Zazu lion king broadway costumes7/28/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() The cast as a whole, including the singers and dancers, put a huge polish on the show and helped deliver the many spellbinding musical numbers. But most mesmerizing was Tshidi Manye as Rafiki, who in the film is a primate known as a mandrill, but in the musical a kind of shaman - or in this case shawoman. The many leads delivered fine performances including Vusi Sondiyazi as Mufasa and Jelani Remy as Simba. Hirshfield has a small puppet in relation to his body size but was often easily able to make me forget that he was there and focus on the puppet's reactions. Their performances are in harmony with the comedy of the film, and both are able to masterfully integrate themselves into their costumes/puppets.īut one of the most impressive performances in the actor/puppet category definitely goes to Drew Hirshfield, as the hornbill bird Zazu who advises King Mufasa. That, however, does not take away from the performers in those roles, particularly Nick Cordileone as Timon and Ben Lipiz as Pumbaa. In this context, they come off as cheesy representations that conflict with the larger tone. That animated movie has cartoon characters, and a good portion of those characters are represented as such in this musical (particularly the hyenas, Timon and Pumbaa). Beyond the borders of his homeland he finds friends, Timon the meerkat (a kind of mongoose) and Pumbaa the warthog, before his return.īut this musical reveals a discord of tones when the dazzling display of the imagined African landscape and its inhabitants meet many of the characters that made the movie so widely popular. After clashing with his father, Mustafa, and witnessing his father's death, Simba flees the country he is set to inherit, leaving it to his evil uncle Scar and hyenas. There are even more animals represented in the story, which is like the biblical Prodigal Son parable. Of course, that breadth also includes Africa's native animals, with towering giraffes lumbering across the stage and elephant-sized, well, elephant puppet marching down the aisle at the musical's onset to the musical's best song, "Circle of Life." The carnival of this musical captures the breadth of the African landscape and via the music and costumes reflects so many cultures from South Africa to Mali. ![]() (Think "Avenue Q" and the popular puppeteer Basel Twist.) The musical, under the direction of Julie Taymor, who also designed the costumes and masks and puppets, marked true revolution in American musical theater and has become Broadway's fourth-longest-running show and highest-grossing Broadway production of all time. The touring productions came to Louisville in 20.ĭespite its age, this spectacle seems to have aged well and given rise to the popularity and creative uses of puppetry in theater. It's been 21 years since the animated film was released, with this musical opening on Broadway just three years later in 1997. The Tony Award-winning musical "The Lion King" rolled into the Kentucky Center this week in the midst of a snowstorm that might have kept some ticketholders away but transported those in the Whitney Hall to an imagined Africa exploding with color with its inventive puppets and breathtaking sets and many costumes that are like sculptural works of art.
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