The Lion King

Wow! Wow! Wow! Never have I seen such brilliance in color and song! It was amazing! Anticipating long lines, my husband and I got there almost an hour early. Okay...so I didn't know they didn't actually seat you until a half hour before the start of the show. We made it to our seats! Sweet! Orchestra seating..eighth row back. Man! I'll be able to look up their noses. LOL
We nestle in our seats and lo and behold...the people in the middle seats are LATE! Why does that happen? It's always the people in the middle of the row that are late! As if the cramped seats weren't enough, then we had to get up 3 times for the people in the middle of our row...sheesh!
Suddenly the lights dim and you hear a singing but you don't know where it's coming from. There...in the balcony! Cool! Who starts their first act in the balcony?!? LOL It was a very pleasant surprise. But wait...an even stronger voice enters stage left. It's Rafiki!! And boy does that character have a set of lungs!

Rafiki suddenly starts rambling in an African dialect. I turn to my niece and whisper, "I think I need sub-titles." Rafiki rambles on for almost 60 seconds and the beauty of the little soliloquy, was the character was telling a story in a language no one could understand...yet we all understood it.
There was one burst of color after the next...one musical crescendo after the next. Surprises were EVERYWHERE! The HUGE elephant down the aisle, the graceful leopard, the leaping gazelles, the dancers, the grass, the elegant giraffes...the colors, artistry and creativity...it was so overwhelming but you didn't mind your brain going into "hyper-optical-sensitivity" (ok...I made that up)! It amazed me how your own imagination fell in sync with the imagination of the creators of the musical. It was absolutely wondrous and I would gladly go see it again!