The Lion King musical is based on the 1994 Walt Disney animated classic, The Lion King.  The musical is adapted from the screenplay by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton and produced by Peter Schneider and Thomas Schumacher.

This musical debuted in 1997 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has now become the seventh longest running show on Broadway and is the highest grossing Broadway show of all time, having grossed $853.8 million. The show has toured in multiple cities across the U.S. as well as around the world.  I had the opportunity to attend the show at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre in Orlando, Florida on May 9.

Fans of the film will not be disappointed with the musical. It is breathtakingly beautiful, and the actors give an outstanding performance that will have audiences rising to their feet to give a standing ovation at the end of the show.

Both the film and the play are about a young lion cub named Simba who, through deception and betrayal of his jealous Uncle Scar, is wrongfully blamed for his father Mufasa’s death and runs away from his home.  He meets a meerkat named Timon and a warthog named Pumba, who are outcasts like Simba.

They become friends and live a carefree lives under the motto “hakuna matata”, which means “no worries.” Years pass, and back home, Simba’s uncle rules the kingdom and allows his allies, the hyenas, to eat as much as they like, breaking the circle of life. Now all grown up, Simba’s childhood friend, Nala, leaves the pride in search of help and finds Simba. With the help of the wise mandrill, Rafiki, Simba returns home, confronts his past, defeats Scar, and restores the balance. He finally accepts his rightful place as king, and all is well again in the pride lands.

The show opens with a bang. The Pride Rock is the setting for the first scene, as baby Simba is revealed to the rest of the kingdom as Rafiki and the Ensemble cast belt out the “Circle of Life” with “Nants’ Ingonyama.” The drummers-who are placed on both sides of the stage-closed the opening number with a resounding thump on their African drums, which brought the audience to applaud with excitement and approval for what is to come.

The show is about two hours with one fifteen-minute intermission and moves along at a balanced pace. Act One is the longer of the two acts and the better of the two as well. Act Two opens with the Ensemble cast singing “One by One”, a happy and joyous tune. This leads into Scene One which starts out with vultures hovering in the sky, representing the death and lack of food that has occurred under Scar’s reign. It is a stark contrast.

All of the actors’ performances were wonderful, but there were a few that shone brighter than the rest. Actress Buyi Zama was rightfully cast as Rafiki. Her performance was my favorite, as she made the audience laugh throughout the evening and received the most applause. J. Anthony Crane, who portrayed Scar, was memorable. He portrayed the villain excellently and even received a few boos mixed in with the applause. Finally, Mark David Kaplan, who played Mufasa’s confidant Zazu, was hilarious and provided zingers at the right times during the play.

In addition to the original tunes from the film with music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice, the show has additional music and lyrics by Lebo M. Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer.  Out of these new tunes, the most notable was “He Lives in You,” which is first performed during the Under the Stars scene in the first act when Mufasa is disciplining Simba. There is a reprise of the song later on in the second act.

Visually, the show is strikingly beautiful with its sets and lighting which bring out the African themes quite well.

The musical features actors in animal costumes that are designed by Julie Taymor, as well as masks and puppets varying in size, also designed by her and Michael Curry. All of the costumes and puppets were colorful and magnificent. The cheetah costume was the coolest, as it featured an actor using their hands to control the front part of the cheetah’s body while their own legs were inside the hind legs of the puppet, propelling the puppet to move as though it was a real cheetah. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

The hyenas were another costume that stood out. The actors’ legs were the hyena’s hind legs, and their hands held sticks molded to look like a hyena’s front legs. Their hyena masks even had moveable mouths.

All in all, The Lion King is a worthy successor to the film. The show will finish its Orlando tour on May 13, so check your local theater to find out when the musical will be coming to your town.

Image Courtesy of   The Lion King

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“I love music. The best thing of doing music is the people you get to meet and the opportunities you get to have to help people out. I’m grateful that we are able to do something that can benefit others.” These are the words of Simeon Lawrence, Jr. (“Young Sim”) talking about his Record Label Feel Good Music Coalition.

Feel Good Music Coalition, is a unique record label that tries to make a difference in regards to its music and production. In a personal interview, we had the pleasure to speak with Simeon, the CEO, Founder and Artist of the record label. Young Sim talked to us and gave us an inside look into his music production, the values and mission of the record label, along with some insight into the rest of the members forming the project.

At the beginning of the interview he told us about his background and roots. Young Sim was born in 1984 in Monrovia, Liberia. At the young age of 4, Simeon and his family left Liberia due to the civil war and ended up moving to United States. When asked about how this experience affected him as a person Simeon responded, “That is probably one of the most poignant experiences in my life as you know my character concerned.”

He explained how he and his family ended up moving to the US to seek political asylum. The Lawrence family found roots in Upper Darby (West Philadelphia), PA and restarted their whole life over from nothing. “Growing up as an urban kid and all of that just instilled me with the confidence that you can make something out of anything out of nothing,” Simeon said. “That was a very poignant experience in my life that shaped me as far as the man I am today.”

Growing up in Philadelphia, Young Sim fell in love with music and sounds. At the age of 7 while at Stonehurst Hills Elementary, Simeon began playing the Viola and continued until he graduated high school. “I don’t even know why I picked the Viola,” he said. “I just liked the sound and kept playing until I graduated. That really shaped my mind with how sounds are concerned. I fell in love with how sounds can set your emotions.” A lot of people don’t know that Simeon can still play the viola today. His label mates try to get him to pick it back up, but I have a feeling we won’t be seeing Young Sim with the viola in any videos any time soon. Listen to any of Young Sim’s tracks and you will hear his passion for music and different sounds and you’ll feel his emotion through your speakers.

When asked about the relation of his music and emotions Simeon replied, “For me music has the ability to take me to specific time periods. It has the ability to take me to specific settings. My beats are like the soundtrack of my life. How I feel is one of the first things I tackle in order to write a song.” Simeon’s passion for music and urban environment led him to the ever evolving world of hip hop.

“I was a victim of my circumstances,” he said chuckling. “When we came to the United States, we moved to West Philadelphia, and that’s a hot bed for hip hop. I grew up listening to Will Smith, DJ Jazzy Jeff and all the pioneers. And that was just the voice for our culture.” Simeon’s experiences, love of music and frustration with the corporate structure of the music industry led him to start his own label. “I was 17 when the idea came up,” Simeon said.

“I was frustrated that a lot of my friends were making good music, and they were being asked to cater to the executives, who think they know the culture and know what people want to hear. I am a big fan of putting the power right back in the hands of the people, and so the only way to do that is to do it from the ground up, revolutionary style. So I just figured, I am going to set my guidelines and how I feel about music, and anyone that wants to join me can”.

Once Young Sim went full steam ahead, he created the record label and decided to name it Feel Good Music Coalition. When asked about how the name came about, he laughs. “That’s a good question,” he said. “In hind sight, it came from the emotion of the music. People used to come up and say I can really feel what you’re saying in your music and it makes me feel good. Then I just started saying we make that feel good music. And then coalition is just because I am trying to build it into something bigger than myself. I want this movement entertainment company to outlive me.”

Feel Good Music Coalition is a unique hip hop record label and is not willing to stray from their definition of good music. They also differ from other hip-hop labels in the sense that they don’t curse or use sexual innuendo in any of the lyrics. “It is just something I am uncomfortable with,” Simeon said. “I got a mother who wouldn’t listen to my music if it was like that. I got a grandmother and I just take the responsibility as a person that feels responsible for his actions. I just refuse to do something that I wouldn’t feel comfortable having them listen to.” Some may think that being based in Utah, Feel Good Music would have a difficult time being embraced by the community, but that would be a misconception. Simeon told us, “The community has been great in embracing us. They appreciate good music. And the hip hop community in Utah itself can hold their own against any city in the United States.”

The team at Feel Good Music Coalition is large and growing. Simeon refers to them just as one big family that loves music. “We are always looking to add to the label. Right now we are focused on a lot of individual projects, but we are looking to put a compilation album for everyone to get to know the label.”

For those of you not familiar with Feel Good Music Coalition, you can check out their song “Teach Me How to Jimmer” track, which went viral a day after being released. “That was crazy,” Young Sim said. “That song definitely got us a lot of buzz here in Utah. Definit approached me to do the chorus. And it actually sat in my in box for a day. After I listened to it, I thought it had some potential. So I did the chorus and added a verse and the very next day we put it out and it went crazy.” I highly recommend picking up a copy of Young Sim’s “Audio Diary” available on iTunes.

There you will get a look into the label and some of his label mates such as Definit, another younger talent with an interesting story. So far, Feel Good Music has experienced some success but is has all come from hard work. Anyone that knows Simeon knows that he is really low key, but a workaholic. He is ether in the Studio, shooting a video or doing an interview every day.

Young Sim has a very positive outlook on life and knows it’s take a lot of hard work to be successful. He lives his life with the motto, “Progress is a process, period.” He believes life is supposed to be hard and it’s supposed to be fun. “I feel like take the opportunities that you have to succeed and don’t live for yourself. Don’t be selfish. Do what you can to help others, and you’ll have a much more enjoyable life.”

His main message would be if you have a dream, focus and do what you can independent what other say.” You check out Feel Good Music Coalition’s tracks, projects, events and upcoming shows on their site anytime: www.feelgoodmusiccoalition.com.

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