The Lion King

Saturday afternoon, Alayna and I joined our friends Jill, Mary and Karla, my aunt Diane, my cousin Kelly, and my mom for a matinee of Disney's The Lion King for it's 10th anniversary celebration of being on Broadway. It was phenomenal!

Alayna had been excited and every day for the past week, had done a countdown to The Day. She would wake up in the morning, look at her calendar and say, "Only 3 days until Lion King, Mom!" When Saturday arrived, she literally came running into my bedroom at 7:45 and exclaimed, "Today is Lion King!!" She could barely contain herself. The whole drive into the city, she asked if we were there yet, how much longer? When we got to the theatre, she stared in awe at all of the seats, the fancy ceilings, the crowds of people. She couldn't take it all in fast enough. She wanted to sit on the aisle seat so she could see better, so we all obliged and let her be the tail of our group.

When the lights started to dim, I thought she was going to wet herself, seriously. She was so excited. Well, for those of you who haven't seen the theatre production, they start out the show with The Circle of Life and various animals actually come down the aisles, through the seats, and walk up to the stage. At one point, Alayna looked over and right next to her was a huge costumed elephant-4 people, one for each leg!

As the show went on, I found myself watching Alayna more and more, and the actual show less and less. The excitement and wonder in her eyes was so great to see. She was tapping her fingers, bouncing her feet, nodding her head along to the music. She would laugh hysterically at the funny parts and stare wide-eyed at the dramatic parts (like the stampede-which was amazing!) Throughout the show, she would comment on scenes that were different than the movie, things that Lilly or Daddy would love, costumes that were "really cool."

When it was all done, she asked if we could go see it again. She actually wanted to see the showing at 7:00, but I told her that wouldn't be a possibility. But next time it came to the area, we would try to get tickets.

For those of you who haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend getting tickets. The costuming is amazing. You see the human forms, but they are easily overlooked by the incredible costumes that they are sporting. They are all humanoid, yet lifelike to the animal. My favorites had to be the giraffes, followed closely by the hyenas. But really, they were all so inventive, creative and amazing. I know that in our group, the entire production received 16 thumbs up.