Read the Lion King's rave reviews

These reviews are from the Disney on Broadway official Lion King website

Critical Acclaim For "The Lion King"

"A major Broadway event... One of the most memorable, moving and original theatrical extravaganzas in years... It is told with a theatricality that frequently takes the breath away... Time and again, Ms. Taymor seduces the audience into seeing what, in reality, isn't there. That is theatre."
Vincent Canby, "The New York Times"

"A primal paradise... breathtaking beauty and scenic ingenuity. You will gasp again and again at the inventive visual majesty of the show... Ms. Taymor has introduced a whole new vocabulary of images to the Broadway blockbuster... There is simply nothing else like it."
Ben Brantley, "The New York Times" / WQXR Radio

"Theatre to roar for. From the very first minutes of 'The Lion King' you feel yourself on a whole new ground - no - in a whole new world."
David Patrick Stearns, "USA Today"

"Let it be said once that 'The Lion King' is a great show, not just for the parents and kids who will flock to it but for anyone drawn to a landmark event in American entertainment. The Disney organization deserves credit for guts in this enterprise. It could have played it safe. Instead it chose Julie Taymor. The result is a fusion of commerce and art sure to delight all but the stuffiest theater intellectuals, who will no doubt accuse Taymor of selling out. But selling is not selling out... Taymor demonstrates that she's a master showman as well as a stage magician of incandescent imaginative power... In 'The Lion King' all the senses come together in flashpoints that can explode... But it's Taymor's visual magic that's unprecedented in Broadway musicals... Only a cosmic calamity can prevent 'The Lion King' form being a historic success... Disney has upped the ante on the resurging American musical."
Jack Kroll, "Newsweek"

"'The Lion King' is enormous fantastic, riotous fun... It is extraordinary to look at and to experience... What is most extraordinary is what a wonderful, dazzling musical has been created - a work that stands up to the original not as a copy but as a brilliant development... What you will remember, cherish and (if it's not still running) tell your grandchildren about this 'Lion King' is the total impression of the show: our renewed joy of amazement in the theatre of miracles."
Clive Barnes, "The New York Post"

More Lion King rave reviews

"'The Lion King' is a perfect marriage of entertainment and art. The experience of the show goes so far beyond its starting point that the title gives you no idea of how beautiful, inventive and even moving it really is... Gorgeous creativity... Great adventures in the theatre, like this one, leave all your senses singing."
Fintan O'Toole, "The New York Daily News"

"The show and the playhouse are enchanting... The unprecedented production is worth every penny... If this is Disney's idea of a theme park, we are delighted to report that the theme is quality... a jaw-dropping magnificent spectacle."
Linda Winer, "New York Newsday"

"A journey that no child and no grown-up will soon forget. It is like nothing you have ever seen before. Stop reading and buy a ticket. Move over 'Cats' 'The Lion King' is here to stay."
Jacques le Sourd, Westchester Gannett Newspapers

"'The Lion King' is a singular event. It is an evening of unusual pleasures. It has been staged with the utmost sophistication."
Robert Feldberg, "The Bergen Record" (New Jersey)

"Right at the start, the whole building explodes into joyous life... Julie Taymor is our theatre's supreme wizard of spectacle."
Donald Lyons, "The Wall Street Journal"

"The lyrical lions, lumbering elephants, mangy hyenas, loping antelopes and lush jungle scenes have to be seen to be believed."
Sydney Weinberg, "Time Out New York"

"It is pure exhilarating theatre, unlike anything ever seen on Broadway."
Miriam Horn, "U.S. News & World Report"

"Julie Taymor's adaptation is a stunning visual feast."
Laurie Winer, "The Los Angeles Times"

"'The Lion King' has riveted the New York theatre community."
"Vanity Fair"

"'The Lion King' is an absolute triumph of visual imagination. Julie Taymor delivers visual coup after visual coup."
"The Financial Times" (London)

"'The Lion King' works superbly. This most remarkable thing about this animal show, in fact, is its humanity."
Charles Spencer, "The Daily Telegraph" (London)

"Brilliant and irresistible... A thoroughly imagined stage show in its own right."
Michael Coveney, "The Daily Mail" (London)

"Indeed, the whole experience left me with the strangest feeling. I was proud to be a theatre critic."
Benedict Nightingale, "The Times" (London)