Review: The Lion King roars back to Toronto in a spectacular return that captures the magic of the ‘circle of life’ | Canada Voices

Title: The Lion King

Music and lyrics by: Elton John and Tim Rice. Additional music and lyrics by: Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, Hans Zimmer

Book by: Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi

Director: Julie Taymor

Company: Mirvish Productions

Venue: Princess of Wales Theatre

City: Toronto

Critic’s Pick

When live theatre came grumbling back from the pandemic in 2021, the West End production of The Lion King released footage from the U.K. cast’s first day back at rehearsal. It was July, and the team sang Circle of Life for the first time since theatres closed in 2020.

That video went viral within the theatre community, and over here in Toronto, I remember watching it on repeat, craving the spectacle of live performance and wishing desperately to hear Circle of Life for myself. I carried that video in my pocket on endless pandemic walks; I listened to it on the way to work. To this day, I can’t watch that footage without welling up.

Mirvish’s rock-solid production of The Lion King roared open on Sunday, and I’m pleased to report that the Toronto cast’s rendition of Circle of Life is every bit as rousing as that COVID-tinged rehearsal video. As the soothsaying baboon Rafiki, Zama Magudulela hits those seminal opening lyrics – “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba,” or “Here comes a lion, father, Oh yes, it’s a lion” in Zulu – with gutsy aplomb. She’s note-perfect and an utter joy to watch as she sings.

One by one, an animal kingdom joins Magudulela onstage, parading through the aisles of the Princess of Wales Theatre. Giraffes teeter on intricate stilts while birds dance in the air, attached to lithe dancers in red pointe shoes. Cheetahs slalom the theatre seats while horned wildebeests strut behind them. Circle of Life is one of Broadway’s most iconic sequences, and boy, has it survived the journey to Toronto, where The Lion King will enjoy a second open-ended run in Canada – the last one ran for over four years, and injected an estimated $1.4-billion into the local economy in the early 2000s.

Indeed, Circle of Life is some of the best five minutes you can spend in a theatre. But Julie Taymor’s aesthetically visionary Lion King set an unfortunate precedent for Disney musicals: As in The Lion King, most Disney stage adaptations front-load spectacle into their opening breaths, and they almost always suffer structurally in the migration from screen to stage (See also: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Frozen). The Lion King is no exception: Despite its gorgeous stage pictures (Lionesses chasing prey! Stampeding wildebeests! An infinity of hyenas!), it’s arguable how well The Lion King actually works as a piece of theatre.

In a first act nearly as long as the 1994 animated film, we meet the key players: King Mufasa (David D’Lancy Wilson), his wife Sarabi (Lisa Michelle Cornelius) and his avian adviser Zazu (Will Jeffs). And, of course, there’s prince Simba, who in the stage adaptation is split into two roles (Ira Nabong is adorable as Young Simba, as is Nendia Lewars as Young Nala). We meet adult Simba (Erick D. Patrick, filling in for Aphiwe Nyezi while the latter recovers from an injury) at the end of the first act.

No spoiler alerts for a 30-year-old blockbuster: Mufasa doesn’t make it to the second act. When Simba’s uncle Scar (Salvatore Antonio) ousts Simba from his home kingdom, it’s up to the young lion to figure out where he belongs – soon enough, he meets meerkat Timon and warthog Pumbaa (a crowd-pleasing Brian Sills and Trevor Patt, respectively), who teach Simba their quasi-libertarian, “hakuna matata” approach to life.

Some liberties have been taken with The Lion King in its journey to the stage – one interesting update is the addition of a scene in which Timon almost drowns, leaving Simba to wrestle with the lasting impact of what happened to his father when he was a cub. A less successful change sees Scar try to seduce Nala, a bizarre plot thread that the folks at Walt Disney Animation Studios thankfully left on the cutting room floor.

But let’s face it: You’re not buying a ticket to The Lion King to experience great playwriting or well-placed intermissions. You’re there for Taymor’s gorgeous costumes, and Taymor and Michael Curry’s sumptuous puppets. You’re there for brilliant vocal performances by fabulous local actors like Camille Eanga-Selenge (adult Nala) and Jewelle Blackman (Shenzi). You’re there for the generational songs by Elton John and Tim Rice (and nodding off during the snoozy ballads that weren’t in the movie).

No, The Lion King isn’t perfect. And yes, the Princess of Wales Theatre had a few sound issues on opening night, audio glitches I imagine will smooth out as the production settles into its run. But gosh, that Circle of Life (and its finale reprise) is worth the cost of admission alone. Long live the king.

In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)