I guess reviewing a soundtrack to a Broadway show is made
\ndifficult when you haven’t seen the show… understandable, seeing
\nthat I’m in the Midwest and
\nThe Lion King<\/i> is presently on Broadway.<\/p>\n
But reviewing this cast recording is more difficult for me
\nbecause, believe it or not, I still have yet to see the movie on
\nwhich it’s based. (I will now pause for my contacts at Disney to
\nbreak out the smelling salts.) Seeing that my daughter isn’t at the
\nage yet where she’ll watch a video for more than five minutes (much
\nless wear out a tape from repeated viewings), I haven’t sat down to
\nwatch the film.<\/p>\n
So, I guess that gives me a completely unbiased opinion as I
\napproached this disc. And, for the most part, this disc is
\nincredible – though I would have liked to hear more of the African
\nmusic which shapes the disc.<\/p>\n
Besides the obvious influences of Elton John and Tim Rice,
\nThe Lion King<\/i> is greatly influenced by the work of South
\nAfrican musician Lebo M, who won a Grammy for his work on the
\nanimated film’s music. His contributions to this soundtrack are
\nquite evident in rhythm and emotion, and he also proves himself to
\nbe a talented vocalist… though I would really have liked to hear
\nthe whole song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Ah, well. (also adding a
\nstrong vocal performance is Tsidii Le Loka, the voice of
\nRafiki.)<\/p>\n
John Vickery’s performance as Scar is one of the most memorable,
\nespecially heard on “The Madness Of King Scar,” a number which more
\nthan once reminded me of Shakespeare’s “MacBeth”. Pressures over
\nmanaging the kingdom and living in the shadow of the murdered lion
\nking Mufasa (played by Samuel E. Wright) take their toll on Scar,
\nand Vickery plays the role to the hilt.<\/p>\n
I’ll admit it must be hard to scale a song written for a
\nyouthful audience to fit the glamour of Broadway, and while “Hakuna
\nMatata” tries to change its scale, in the end it’s still a song
\naimed at the kids that tends to annoy the adults. (I can’t say I
\nwas particularly enamored with the original version, either – and
\nit’s only a matter of time before my daughter starts talking and,
\nGod help me, singing.) “The Morning Report” starts off strong, but
\nthe frenzied ending with vocals by Scott Irby-Ranniar (as young
\nSimba) totally destroy the mood, and is the only real failure on
\nthe disc – that, and the attempt to recapture the carzed madness of
\nthe hyenas on numbers like “Chow Down,” a song I have grown to
\nhate.<\/p>\n
One aspect I would have liked to seen drawn out on
\nThe Lion King<\/i> was the source of much of the music’s
\ninspiration – the tribal beats and melodies of Africa. While I
\nmight not have understood what the cast was singing (translations
\nare provided), it was the emotion of the performances and the
\nharmonizing of the vocals that won me over quickly. A fine example
\nof this is “Rafiki Mourns,” in which the murdered king Mufasa is
\neulogized in song.<\/p>\n
Of course, this is not to take any emphasis away from the
\noriginal, Western pieces of music. “They Live In You,” “Shadowland”
\nand “Endless Night” will move even the hardest of hearts – you
\ndon’t need to be watching the show or the film to feel the emotions
\nthese songs are trying to convey.<\/p>\n
Of course, the show itself is the thing – and if the
\naccompanying photos in the liner notes capture it accurately,
\ndirector Julie Taymor is putting on one hell of a show on Broadway.
\n(A friend of mine has supposedly seen the show the last time she
\nwas in New York – but I haven’t had the chance to talk to her about
\nit.) I’ll be looking forward to catching the show if and when it
\ntravels to Chicago.<\/p>\n
\nThe Lion King<\/i> faced two major challenges: to capture all the
\nglory of the Broadway show on disc, and to outdo its predecessor.
\nJudging from the performances on this album, it’s safe to say
\nthey’ve done both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7274],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38717","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-broadway-cast-recording","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38717"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}