[ot-caption title=”Actors perform in their beautiful costumes during a full dress rehearsal of the Lion King Musical for media in Sydney, Australia, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)” url=”https://pcpawprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Lion-King-3.jpg”]

“The Lion King” has made its way to the stage of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts once again, appealing to both kids and adults alike. Based on the hit animated movie of the same name from 1994, this show hit the Broadway stage just three short years later.  It has since toured the world in multiple languages including Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese, just to name a few.  The show went on to win seven Tonys including Best Musical back in 1998, helping establish this show’s place in Broadway history.

For those local to the area, you might remember when “The Lion King” came to the Broward Center almost ten years ago.  While this new national touring production holds on to many aspects of the original, some new additions were added that seemed to hurt the show.  While all the favorites are still there such as “Circle of Life,” “Hakuna Matata,” and “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” some songs were taken away such as “The Morning Report,” which was a crowd favorite back in the day.

Michael Hollick took on the challenging role as the sinister Scar, and Vusi Sondiyazi played Mufasa. Both Hollick and Sondiyazi did respectable jobs at assuming such iconic roles. Nick Cordileone and Ben Lipitz played Timon and Pumba respectively. While they had the audience cracking up the whole night, they tried a little too hard to emulate the movie characters voiced by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, both extremely notable actors. One crowd favorite was Zazu, performed by Drew Hirshfield, whose likeable personality and comedic timing were superb.

As many know, a good production is always evolving, as evidenced by this production of The Lion King. The current production of the show has had some new pop culture-related jokes thrown in such as jests about Target and even a line referencing Disney’s latest mega hit, Frozen.

One of the most well-known aspects of the musical adaption of The Lion King is the masterful puppetry originally designed by Julie Taymor.  The ways in which the actors and dancers portrayed such animals as gazelles, birds, and even elephants was done masterfully and tastefully, so that the audience knew what animal they were, but not in a cartoonish or childish manner.  No detail was left unfinished when it came to the costumes and puppets, even down to the intricate makeup done on characters like Simba and Scar, to help them further delve into their characters.

Overall, The Lion King still enchants audience members of all ages.  While this particular production had some noticeable mishaps that were disappointing, the show is still exciting and breathtaking for everyone.  The Lion King runs through February 1st , 2015, and student rush tickets are available at the box office on certain nights.