Roaring Successes – The Lion King & The Wizard Of Oz

August was a very busy birthday month for me, as you’ll soon discover in my upcoming Favourites post. But in amongst it all I went to another couple of audio described musicals – one gifted to me by a friend, the other I paid for myself – both of which involved lions in a big way, as well as touch tours. And they were fantastic experiences. So I hope you enjoy this little journey across the Pride Lands and along the Yellow Brick Road with me as I tell you about them.

Contents

• The Lion King
• The Wizard Of Oz

The Lion King

The first show I saw was The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre, which my good friend Claire very kindly treated me to for my birthday. We’ve both seen it in the past, albeit a long time ago – in my case, it was with a couple of friends way back in December 2012. But neither of us had attended a fully accessible performance before.

We started off with an incredible touch tour, where we got to handle and examine a wide variety of puppets, costumes and wigs. They were presented to us by really friendly members of the production team, who were very good at describing everything, revealing how it was all made, and answering our various questions. It was clear how passionate and rightly proud they are about their craft, because there’s an extraordinary amount of work that goes into it all, including adding all the individual hairs, beads, shells, markings, etc, and tailoring everything for each individual actor. So it was very impressive, and it was really generous of the crew to give up their time for us like that.

Then the show itself was of course fantastic. The audio description by Eleanor Margolies and Julia Grundy for VocalEyes, coupled with the earlier touch tour, ensured that we were able to understand, enjoy and immerse ourselves in the show to the fullest extent possible, because we weren’t missing anything.

The musical, as if it needs any explanation, is based on the animated Disney film that I loved as a kid. It’s had various sequels and spin-offs over the years, including an arguably unnecessary 2019 remake, but I haven’t seen any of those as they don’t interest me in the same way as the original, which remains a timeless classic. And it’s been adapted superbly for the stage, combining Disney magic with theatrical talent in a spectacular way that has kept audiences flocking to its thousands of performances over 26 years in America and 24 years in London so far already, with no sign of stopping.

The story is basically about Simba the lion (played by one of various child actors early on and then Owen Chaponda as an adult), who is destined to succeed his father Mufasa (Shaun Escoffery) as king of the Pride Lands. Without giving too much away, we follow his journey as he gets into trouble as a playful cub, is tricked into fleeing his home by his evil Uncle Scar (George Asprey), befriends Timon the meerkat (Jamie McGregor) and Pumbaa the warthog (Mark Roper), and is eventually persuaded to return home to take his rightful place as leader. It’s a fun and emotional adventure that makes you laugh, tugs at your heartstrings, and has you staring in wonder at the costumes, scenery and choreography.

The many different animals are represented in an imaginative variety of ways, including masks attached to the top of people’s heads, shadow puppets, hand-operated models, and full costumes. There are moments when some of the creatures come down the aisles towards the stage as well, giving audience members in the nearest seats an excellent view as they go by. And even the grass that the animals move around in on stage is represented by specially dressed members of the company. Other aspects of the set design also look very cool, from the spooky elephant graveyard to the majestic Pride Rock. Everything is so intricately detailed and vibrantly colourful that it feels so alive and really draws you in.

And the songs, several of which were written by Elton John and Tim Rice, are fabulous as well, including The Circle Of Life, I Just Can’t Wait To Be King, Be Prepared, Hakuna Matata, Endless Night, Can You Feel The Love Tonight, and He Lives In You. They fit the story perfectly, have a great African vibe to them, and are often accompanied by gorgeously arranged dance routines.

I also came away with a lovely glossy programme about the show, and a free copy of the children’s programme they threw in with it, both of which contain stunning photographs and fascinating information. So they’re great souvenirs to remind me of the experience, and I’ve included a few of their images in this review.

So we had an amazing time seeing the show, and I’m thrilled that I was finally able to see an audio described performance with a touch tour, which had been on my to-do list for ages. Thank you so much to Claire for arranging that!

The Wizard Of Oz

The following week I had a magical audio described journey on the Yellow Brick Road, by seeing The Wizard Of Oz at the London Palladium.

Because this was, I believe, the only audio described show during its West End run, a lot of visually impaired people turned up for it, which is fantastic. But it proved to be a bit too many for the touch tour really, as we were crammed into a somewhat small space near the bar, and the time allocated to the tour was limited, so we didn’t get to see all of the items that had been brought out for us. I didn’t get to see the iconic ruby slippers, for instance, though my friend and colleague Emily from Fashioneyesta did, as she also happened to be there with her mother Emma (who shared a lovely Instagram photo of them).

However, I still got to handle a variety of other items, including parts of the scarecrow’s and lion’s costumes, a helmet and clawed gloves worn by one of the Wicked Witch’s winged assistants, and props like an axe and an oil can. So that was all really nice and very useful, in conjunction with the excellent audio description during the show itself.

And the best thing about the touch tour was that Jason Manford, who played the Cowardly Lion, came out and spoke to our group before he had to go off and get ready, which was very kind of him. He demonstrated his vocals and mannerisms as the lion, while also explaining how he became a fan of theatre over the past couple of decades and learned to appreciate its importance for everybody. So he was delighted that we were all able to come along to see an accessible version of the show. There’s a brief clip of him in Emma’s Instagram post if you scroll through it (you may need to view it in the Instagram app rather than the desktop site to hear the audio).

We didn’t meet any other cast members, as they were understandably busy, but they were all fantastic in the show. In particular, the central character of Dorothy has mainly been played by Georgina Onuorah, but we had an understudy on our night, who sadly we weren’t given the name of. The usher who guided me to my seat explained that the understudy had to step in mid-way through the previous day’s show, which must have been quite daunting, but given her performance the usher was looking forward to seeing her play the full role. And she certainly knocked it out of the farm, so to speak, she was incredible. Her performance of Over The Rainbow sent little shivers through me, and a few moments were quite moving. She just inhabited the part so well, as did the guy puppeteering her dog Toto, Ben Thompson, who really made the canine come to life, often in a cute and amusing way.

The musical is an adaptation of the classic 1939 film (which itself is based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel), and so it’s a story that millions of people are familiar with. Dorothy is whipped away from Kansas by a freak tornado, and finds herself in the mysterious, magical land of Oz, where she’s surrounded by Munchkins and greeted by Glinda the Good Witch (Christina Bianco), who advises her to find the Wizard by following the Yellow Brick Road if she wants to return home.

Along the way she meets a Scarecrow who lacks a brain (Louis Gaunt), a Tin Man without a heart (Ashley Banjo from dance group Diversity, who gets to pull off a few nice moves), and a Lion devoid of courage (Jason Manford, whose interpretation is very similar to the character in the film, along with his own little touches). And they do find the Wizard (Gary Wilmot), but he won’t grant their wishes until they perform a task relating to the Wicked Witch of the West (Dianne Pilkington), who is already plotting revenge on Dorothy for inadvertently killing her counterpart from the East.

So the play mixes action, humour and sweet moments, and has all the big songs from the movie by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg, along with some fitting new compositions by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It’s also very bright and colourful, with fabulous choreography, video projections and lighting, meaning it’s visually stunning as well.

So it was a great night. The show has now concluded its run at the Palladium, but will be travelling around the UK from December. It’ll have a slightly different cast list of course – Jason Manford won’t be in it, as he’s working on other stuff, and Ashley Banjo won’t be involved either – but in any case it’ll still be well worth catching if it comes your way.