Prepare to be amazed

The Lion King, Palace, Manchester
It hits you just a couple of minutes in: you have just seen a beautifully-realised dawn rise and giraffes, birds, a leopard, antelope and other animals wander on stage — and there’s a 10ft high elephant and a huge rhino walking down the stalls aisles, each followed by performers in fabulous costumes.

This is when you realise why “The Lion King”, Disney’s biggest show, has been running to packed houses for 14 years in London alone and has played to around 65 million people worldwide.

That opening sequence is probably the greatest in modern musicals history, and the show continues on a similar high.

In Manchester for the first time, until well into April, the musical has changed a lot over its 20 stagings and dozens of casts over the years, but remains at heart the mixture of child-friendly sentiment and spectacular staging it always was. Its combination of extraordinary stagecraft, puppetry that was years ahead of its time, perfect sound and huge cast justifies every penny of the ticket price.

The film was entertaining and fun but Julie Taymor’s production — she directed, designed the fabulous costumes and chipped-in on the amazing puppets and some of the additional lyrics — adds a spiritual element and gorgeous African-inspired rhythms — not by John and Rice — that take the stage version to a far deeper level of satisfaction.

Well, mostly: the dignified humour of Gugwana Diamini as soothsayer Rafiki, the stately affection for his son of Cleveland Cathnott as Mufasa; the growing bond between young Simba (Nicholas Nkuna) and Nala (Carole Stennett), the humour of Meilyr Sion as Major Domo bird Zazu and even the comedy partnership of John Hasler and Mark Roper as Timon and Pumbaa create a massively satisfying atmosphere.

Only in a couple of places do things go slightly off: references to The Proclaimers, Ikea and TV show “DIY SOS” have absolutely no place here, and there isn’t much dramatic tension between any of the characters and evil usurper Scar (Stephen Carlisle), unwisely made a sort of comedy villain.

But these are very minor niggles indeed compared to the whole, which is a simply glorious experience from first to last.

You might have to wait until well into the New Year for tickets, but if you have any interest in theatre and haven’t enjoyed this experience, go on safari as soon as you can.