THE LION KING MUSICAL AT THE SANDS THEATRE SINGAPORE

What else can I write about The Lion King musical that hasn’t been reviewed far more eloquently across countless websites. After a long day at Marina Bay Sands having traveled the ancient Silk Road, wowed by large collection of Genghis Khan artifacts collection and peeked at one of the oldest and most significant marine archaeological finds of the Tang shipwrecked treasures, our journey continued at the Sands Theater where The Lion King brought Africa to life with their amazing and awe inspiring performance! For a moment a sense of guilt came over me that my wife and children weren’t here to enjoy this but quickly vanished knowing I could share this with everyone at home and my readers here! If have included a Lion King Sneak Peek YouTube video at the end of this post for those of you new to musical theatres.

The introduction of The Lion King musical at Marina Bay Sands is amazing. Audiences love it. Disney film comes alive! @visitsingapore #fb—
JAN SHIM (@janshim) March 24, 2011

[ READ REVIEW OF THE LION KING BY SUPERADRIANME.COM ]

Three Marina Bay Sands tickets in one day and you can imagine how packed a day I had in Singapore with visits to the ArtScience Museum, The Sands SkyPark and finishing the day with The Lion King musical.

The ArtScience Museum | The Sands SkyPark | Infinity Pool at sunset

This is The Sands Threatre which opened on Nov 30 with Riverdance and also home to The Lion King with its debut performance in March 2011. The theatre has sitting capacity of up to 1,680 on two levels.

The Lion King musical was one of the many highlights of out Marina Bay Sands tour. Photography is strictly prohibited but I got this shot to show just how intensely popular the musical is.

THE LION KING explodes with glorious colours, stunning effects and enchanting music including Elton John and Tim Rice’s Academy Award-winning ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’. At its heart is the powerful and moving story of Simba – the epic adventure of his journey from wide-eyed cub to his destined role as King of the Pridelands.

Encouraged to push the boundaries of a traditional musical theatre score, a group of diverse and accomplished musicians from around the world, including Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice and South Africa’s Lebo M, wrote additional music and lyrics that furthered the storytelling and character development from the film to the stage. As a result, THE LION KING’s sound reflects a variety of styles, influenced by sweeping film scores, upbeat pop tunes and—the lifeblood of the music—African choral chants. Songs like the anthemic “Circle of Life,” the mystical “They Live in You,” the soulful “Shadowland,” and the celebratory “One by One” each capture the passionate spirit of THE LION KING’s universal themes.

All images hereon © Disney / courtesy of Marina Bay Sands.

Set against the majesty of the Serengeti Plains and to the evocative rhythms of Africa, Disney’s multi-award winning musical THE LION KING will redefine your expectations of theatre.

In creating the lions’ costumes, director/designer Julie Taymor used an abundance of silk and natural fabrics with lots of texture to ensure each costume blends naturally with the performers to project cat-like, fluid movements. The fabric is typically made to order, rather than cut from bolts of cloth. By incorporating organic and handmade materials in her
innovative costume design, Taymor transforms African beading into a lion’s white belly, a collar of horsehair into a baboon’s chest and burnt peacock feathers into Mufasa’s majestic crown. Taymor and Michael Curry, one of the world’s leading puppet experts, created hundreds of intricate masks and puppets for the show. Uniquely, the mask design enables the audience to see the characters as animal and human at the same time, an effect Taymor dubs ‘the double event.’ The audience at THE LION KING, then, has an important job: the imagination joins the ‘animal’ with the human into a magical whole.

Brilliantly reimagined by acclaimed director Julie Taymor, Disney’s beloved film has been transformed into a spectacular theatrical experience which has won over 70 major international theatre awards.

Lighting Designer Donald Holder used nearly 700 lighting instruments to create the show’s lighting plot.

All of the corsets worn by the lionesses are hand-beaded using a range of different materials, including shells, glass, ceramics, fish bones, copper and bronze. Each bead is sewn on by hand.

For more information about The Lion King, download Media Kit and Press Releases.