – the voice of an angel with an enormous personality and charisma that makes that huge Lyceum feel cosy and intimate. I love her!
Howard Gossington, Richard Frame and Keith Bookman also deserve praise for being the comic relief in the play and Ava Brennan & Jonathan Andrew Hume who both made me cry with her haunting 11 o’clock numbers Shadowland and Endless Night – gorgeous.
I loved that after 15 years the producers are still adding new lines and tweaking the show. I loved the dig at Frozen, a blatant pop at Let It Go, the reference to DIY SOS and even a new parody of Riverdance to massive applause. Very clever.
There’s not a word wasted during this 2.5 hour spectacle. It’s a master-class in all killer no filler which so many others should learn from.
The entire ensemble should be applauded for a faultless, seamless, effortless performance. The band were terrific and the Live percussion (in the auditorium) was as magical, evocative and moving as ever.
Enjoy an Exclusive interview with the current West End Mufasa, Shaun Escoffery:
So, you might have noticed I like The Lion King.
After 15 years this is still a 5* masterpiece of musical amazement and moving sentiment that leaves you feeling empowered and enlightened.
The perfect night in the West End on a joyous rollercoaster of huge African heart.
Don’t miss The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End – tickets at www.thelionking.co.uk
Review uploaded by Alex Belfield for Celebrity Radio 2nd October 2014.
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