Actors perform in "The Lion King" in Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Theatre, on June 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)
SINGAPORE,Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The world renowned Lion King musical is presented here in Singapore, with its Asian and African cultural elements and artful performance to intoxicate the audiences.
On stage at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Theatre, the show, which is transformed from the 1994 Disney animated film by American director Julie Taymor, continues to lure and entertain viewers.
Besides delicate performance and exquisite costumes, the show also features Asian-style puppets and African languages, which also contributed to the charm of the musical.
It is reported that more than 200 animal puppets were shown in the play, including the animatronic and cable suspension puppets, rod puppets, traditional African masked dance puppets and Indonesian shadow puppets. The puppets add to the vividness of the show. In the meantime, viewers could also see the faces of the actors or actresses who operate the puppets, which give a human touch to the story-telling.
"The arts of Asia are extremely prevalent in not just the designing of the costumes, but also in the various forms of mask and puppetry and dance," Taymor was quoted as saying to the English-language newspaper The Straits Times.
African languages are spoken in the show, such as the Congolese and Swahili, as this is a story happening in the African wilderness.
While the audiences are grabbed by the struggle of the Lion Simba, they can also enjoy the humor and wisdom in the show, which is brought together by an international cast and crew coming from 19 countries.
Hyojin Um brought her daughters who are four and eight years old to watch the show. She thought the music was very good and the costumes were great and easy for the kids to understand.
The musical is on an Asian tour which started in the Philippines in March and will go to South Korea and Japan after Singapore. It was on stage in Singapore from June 27 and will run until Sept. 23.
The Lion King musical with different performers was previously staged at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre in 2011 and was put on stage here for over eight months -- making it the longest-running musical in Singapore.
Since its debut in the New York theatre in 1997, the Lion King musical has been watched by more than 90 million people and has won more than 70 global theatrical awards.
