Chevron Scarf Goes to The Lion King

For Christmas, Ali and I bought three tickets to see The Lion King at the Stranahan Theater in Toledo. We gave one ticket to her mom, along with a certificate good for transportation to the theater and dinner. Saturday night was our date.

It’s fun to go do something like that because it feels like a special occasion. We figured out what we were wearing and I got my Chevron Scarf done just in the nick of time. In fact, I was finishing blocking it 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave!



We had a great meal at El Camino Real and then headed over to Maumee. There was time to kill before the show so we stopped at the huge antique mall on Reynolds Road and snooped around for awhile.

Of course, The Lion King was the highlight of the night. I’ve never been so moved by art as I was that night. When the “animals” came down the aisles of the theater during the opening I was completely shocked to feel hot tears sliding down my cheeks. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. There were human gazelles, zebras, birds, giraffes and elephants. There were human voices, singing, in the most beautiful South African chants I’ve ever heard.



There were masks set above the actors’ faces that put them into animal characters. There were shadow puppets, hand puppets, aerial dancers, inflatable set designs, off-stage performances and so many more things that transported us out of our everyday existence and into a completely different world for the next three hours.



A huge part of this world on stage was created by director Julie Taymor. In 1998 she made history by becoming the first woman in theatrical history to win the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical.

The most incredible voice and presence on the stage was the actress who played Rafiki. Hers is the actual voice from the soundtrack and it gave me chills.



The funniest and most outrageous characters were Timon and Pumbaa, the meerkat and warthog duo who live under the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata" (no worries) and Zazu, the hornbill who serves Mufasa’s highest servant.




The whole night while I was watching this spectacle, I was thinking about the human capacity to create.

cre·ate
1. to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes.
2. to evolve from one's own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention.

There are so many things that human beings create that don’t bring any positive energy into the world – war, homophobia, racism, most shows on TV. . .it was really nice to sit back and revel in such simple joy. It was the best three hours I’ve spent in a long time.