Introduction
The Lion King musical is a well-known musical that has taken the stages of Broadway, West End and the rest of the world by storm (The Lion King, 1997). Regarding the process of the musical, Artistic Director Julie Taymor’s first thoughts for choosing the Lion King as the next big thing on stage, was classed as ‘impossible’ due to the film’s lack of theatrical material (The Lion King, 1997). Therefore, staging this particular work contained a great deal of uncertainty and the need for taking huge risks. Taymor (1997) suggests how ‘the Lion King was the worst idea possible to create a stage show.’ It has become evident that a number of significant barriers had to be overcome to secure the practicality of the production. In view of this controversy, this dissertation will critically analyse the success of the Lion King by exploring two significant aspects that have helped to make the musical a success. Firstly, the essential components that make up this theatrical production will be explored and secondly, the roles of each producer within the Lion King and their combined and individual influences they have had from the production will be evaluated. By analysing these two central themes, this paper will show how and why this musical has developed and achieved its phenomenal success.
The components can be broken down into the following: dance and movement, character portrayal, masks/puppetry, music, costume design and idealistic process. Each component will be analysed in detail in an attempt to portray how this effectiveness has added to the overall musical vision.
Chapter 1
Through dance and movement, the storyline were expanded with the assistance of choreographer, Garth Fagan. A well-renowned choreographer...
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...downfalls. Fagan in his own hope want the audience to look at dance without going through boredom or thinking dance as a medicine (Bramley 24:1997). The musical has allowed this particular component to make differences to such challenges from one dance to the next. This was possible due to Fagan’s approach to choreography that are different compared to another choreography that was designed to other Disney films turned musicals i.e. Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. These two notable musicals have taken the stages of Broadway by storm. However, there is an ingredient missing to those shows that Taymor was able to capture from beginning to end with the Lion King. It was a risky challenge that Fagan radically took out of the negative into the positive with the use of vocabulary to approach the use of dance and movement as part of a highly successful musical.
Throughout the years, America has pursued the performing arts in a large variety of ways. Theatre plays a dramatic and major role in the arts of our society today, and it takes great effort in all aspects. Musical Theatre, specifically, involves a concentration and strength in dance, acting, and singing. This is the base that Musical Theatre is built upon. For my Senior Project, I helped choreograph multiple scenes in a community musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. Choreography is a way of expressing oneself, but it has not always been thought of for that purpose. Agnes de Mille’s expressive talent has drastically affected how people see choreography today. Agnes de Mille’s influence in the world of dance has left a lasting impact in the Performing Arts Department, and her revolutionary works are still known today for their wit, lyricism, emotion, and charm.
As stated before, we began by breaking apart the stages of life and assigning each individual solos depending on the individual’s preference. Then, due to our time constraints, we opted to create our solos on our own time and to work on the movements that all of us must do together, together. The primary strategy of creating our movements and choreography for the dance was to correspond our movements to the meaning behind the lyrics being sung and the stage of life currently occurring. For example, before my solo as the three of us are playing together as children, the lyrics being sung were, “Are you going to age with grace? Are you going to age without mistakes…?” Because the lyrics were talking about the mistakes and blundering made as one matures, I took begin my solo, angrily kicked down the Jenga tower to show my frustration at my own personal faults. The kick both exhibits my balance as I kick and move my leg into an uncomfortable position and fits into the storyline and music shown, producing a stronger effect on the viewer. This is just one notable example of the many that displayed our
One of the main things I noticed in this movie was that the movie never stopped. It was always about ballet and working to improve things related to ballet the entire movie. The point I am trying to make is that even when the dancers and the choreographers
The element that stood out the most to me was how effectively the music and the footwork corresponded. The best examples of this are seen through the dancers solos. Especially Albrecht's solo, his feet glide on the stage at the same tempo as the music. Similarly, Giselle's graceful footwork is truly amazing. I really like the similarities between the choreographed footwork and the music, it makes Giselle seem much more elegant and beautiful. This also seems to make the work look more put together and in sync because the dancers are dancing in harmony with the orchestra. The choreography by itself is amazing. The footwork is rapid and intricate, however, at the same time it is delicate and graceful. The ballerina (Giselle) made it look very easy to do the choreography, when it rea...
...wed this particular component to make differences to such challenges from one dance to the next. This was possible due to Fagan’s approach to choreography that are different compared to another choreography that was designed to other Disney films turned musicals i.e. Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. These two notable musicals have taken the stages of Broadway by storm. However, there is an ingredient missing to those shows that Taymor was able to capture from beginning to end with the Lion King. The Lion King musical gave the critics an idea how actors are moving across the stage, embodying the human and animal aspects of all characters from an animated element. It was a risky challenge that Fagan took by radically going from the negative into the positive using dance and movement vocabulary to balance structure and pacing of the highly successful musical.
Broadway’s The Lion King is a stage adaption of the 1994 Disney film. It tells the story of a young lion, Simba, living in the African Pride Lands. When his father, Mufasa, dies because of his wicked uncle, Scar, Simba flees the Pride Lands. Eventually, he meets two unlikely friends, Timon and Pumbaa. But when the ravaged Pride Lands come to find the adult lion, Simba must take on his enemy and fulfill his destiny to be king. I’ve seen the show once before a few years ago, last time they came to Charlotte. After seeing the movie, the show before, and being very familiar with the music from the highly talked about broadway show, I had very high expectations for The Lion King. The show took place at the Belk Theater in Charlotte, NC on August 23rd. The stage was medium-sized with a full orchestra. The show opens up with the classic tune “Circle of Life” featuring the entire ensemble and Rafiki. This particular number really captured my attention. The music was very intense, powerful, and you felt the emotions through the strong voices. In addition, they had gigantic elephants walking w...
...y conveyed a story based on the musical components. Through, pitch, duration, tempo, timbre, dynamics, tecture, rests, structure and mood at different parts, Harlem Shake conveyed a desensitized depiction of gang warfare in the rough Harlem district of New York during the 1920s. Perhaps the lack of emotion tries to convey a darker message. Indeed, an emotion that accepts tragedy and evil as reality because it has always been present. Yet, instead of ignoring the evil, acknowledging it and finding the positive out of it may help deal with the issue: Dancing.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
The production had many elements which for the most part formed a coalition to further the plot. The characters, the three part scenery and costumes represented well the period of time these people were going through. As far as the performers entering and exiting the stage, it could have been more organized. There were a few times when the performers exited at the wrong times or it seemed so due to the echo of the music. At certain moments the music was slightly loud and drowned the performers. Many of the songs dragged on, so the pacing could have been more effectively executed. Though the music was off at times, the director's decision to have most of the songs performed center sage was a wise one. Also the implementation of actual white characters that were competent in their roles came as a great surprise to the audience and heightened the realism.
When MacKenzie choreographs she focuses on delivering spectacularly rich performances. She has the ability to combine and create beautiful and engaging movement designs with an unusually effective understanding of concert dance architecture (Nevin, 2013). The audience is able to see the beauty each dance imposes. She is able to capture the audience with every dance and take them on a beautiful journey. She is also thoughtful in everything she does, but especially in anything that deals with any type of human connection, which is one of the many reasons why she is so successful as a teacher (Nevin, 2013). With her thoughtfulness and new ideas she is also open to learning and embracing new possibilities (Nevin, 2013). She is not just open t...
Alex Karigan Farrior choreographed, filmed, and edited the material for this piece. He also was responsible for the costume design and execution as well as the lighting. A surprising aspect of this piece is that it was a video. The music was composed by Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra, Ornella Vanoni, Rosemary Clooney, Piero Umiliani, Édith Piaf and Louis Armstrong. The mood of this piece started out almost comical with the expressions of the faces and the use of frames to use three different frames and making one face from three persons smaller section of his or her face. The overall mood seemed energetic and One part that I enjoyed was when it was a frame of one person’s face and the other two people would be touching the face. This piece was unlike anything I had seen before at a dance concert. Eventually the audience is able to see bigger parts or even the full body of each dancer performing steps and the directed choreography. The technique from these the parts when dancing was more visible seemed very good. The technique and execution of the choreography was hard to notice due to the transitions between multiple frames and I thought that the editing of the video was genius and really made the audience pay attention to what was going on all over the screen. Even though it was a video that was spliced and edit until the final product was achieved, it was still a very interesting and powerful
the king of a Pride Land, who is murdered by his brother and then the
The 2000s/ 2010s brought in a wave of movie musicals- adapted from the stage shows. These brought new audiences into the theatre world, and for the first time in 20 years, brought a love to some of the timeless musicals. With slightly altered songs to appeal to a newer audience, these films brought in much needed money into the industry, with films including: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Fame- and many more. Together with this, musicals began to push the concept of the songs in them, with a wave of new styles being written. Rap musicals such as ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In The Heights’, Pop musicals including ‘Waitress’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and Rock musicals of ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Spring Awakening’. Together they pushed boundaries of a ‘traditional’ musical theatre sound, and brought in something never before seen. Due to the influence of ‘Rent’, controversial issues and themes began to be explored more, such as Teen suicide, Murder, Ethnic barriers and everything else, which brought with them, a world of opportunities. It was clear that musical theatre was once again showing for a promising
The film used and presented the box social dance sequence in the same way as the stage performance. The aesthetic quality of the hoedown adds an authenticity to the Wild West. It is the kind of dance one would expect when thinking of stereotypical Wild West folk.
On the night of the DancePlus performance, I saw numerous little performances. There were six of them in total and the one I had most reactions and favors to is the last one of the first half, which is called Swampin. It was choreographed by John Evans with additional material by Oluwadamilare Ayoride, Jennifer Payan and surprisingly, the dancers. Usually what I would expect from a piece of dance performance is choreographers dominating the process of being creative on the grounds o f coming up dance moves. However, this time, it is nice to see how the dancer actually participating first hand in the creating process of the whole performance which would definitely benefit the quality of the dance, since the dancers would their own choreography