Boyung.com

We saw The Lion King at the Milwaukee Theater this weekend.  I had been waiting to go see it since I first saw that it was coming to Milwaukee, since The Lion King is one of my favorite Disney animated movies.  Overall, the show was excellent.  It remained faithful to the movie while including enough new music to keep it fresh.  The sets and costumes conveyed the atmosphere of the movie even better than I had expected.  I personally thought that everyone's performances were great, but the best, in my opinion, was Geno Segers as Mufasa.  He had absolutely amazing stage presence, and his voice was perfect for the role.  Whenever he spoke or sang, he commanded respect, which is exactly as it should be for the role.  The other actors were good as well, but nothing near the performance given by Mr. Segers.

Of course, there's always the downside to going out to a show such as this: the kids.  I love kids, but there are some places that they just don't belong.  A Broadway musical is one of those places.  I don't really care that this is a musical based on an animated movie, which some will say means that it is for kids.  That simply isn't the case.  I would argue that The Lion King is not for kids, at least not kids as young as two and three years old.  It can really be quite traumatic for someone that young when Mufasa dies.  Even if you disregard that fact, there are other reasons why this show is not appropriate for kids.  The animated movie is under two hours long, the musical pushes three; the attention span for most kids is way too short for a show of this length.  Also, a musical like this does take several liberties on the source material in order to convey the scenes from the movie.  A three-year-old isn't going to understand what is going on for a large part of the show since the scenery is more implicit than explicit.  The number of kids under the age of four that I saw at the show was astounding.  There were several parents that had to leave during the show because their kid was too restless, bored, or loud.  Why in the world would anyone buy a $75 show ticket for a three-year-old (and one for themselves) when they know that they are going to spend a large portion of the time not seeing the show for whatever reason and also causing a distraction for those around them?  That is absolutely ridiculous and a huge waste of money.  Once again, I just wish people would use that little thing called common sense.