Last Sunday night (September27), I attended my first Broadway show, The Lion King at Minskoff Theatre in Manhattan. I was totally impressived by this musical show because its scenic effects, costumes, and music create a living work of art before my eyes. The show was extremely spectacular and amazing. The Lion King was directed by Julie Taymor who also designed its amazing costumes and creatures. And the show had 2 Acts including twenty scenes in total. As we all know, The Lion King is one of the most famous and beloved shows around the world. The show is about Simba (Dashaun Young), son of the strong and wise king Mufasa (Nathaniel Stampley), who lives a happy childhood until his evil uncle Scar (Derek Smith) plots to take over the throne and drives Simba away from the kingdom. In exile, Simba meets Pumba( Ben Lipitz), the hilarious warthog and Timon (Dabby Rutigliano), the funny meerkat and he learns their motto of the carefree life,“Hakuna Matata’’. However, as Simba approaches adulthood, he realizes what he has left behind and that he must reclaim his destiny as king of Pride Rock. After I saw this production, I think it is trying to bring an entire African jungle and its menagerie of animals thrillingly to the stage. I believe that it’s very successful reaching its goal. The Lion King makes the African savannah come alive through a colorful array of scenic effects, costumes, and creatures on the stage. For the scenic effects part, I am not only can see the effect of the half human, the half animal actors, but also I can see the orange paper sun at scene 1 “Pride Rock’’, the savannah grasses rising from the stage and top of human heads at scene 1 “Be Prepared ”, a blue cloth that becomes a stream and waterfall at scene13 “The desert/The Jungle’’ (all from Act1), a million bulbs becomes a sparking sky at scene 4 “Under the Stars” (Act 2). I think those scenic effects are amazing and attractive to me because it brings me a colorful and imaginative picture in my mind. Furthermore, I saw lots of amazing costumes and creatures which are designed by Julie Taymor too. These costumes are beautifully rendered with the impressive African Jungle too. For example, the giraffes were operated by ensemble actors on stilts concealed with the animal’s skin. The front legs of each zebra belonged to ensemble actors who wore the same skin as the animals when they were giving the performance. Also ,the director Julie Taymor designed some specific creatures on the stage, such as wildebeests, African elephants, antelopes, hyenas and stage set, such as poles, animal silhouettes on backcloths in order to create a real African environment to the audiences. Besides that, The Lion King blends Western popular music with the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Africa. The majority of music comes from the familiar pop sound of famous singer Elton John and great composer Tim Rice. For example, “Circle of Life”, “Be Prepared’’, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, “He Lives in You”, and so on. However, there were also the African rhythms by Lebo M and his “One by One” tribal chant song at the beginning of Act 2. The actor Tshidi Manye as Rafiki the baboon shaman performed this African rhythms to us. Even though, I didn’t understand the language, I felt that she was trying to show up the African elements and culture to the audiences. Also, the show uses different kinds of music instrument, such as ,violin, flute, bass, trombone, guitar, percussion, woodwind. Meanwhile, it also used Africa drums, mallets. Thus I think the music part has artfully blended the Western music with the African music. In addition, I think the director is so smart because I found that the majority of actors are black or African. Because The Lion King is going to show an entire African jungle, thus the director chooses the right actors to fit into the roles to make the characters more believable .Also I want to say, the actors’ movements and the gestures were very familiar with the animals. They could embody the character physically, vocally and emotionally. I think they have worked so hard to at being skillful. During the show, I found that most audiences enjoyed it very much. The audiences come from different ages . They were children, youngsters, adults, and elderly and some of them are European tourists. I feel very connected with the show because when Pumba( Ben Lipitz), and Timon (Dabby Rutigliano) who were telling jokes, we all laughed and gave the reaction to the stage. Also, when every scene ended, we all cheered and clapped our hands. Also when Simba was fighting with Scar,I felt very nervous and worried about him, even I knew he would win finally. I was so curious about how he fought to defeat with Scar and what is the bigger difference between movies and live show? Because it’s live and could not be retake. Eventually, the action and movement were very smooth and fluent. I think The Lion King translates some important messages to the audiences such as obedience, truthfulness, not running away, and taking responsibility. That is very essential for our children and the next generation. And my favorite scene is the beginning at Act 1, all the animals in the kingdom come to see their new –born prince, the young Simba (Clifornd Lee Dickson). It is a powerful scene, beautifully rendered with impressive art and music. Generally, I would like to say The Lion King is very worthy and I am definitely seeing it again. But I do not recommend you walk in to get the tickets. Here I have a recommendation to make the show better. Because there was 15 minutes intermission during Act one and Act two, I would like to suggest that if the show can reduce the intermission to 5 to 10 minutes. Because during the intermission, there were lots of people taking pictures, talking on phone and eating their food inside that is not allowed on the theatre . They did not realize that they destroy the mood of the performance and I felt quite disturbing to me, even to other audiences.    大家睇完有冇頭暈?定係你冇睇?skip左呢?hahaaa... | 
