Nonetheless, the show is a surefire crowd-pleaser that offers a solid bang for the buck and, in this tour visit, some unexpectedly good dramatic acting. Jürgen Hooper also impressively multitasks as actor and puppeteer playing Zazu, the hornbill bird who is Mafa’s chief of staff.Įlton John and Tim Rice’s Oscar-winning 1994 film score was supplemented with several new songs for the stage, and some of these additions are weak, particularly the overlong song and dance numbers involving the hyenas, the goose-stepping acolytes of Scar. And the comic characters who were clearly the favorites of the younger members of the audience on Thursday, the meerkat Timon and warthog Pumbaa, were played with the appropriate broadness by Tony Freeman and John E. South African actor Gugwana Diamini is very funny as the eccentric Rafiki, Mufasa’s shaman baboon.

Her microphone volume was so low it was hard to hear some of her lyrics. As the adult Nala, Simba’s future mate, Kayla Cyphers gets one of the show’s best numbers, “Shadowland,” but it was too subtle on Thursday. Adult Simba is played by Darian Sanders, who moves with lionlike grace and has a strong singing voice.

On Thursday, Hunter showed surprising poise, charisma and vocal power in the role. The role of young Simba is played at alternating performances by Jaylen Lyndon Hunter and Jordan Pendleton. That restraint is also employed by Spencer Plachy as Scar, who’s more dark and calculating than sneeringly evil.

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