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| re: And the cats will reign again | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 06:38 pm EST 12/29/22 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 06:35 pm EST 12/29/22 | |
| In reply to: re: And the cats will reign again - EvFoDr 06:13 pm EST 12/29/22 | |
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| Yes, the opening number is amazing. But otherwise it's overly long Yes. I've only seen the tour, not the Broadway production. But I have to confess that by Act II, I had really had enough. What seemed visually magical and dazzling in Act I was really an overload by that point - and in reality the plot and the pace of the show aren't enough to sustain all that scenic eye candy after a while. It made me restless. Sure, there are moments, like Mufasa's face appearing during "He Lives In You" that still made me gasp in delight. But in general, to borrow from Lewis Carroll, the whole show was way too much of a muchness, and I would have liked it much better if they had followed the iconic showbiz idea of "always leave 'em wanting more" instead. I feel the other problem with the show is that the performance style generally avoids real integration of the songs - they become their own standalone moments instead of truly advancing the plot. I felt this right from the top where "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" even gets its whole own custom set out of nowhere. It became a spectacle of a show within a show, instead of simply the "I want" song it wants to be. I have to say that I respect the show a lot for what it accomplished, and for the joy that it obviously brings so many people. But on another level, the material just doesn't excite me emotionally in the way that I feel the best of shows can and do. Is it trying way too hard to be something it didn't need to be? I also can't imagine I'm the only person that feels this way. But yes - the opening number - both sonically and visually - is truly something amazing to behold. Just that, I tend to wonder if Taymor got too caught up in the temptation to keep having to top that number in every subsequent one, without there being a strong enough story to require that. |
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| re: And the cats will reign again | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 10:20 pm EST 12/29/22 | |
| In reply to: re: And the cats will reign again - Chromolume 06:35 pm EST 12/29/22 | |
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| Fifteen to twenty minutes of magic. Then an utter bore. And—the stunning costumes and puppetry aside—the slavish adherence to the characters as depicted in the movie, because nothing could possibly deviate from that lest the masses rebel in protest. Laura in LA |
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