UAE Review: The Lion King Musical is a celebration of talents and emotions

The age-old debate goes like this: a book is better than a movie, almost always. It was only when we sat down to watch The Lion King: The Musical at Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, last weekend, did we begin to think of another kind of debate i.e. can a live show be better than a movie? Oh, well, yes was the answer; loud and clear. Yes, die-hard fans of the 1994 movie may raise a brow to that and to be fair, the movie was and is magical even till date, but let’s just say that this musical comes a tad close! And hence it comes as no surprise that the audience for the show were individuals, who’d previously seen the show in other destinations like London, New York, etc. but were back for the second-third time to savour the experience yet again. Incidentally, 2022 also marks 25 years of the show, which is also often referred to as ‘a celebration of life’.

All through the duration of the show (two hours and 30 minutes, with an intermission), we were in awe of how each scene and emotion came alive on the stage — be it via more than 200 puppets (rod, shadow, and full-sized puppets) that created animal-like movements or the wonderful music that set the tone. One could almost cry with the kingdom when Mufasa died. Also, it’s interesting to note that it took a combined 37,000 hours to build the puppets, and the overall number of people working on the show was 120 plus. The broadway score features Elton John and Tim Rice’s songs from The Lion King animated film; additional musical material were by South African Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor and Hans Zimmer; and more.