I guess two weeks is a normal occurrence for a hiatus. I would know, I never say anything until I post a ridiculously wordy entry about everything in my life!
As you may have noticed, I tweaked my blog a bit, pulled some strings, pushed some red buttons. It has been recently that I realized that the majority of my blogposts have had something to do with performance, be it watching or performing myself, and thus I made it a little more specific. I find that everything I do that is blogged has something to do with theatre, which is totally kosher with me.
So, onto the most recent show!
As I have mentioned before, I am the happy partaker in a season pass to the Fox Theatre. This pass is for six shows: The Rat Pack, The Wedding Singer, The Drowsy Chaperone (an absolutely excellent show!), Avenue Q (again- most excellent), The Lion King, and Sweeney Todd (the most anticipated of all).
Now, some of these (the first, second, and fifth), I had predetermined that I would not enjoy them simply because they are not, in my mind, real musicals. In my biased eye, a real musical constitutes:
* An original script specifically arranged for the stage. Not taken from a film and adapted into a stage play.
* An immaculate cast, handpicked from the top musically talented actors from anywhere. As well as specifically trained attune ones.
* Actors that embody characters and really understand who they are and play them effectively. Method actors are, albeit, crazy, but at least they are damn good.
I did not receive any of the other night and am sorry to say that I think I am the only person in the entire world who did not like The Lion King, the musical.
We arrived at the Atlanta Civic Center an hour before showtime and had our tickets scanned. I went to go to the can and have a cigarette before the show. I ask one of the ticket scanners if it was ok for me to pop outside, have a cigarette, and come back. She said if I have my ticket, I should be fine so I thank her and go feed my tumors. I come back through a different door and the guy takes my ticket and scans it. As he's doing this, I politely tell him I already had it scanned and I was coming back in. He tells me I'm not allowed to do that and then tells me the person hadn't scanned my ticket the last time because it registered on his, yadda yadda. Maybe I haphazardly fed him bullshit but I got through and was in a very "fuck you" mood.
Took my seat at the far left side of the theatre decently close to the stage with intersecting aisles in front of me. I saw my OB/GYN, who stopped to say hello to my family. I saw her two weeks ago. Hopefully I can wait the full 50 more weeks before I have to see her again. The lights dim.
The show begins with Rafiki, played by________ (insert name here because I lost my goddamn program), who was absolutely amazing. She had this incredibly engaging, intriguing voice that belted out the famous "Na Sen Goynya" and it shook the house. Then the curtain to the left of us opened and a elephant came out. You can see the actor inside but you pay more attention to the elaborate detail of the costumes of everyone as all the other animals entered from various places in the house. I'm not one for spectacle, but I enjoyed how they staged that because it seemed like someone blew a horn on stage and all the animals came running from different areas.
However, shortly after about the fourth scene, the four seats next to me suddenly were filled with late-comers, who all had their cellphones on! The lady next to me crossed her legs, keeping her phone in the crease so she could text messages like a highschooler.
Rules for going to a production, not matter what it is:
* TURN YOUR GODDAMN CELLPHONE OFF OR I WILL BEAT YOU. Even if it's on silent, that light is a beacon and it disturbs the people around you who paid for the show to enjoy it without some dipshit ruining it for them.
* Arrive on time. Again, why would you pay for something just to get there late? Leave early. Sit awhile. Schmooz. Because you may miss integral parts to the plot and you definitely will disturb people next to you and around you.
I digress.
Any scene with Rafiki was awesome. The rest, however, were difficult for me to sit through. The actors who played Mufasa and Scar were awful. They would basically recite their lines, not pay attention to what they were saying, not pay attention to what the other was saying, actually listen to them, they presupposed emotion. It was all kinds of bad. Jess said I'm too critical because they probably got tired from doing the show day after day, but that doesn't matter! No matter what, you treat every night as if it were opening night. You don't allow yourself to slack off, you have fun with it. I could see the actors' boredom and I shouldn't have been able to see that.
The kid who played young Simba was flat every single song. He also was not a very good actor. Once again, if you think me too critical, there are child prodigies out there or, at least, kids who have had musical training.
As far as the music itself, I was delighted to hear familiar songs and hear Timon sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." All the original songs from the movie are amazing because they're written by Elton John and they have that nostalgic meaning for me. Granted the whole score is written by Elton John and Tim Rice- so my question is: What the hell were you thinking when you ADDED the most meaningless songs ever?! Musicals don't necessarily have meaning but some do and those are the ones I like. These new numbers take away from the story. How else are we going to teach a watered-down version of Shakespeare's immortal tale of Hamlet to new generations of kids? The songs that are added are frivolous (Zazu's "Morning Report," the hyenas' "Chow Down," Simba's"Endless Night") and just reitterate ideas that have already been established. Zazu is going to give a morning report, hyenas are carnivorous, and Simba has to run through the dark to kill his uncle. They didn't add anything to the story.
They made characters more obnoxious, lame fart jokes a-plenty, sometimes the singers couldn't be heard, and there were 10 minute dance solos in the middle of songs.
It was all about spectacle and if you had never seen the movie before, I'd be surprised if you could follow the plot. I just wish they would concentrate on the content of the story because it makes you think. Thinking makes you smarter. Why are people so entertained by shiny things? Do we always have to see things outright or can we just form our own ideas about what went on? I understand it's a kid show and I was a kid when it first came out but there are a lot of themes to The Lion King and they can executed better.
Things I liked: Rafiki, the ensemble cast, the costumes, the amazing raked stage, and the songs that weren't in English. That's it.
And that's me being Simon Cowell and a cruel bugger. I hate bad theatre.
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