The animated Disney movies of the late 20th Century borrowed heavily from the stage musical in their structure. That a ’90s kids movie would translate into a Broadway smash shouldn’t have been surprising. Before I saw the theatrical production for the first time Thursday night, I was a little skeptical of how that same feeling could be captured by humans in costumes and puppets, despite the hype the musical has enjoyed for two decades since its 1997 debut in Minneapolis.īut the spectacle of actors portraying the creatures of the savannah-marching down the aisles, swirling poles with cloth birds fluttering, manipulating giant elephant puppets, giving a cheetah the natural grace the animal is due, even bring the plants of the jungle to life-is breathtaking. When I got home a couple of weeks later and saw it in the theater, I couldn’t believe how well the animators captured the feeling of being on the plains of Kenya or Tanzania and watching a family of elephants silhouetted by a sunset or giraffes gracefully gliding across the horizon.

I was in East Africa when The Lion King was released in 1994.

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