The Lion King is the Juggernaut of Musical Theatre
When I first heard the opening note of the “Circle of Life”, performed by the shaman Rafiki, my body jolted forward as though someone had plugged me into an electric socket. Experiencing that once is startling enough. Experiencing it twice, watching the same musical in two different cities almost a year apart, and having exactly the same reaction both times? That is harder to explain. I will do my best.
It is actually quite rare for me to see a musical twice. Touring schedules make repeat viewings difficult and growing up in Perth, Western Australia, we did not always get the major productions that seemed to inevitably make their way to Sydney and Melbourne. Times have changed now that I live in Sydney.
I have now seen two musicals twice: Hamilton and Disney’s The Lion King. I saw Hamilton twice in Sydney in 2024, first when my mentor took me to celebrate my move to Sydney and again when I surprised my best friend with tickets a few months later for her birthday. My first experience of The Lion King was on 10 October 2025 in London’s West End. Almost a year later, on 5 September 2026, I found myself sitting in a Sydney theatre, waiting for those opening notes all over again. Somehow, knowing exactly what was coming did nothing to diminish the experience.
As Rafiki continues to sing the “Circle of Life”, lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, birds and a plethora of animals begin making their way towards the stage, bathed in a warm orange and brown light. Then I turned and gasped. More animals had appeared in the dress circle, singing and moving among the audience. Even though I had seen the musical before, I had somehow forgotten they would appear there and for a moment it felt as though the entire theatre had become part of the Pride Lands. Eventually Mufasa and Sarabi appear and baby Simba is lifted above Pride Rock. The entire sequence lasts for about five minutes, but to me it somehow feels longer. I was completely immersed.
Credit: Joan Marcus, Broadway Company, Disney’s The Lion King
I am not going to bore you with a recap of the plot. We all know the story by now and, on the off chance that you don't, I highly encourage you to watch the Disney film and then buy a ticket the next time the musical comes to your city. Instead, I want to tell you why I loved it.
Firstly, I love colour and The Lion King is an explosion of it. It is everywhere. In the animals, the costumes, the lighting, the puppetry and the set. Even the landscape seems alive. That visual spectacle extends to the set design, which is incredibly intricate and one of the production’s greatest achievements. At its centre is a rotating stage that rises and falls throughout the musical, most memorably transforming into Pride Rock. Throughout the production, the stage is constantly reimagined, sometimes through elaborate set pieces and other times through clever combinations of movement, sound and projection. Mufasa’s death is perhaps the best example. I knew the wildebeest stampede was coming, but I was fascinated by how they could possibly recreate something so enormous onstage. Through movement, sound and projection, the production creates the illusion of hundreds of wildebeest charging towards Simba. The scene builds with such intensity that when Simba jumped, for a split second I stopped thinking about how it was being created and thought, Is he okay? That, I think, says everything about how convincing the illusion is.
Credit: Pat Bromilow-Downing, South Africa Company, Disney’s The Lion King.
Just as impressive are the puppetry and the masks. The production brings more than 230 intricate puppets and masks to the stage to represent everything from lions, giraffes and elephants to birds and antelopes. The scale is enormous, yet it is the detail that makes it so convincing. You can see the performers operating many of the puppets, but rather than breaking the illusion, somehow, it becomes part of the magic.
Credit: Joan Marcus, Las Vegas Company, Disney’s The Lion King.
For all the scale and spectacle, some of the moments that stayed with me most were much more personal. After intermission, before the second act began, performers entered the theatre dressed in colourful Kitenga prints. It immediately reminded me of home. I thought about how everyone used to dress for church and special occasions, when the colourful prints and beautiful clothes would come out and everything felt that little bit more festive. It was such a familiar image to see on a musical theatre stage. That feeling continued with the cast itself.
Credit: Joan Marcus, Broadway Company, Disney’s The Lion King
I have seen a lot of musicals, but it is still incredibly rare for me to sit in a theatre and see a cast made up predominantly of performers from the African continent and African diaspora. The Lion King is one of the few productions where I have had that experience. What I particularly love is the specificity within that representation. The cast and production do not represent one singular idea of “Africa”. The Lion King brings together performers and cultural influences from different parts of the continent, including South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Zimbabwe, with Sotho, Swahili, Tswana, Xhosa and Zulu languages and cultural influences forming part of the wider world of the production. I understand Swahili, so every time I heard it spoken onstage, I was so giddy. It was one of those little moments that made the production feel even more personal to me. I hope that, in the future, we see more productions with performers from countries across the African continent and from the diaspora filling stages like this, not only when the story itself is set somewhere on the continent.
The performances themselves are equally memorable. Simba and Nala are the heart of the musical, but I was particularly impressed by the young actors playing them. To command a stage of this size at such a young age, surrounded by enormous sets, puppetry, choreography and an audience of thousands, is an incredible feat. Mufasa and Sarabi are suitably majestic. There is a stillness to them that makes you immediately understand why they command Pride Rock.
Credit: Joan Marcus, North American Tour Company, Disney’s The Lion King
Then there is Scar. If I were Mufasa, I would have banished my murderous brother from the Pride Lands a very long time ago rather than allowing him to roam around plotting in caves, but that is a discussion for another day. As a character, however, Scar is delicious. His movements, his plotting, his theatricality. Divine. When he launched into “Be Prepared”, I had goosebumps. I love a good villain song.
Credit: Joan Marcus, Las Vegas Company, Disney’s The Lion King
Of course, there is the music. Hearing songs that have been part of popular culture for decades performed with a live orchestra gives them an entirely different weight. “Circle of Life”, “Hakuna Matata”, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Be Prepared” are familiar, but inside the theatre they feel bigger, richer and more alive.
The production also knows when not to take itself too seriously. Zazu, in particular, gets some of the night's most contemporary jokes. In Sydney, there was a reference to “Let It Go” and a joke about being hungry for bánh mì. If my memory serves me correctly, when I saw the production in London the equivalent joke involved butter chicken curry. Those tiny changes are part of the fun. For all its grandeur, The Lion King knows exactly where it is and who is sitting in the audience.
Credit: Joan Marcus, Broadway Company, Disney’s The Lion King
What struck me after seeing The Lion King for the second time was that the spectacle had not worn off. I knew Pride Rock would rise from the stage. I knew about the stampede. I knew Scar would sing “Be Prepared”. I knew exactly what would happen to Mufasa. Still, my body jolted forward when Rafiki began to sing. There are musicals that you admire for their music, musicals you remember for their performances and musicals you love because of the story. The Lion King manages to make all of those things feel inseparable.
Nearly thirty years after it first opened, it remains enormous in every sense of the word: visually, musically, culturally and emotionally. I walked into the theatre for the second time knowing almost exactly what I was about to see. I walked out just as amazed as I had been the first time.
The Lion King remains my favourite musical I have seen to date. If you know of one that you think could knock it off the top spot, please send it my way. As a very enthusiastic musical theatre fan, I am more than willing to put that theory to the test.
Yours, in style and curiosity
—
Linda Mulenda
