Disney's The Lion King, Does it hold up after all these years?

The first time I saw the Broadway Disney’s The Lion King live on stage I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. It had been around, and around, it was probably on its 5th or 6th national tour, as it was around 2007 when I saw a touring company in Sacramento.

The original Broadway production opened on at the New Amsterdam Theatre in 1997. It has been almost 20 years since we first saw a live action Rafiki wail those opening notes, those notes that still gives us goosebumps. I still am a vocal advocate and supporter of the additional ensemble vocals that had been added to this show by Lebo M.

To this day, I can not say how much I love these a capella African chants. One by One, the Lioness Hunt, and Grassland chant are the best pieces in the show. Especially when One by One opens the second act and the actors are in the audience with birds. #myheartswells

The vocals, the puppets, the sets, the famous history behind Julie Taymor’s crazy brain child. Something that really help her make a name for herself. This show set the stage for Disney to promptly take over Broadway (and many welcomed it)

I was so so excited to see it again, and to share the joy of this show with my friends (and some of their kids, too)! I wanted them to see what I had seen, feel what I had felt. The show started and as "The Circle of Life" begun, I was all smiles.

As the dialogue started, and the story began to unfold, I became less than enthralled.

Was it that I had already seen it once, and the Disney magic had worn off? Or was it, that after all these years of playing Broadway and countless national and international tours, the show lost the polish it once had?

I felt a lot of over-acting from the "feline" actors. I can't tell what it was specifically, but their movement on stage seemed trite. Especially that of the 3 main male characters, Young Simba, Mufasa, and especially Scar.

The Hyenas, Shezi, Bonzai, and Ed were incredibly sloppy in their performance. I could barely understand their dialogue, their singing, and the movements that they had seemed without motivation. It was all very distracting.

Throughout several numbers, members of the ensemble seemed straight up bored. They were not involved in the scene at all. I know that when you are a flower with a giant taco on your head, you may not want to smile, but you are pulling focus, dude. It seemed so unprofessional and awkward.

One of my favorite pieces, made famous by Tony Award, Grammy Award, Drama Desk Award winner Heather Headley, and also done masterfully by the Nala that I saw in 2007, Shadowland, lacked power, lacked sorrow, and lacked a literal and figurate voice in this performance.

If I didn't know that song so well, I would have had no idea what she was singing about and that made me sad for people who could have enjoyed that number they way so many have in the past.

Reading through the bios of the cast, a number of the performers had played various roles literally thousands of times. Were the actors just going through the motions and I picked up on it?

It's hard to say what my problem was. Friends of mine who were seeing the show for the first time were still incredibly entertained with it, as I was the first time. They loved the spectacle that it was, some of the vocal pieces they had never heard had their hearts racing.

One problem everyone I was with had, and it is a constant problem at the venue we watched the show. The San Diego Civic theatre has terrible sound. It always has been terrible and I assume it always will be terrible. The dialogue was extremely low, and quiet and the music was unbalanced.

I know I am critiquing the crap out of this, and the bottom line is overall the show was just okay. I'm glad I got to go with my friends. I am even more glad that the tickets were at a discounted price. Disney's the Lion King is still such a great show, though, so I can't be mad at it for too long. I would definitely see it again.

Lastly, I want to include one of the best things, I personally feel came from Broadways Disney's the Lion King.

As the Broadway show celebrated it's 10 anniversary, it had a homecoming of sorts. in 2007 the Lion King opened in Johannesburg. "There would be no 'Lion King' without South Africa. This is where the umbilical cord was first cut," said Oprah Winfrey, who brought 150 students from her Girls Academy which is located nearby.