Lion King Feeling the Love at the Benedum in Pittsburgh

Lion King Feeling the Love at the Benedum in Pittsburgh

by

Good News Reporter, Joanne Quinn-Smith

Hakuna matata: Means no worries and you truly will leave the theater with no worries after this presentation.  There is almost too much going on with performers coming through the aisles and drummers in the balcony boxes.  What an event of sound and sight and experience.

What a mix of visual and audio entertainment Director Julie Taymor has put together.  My five year old was mesmerized even though it was a long show and she wanted to go to sleep she just could not.  I asked her the best part and she told me it was the young Simba and Nala played by Jordan Hall and Nya Cymone Carter, what wonderful delightful young performers.  She loved Simba in “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King.”

Personally I hate it when the bad guy gets less applause than the

Musafa

hero.  I found Patrick Brown in the role of the wicked yet funny Scar to be the perfect anti-hero.  Scar is Mufasa's brother and he feels that because of his superior intellect he should be king of the jungle. His quirkiness and campy swagger added a unique dimension to the musical. 

One of the two strongest performances was given by Steven Taylor as Mufasa Simba's father, Sarabi's husband and the former King of the Pride Lands; a righteous, wise, and kindhearted leader, but admirably powerful and courageous as well. Idolized by his son, with whom he shared a strong bond, Mufasa was envied immensely during his lifetime by his wicked younger brother Scar, who furiously conspired against his older brother in an attempt to end his reign and seize the throne. To the devastation of a young Simba, Mufasa was violently trampled to death by a massive stampede of wildebeests arranged by Scar while attempting to save his son's life. This lead to Scar's tyrannical kingship over Pride Rock after he convinced Simba he was responsible for his father’s death and that he should run away from home.

Rafiki

But my favorite character and the strongest performer of the Lion King is Rafiki played by Bron Liniwe Mikhize.  Rafiki is an erect walking mandrill so can use many props like gourds that other characters cannot. What a breath of fresh air, talent, energy and symbolism.  During the musical Rafiki sings a nonsense chant: "Asante sana, squash banana, wewe nugu, mimi hapana." This is a Swahili playground rhyme which translates to "Thank you very much (squash banana), you're a baboon and I'm not!" Like "hakuna matata" (no worries), the chant was heard by the original filmmakers on their research trip to Kenya.

Rafiki performs shamanistic services for the lions of Pride Rock so his chanting just fits in.

The costuming is amazing as many of the animals portrayed in the production are actors in costume using extra tools to move their costumes. For example, the giraffes are portrayed by actors carefully walking on stilts. For principal characters such as Mufasa and Scar, the costumes feature mechanical headpieces that

can be raised and lowered to foster the illusion of a cat "lunging" at another. Other characters, such as the hyenas, Zazu, Timon, and Pumbaa, are portrayed by actors in life-sized puppets or costumes. My granddaughter especially loved the stage personnel in conical Asian hat, sedge hat, rice hat, or paddy hats who skillfully flew the birds on stage and through the audience at the end of long sticks, simply a symphony of motion in my opinion. 

Seats are still available for Disney’s Tony Award-winning The

The cast

Lion King, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and PNC Broadway Across America at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts.  The show runs through Sept. 29; times vary; $65-$115; 412/456-4800, trustarts.org

But whatever time you attend you will leave humming either “Circle of Life” or “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

Joanne Quinn-Smith, Award winning internet radio broadcaster, blogger, author  and internet radio and TV network editor and publisher.  Joanne is the owner and CEO, Creative Energy Officer, of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, a successful Pittsburgh-based marketing company. She is a grandmother and great grandmother, an unlikely trendsetter for online journalism and broadcasting. Joanne is internationally known as the “Get Your Google On” Gal.  But better known as Techno Granny™ to over one million accumulated online listeners worldwide.   Joanne has created a revolutionary online NEW MEDIA platform in Internet broadcasting, blogging and other social media participation that represents the new second generation of World Wide Web interactions, known in technology circles as Web 2.0. JQS is the online publisher of PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com, an online community magazine to disseminate the Positive News for Positive Pittsburghers.  PPL Mag is Pittsburgh’s First Internet radio and TV network with syndicated channels and online radio and TV capabilities.