By Franklin W. Liu

The first step of creating Mikey Mouse was when Walt Disney took a yellow, no.2 pencil in hand and drew a circle on a sheet of paper.

Now, 76 years later, the Lion King has come full circle from the birth of Disney’s classic 2-dimensional animations to a mature, 3-D, dazzlingly visual, stage musical presented locally by Broadway in Boston and Clear Channel Entertainment.

The Lion King leaps out majestically, landing solidly on the $40 million, newly restored stage of the opulent Opera House. Architect Thomas Lamb’s original masterpiece of theatre design fitted with 2,500 seats, is the current, perfect home to showcase the exceptional, creative talent of Julie Taymor who hails from Massachusetts.

When the Disney’s present-day corporate leaders hired Taymor to direct their stage version of its fabulous fable “The Lion King,” Taymor was known primarily for her unorthodox, experimental work in theatre.

They took a huge gamble with a largely unknown talent to steer their flagship animation product, but now that it has grossed $750 million worldwide; it paid off handsomely.

The story is about lion cub Simba, devastated by his father’s accidental death, returns from exile to reclaim his kingdom and to exact revenge on his evil Uncle Scar.

Working with pulsating music by Lebo M, along side of a few familiar songs and lyrics written by Elton John and Tim Rice, Taymor had to summon her creative impulse to meet the challenges of delivering a musical that marches past an entertaining kiddy cartoon and reach for a sophisticated feast for the eyes.

As expected, the opening scene was breathtaking, showing a shimmering, red-saffron sun rising over the African plain. A procession of life-size animals slowly marched onto the stage flowing from everywhere within the theatre as elephant, giraffes, antelopes, cheetahs birds appeared. Much of the hype of the musical had been on how exquisite these half-human, half-puppets animal personifications would look and move on stage.

No actors were totally concealed, wearing boring animal suits. To say that Taymor deserves kudos for costume design is to totally miss the mark in understanding and appreciating her ingenious, artful, and supremely delightful creations. She utilizes inspirations from a combination and variety of Japanese Banraku puppets, Indonesian shadow puppets, African masks and rod puppets.

Some animals were on stilts strutting, some took more than 3 actors waddling to move, animals leaping, swooping and birds whirling from long flex-poles. The entire Savannah magically sprung to life with the
help of more than 40 actors.

Lion King Mufasa (Thomas Corey Robinson) and his menacing brother Scar (Dan Donahue,) were an excellent team, dramatically opposing each other.

Warthog Puma (Ben Lipitz ) was skilled in his acting range, giving a delightful portrayal to a central character.

Young Simba (Brandon Kane,) grownup Simba (Alan Mingo Jr.,) baboon Rafiki (Futhi Mhlongo) and Nala (Adrienne Muller) led an exuberant, ensemble singing, dancing cast.

Richard Hudson’s set design of “Pride rock” was so huge and tall that actors performing high up there had to be tethered to waist cables in case they fell off.

Steam shot out from holes concealed beneath the stage floor as did inflatable trees when scenes required. Grass strips on pallets pulled from one end of stage across to the other end, simulating an actors traveling on the African grassy plain; overall, it was a superb technical achievement.

Expert lighting design by Donald Holder gave important order to scenes, enhancing shifting moods, thus contributing indispensably to clarity and to the overall enjoyment of the play.

Rising above chartered artistic territories, Taymor challenged the audience to not only hear the music but to see it with one eye and to feel with the other eye; she has succeeded in setting a new horizon, transforming theatrical art into fine art.

Julie Taymor deserves accolades for her thrilling, phenomenal originality and creativity.