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
"One child counted down the seconds until
the 2 o'clock matinee began. A little girl stared,
as did her mother, at the walls and ceiling of
The New Amsterdam Theater, whose ornaments intertwined
like a jungle of architecture marzipan... But
then the lights fell, and within moments the aisles
and stage had filled with the animals of invention.
Adults gasped, and every child in the audience
began to reread an old, familiar text -the one
inscribed on worn videos of Disney's animated
"Lion King"-now brought to life by Julie
Taymor on Broadway demonstrates something even
more striking - the Walt Disney Company's willingness,
in this case, to reinvent a known and fabulously
profitable, product, not by dumbing it down to
live action, but by allowing Ms. Taymor to test
the limits of representation and theatricality...
What a miracle it would be if the corporations
those icons represent were to conclude, as Disney
in this one case has, that commercial prosperity
licenses - even obliges -cultural risk."
"New York Times" Editorial
"It's like being in a dream awake."
John Lahr, "The New Yorker"
"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"
"Disney and Broadway have found a box-office
bonanza that in every likelihood will run for
years... A stunning coup de theatre... unquestionably
the most pulse-quickening on Broadway... impressionistic
and utterly graceful... the stunning physical
production and terrific score in an ensemble that
ranks with the best currently on Broadway... 'The
Lion King' is a show that will introduce a new
generation of children to the theatre, and doesn't
sacrifice a drop of intelligence, integrity or
sophistication to do it."
Greg Evans, "Variety"
"Spectacular. Birds fly, elephants lumber,
gazelles leap. Indeed, a veritable jungle of costumed
actors and life-sized puppet creatures great and
small populate the stage in the show's gorgeous
opening sequence, "The Circle of Life,"...
Superb stagecraft and dizzying, often mystifying
array of theatrical techniques... Watching "The
Lion King" is in many ways like watching
a magical act, with the audience constantly wondering
what "impossible" trick Taymor has up
her sleeve next."
Tad Simmons, "Variety" (Minneapolis
Review)
"Triumphant. Spectacular, brilliant... It
should fill the beautifully restored New Amsterdam
Theatre on 42nd street for many years... visually
stunning use of masks, puppetry, costumes and
scenic effects."
Frank Scheck, "Hollywood Reporter"
"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"
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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)
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