A 20 year wait – The Lion King on Broadway

Seeing The Lion king on Broadway has been high up on my life goals list since I was very young. After watching the Lion king film around age 4-5 I was hooked, I soon had the soundtrack and played it on repeat singing along at the top of my lungs every single day and when the Lion king 2 came out the same thing happened (belated apologies to my families’ ear drums).

I honestly don’t remember when I first heard about Broadway but I must have seen somewhere that it was the best of the best and that Lion King was the show to see. I remember announcing one birthday when my mum asked what I wanted that I’d like tickets to see The Lion King on Broadway in New York (Definitely not taking in to account or probably even knowing how far away New York was and how expensive it would be to travel there just for a show). I don’t remember getting much of a response from my mum, she was probably flabbergasted and didn’t know what to say I think she was expecting me to ask for a Barbie or something reasonable for a kid my age.

But no, I was a special kind of fish and didn’t stop asking year after year at Christmas, birthdays (I’m sure I even asked a few times on Halloween) but I was always met with the same answer. Even when we went on a family holiday to the USA it was to Florida which is unfortunately not close to the big apple and It was a holiday/my parents wedding so they weren’t prepared to disrupt that with a trip over to New York... So Selfish 😋 !!

Fast-forward about 20 years and my boyfriend @ashleypeat and I had been invited to a wedding in America (Kentucky specifically) taking place in September 2017. There was no way I wasn’t going to take advantage of this trip and luckily the flights to New York were very reasonable and I pitched the idea of a road trip from New York to Kentucky and back again to Ash. A USA road trip had been on his life goals list so I was on to a winner, we booked the flights and I searched through reviews and looked at sites like, a view from my seat and seat plan to work out the best place to sit that didn’t cost a fortune, I’d decided on Mezzanine row A, B, C or D.

Then It was time to work out how to get my musical hating boyfriend to fork out £130 for a ticket to a musical hmmmm. So, I began dropping hints “I’ve always wanted to see The Lion King on Broadway, it’s been a dream since I was young, how crazy is it that we’ll be in New York at the same time that it’s on?”, “Look at the 5 star ratings The Lion King got on trip advisor, even people who don’t like musicals seem to love it, It must be amazing”, “Oh Cool” seemed to be the common response, either he wasn’t getting the hints like a typical man or he was purposefully ignoring them.

Time was ticking and I didn’t want my preferred seats to be taken, according to reviews the wrong seats could obstruct the view and ruin the experience and I wasn’t going to let that happen. One day we were chilling together I was watching TV and he was engrossed in some work on his laptop. We had a few things we still needed to book like flight extras and the USA entry permit so I decided to get that done, he’s not a great multitasker and does this thing where he ½ or maybe even a ¼ listens to me enough to respond but I’m not sure the information actually goes in. I mentioned the Lion king and how we need to do it and he said yeah get it booked. RESULT!!

A few days later it became clear that he hadn’t realised what he responded yes to, but he soon gave in realising that I’d probably be roped in to doing a lot of things that he wanted to do on the trip too and he succumbed to the fact that we’d be seeing the Lion King. Unfortunately Rows A, B and C had gone when it came to booking but I managed to get a seat right in the middle of row D, I was ecstatic and spent the rest of the day squealing every time I remembered we were going to see it.

The Day of the show

With about 10 minutes to spare before the show, we’d just hoped off an open top Tour bus after sightseeing around New York. We’d been dropped off right outside Times Square which we hadn’t managed to take a proper look at yet. I’m not usually one for busy cities along with hustle and bustle and signposts selling you everything under the sun, it annoys me and makes me anxious in London but for some reason here it was different this place was truly breath-taking. All of the bright colourful lights, beaming at you almost as if they were there just for you and so much was going on, people rushing around, people taking pictures, street performers, NYPD Police stood with huge guns but for some reason I was calm and content.

Ash understandably wanted to take some pictures whilst I tried to hurry him up under the assurance that Times Square would still be there after the Lion King finished but there was no way I was missing the show. On the other hand, we were never going to see it again in daylight as the Lion King was finishing late which was his argument so we took a few pictures and then I ushered him toward the Minskoff Theatre.

As the huge lit up Lion King sign got closer a huge smile beemed across my face. We took the standard pictures underneath the theatre sign and then headed in (I wished I’d been dressed in something more fancy for these pictures, but we’d been walking around New York all day so my outfit would have to do). I was in awe of absolutely everything, 20 years of waiting for this, you bet I was going to take it all in, the merch, the huge Lion King-esque African sculptures leading up the stairs, the other people equally (well maybe not quite) as excited as me.

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As we were seated in the Mezzanine we were right at the top of the theatre, we joined the drinks queue on that floor to get something before we went in but the man behind the bar announced that if we waited in the queue we’d miss the opening number ‘The circle of Life’. I of course wasn’t having that and without a word to Ash I ran off to take my seat, he yelled that he’d meet me inside. The seats were perfect and in the exact centre, we had a perfect view of pretty much everything, luckily Ash made it in on time and he was sweet enough to get me a Lion King themed drink called ‘Scar’s revenge’ in a Lion King Flask that I could keep as a souvenir.

The lights went down soon after and the show started, I won’t go in to the show too much because I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone that is going to see it. All I can say is that from beginning to end it was a masterpiece, I cried during several parts (they weren’t even sad but they were incredible and I was just so happy that I was seeing it after so long) Ash thought it was hilarious when he looked over at me during upbeat songs like ‘I just can’t wait to be king’ and tears were streaming down my face.

The costumes were incredible, the acting and the singing (especially the guy that played Mufasa) was flawless, there were funny parts that made reference to popular culture and the lighting and sets were unbelievable they made scenes that you wouldn’t expect to translate well on the stage e.g. the stampede scene faultless and believable. I loved the fact they actually had children playing the young Nala and Simba. An unreal amount of detail went in to everything and you could really tell, all of which made it very worth the price.

The only aspect that I wasn’t a fan of was that all the animals were blended with the people operating them apart from Timon who’s puppeteer was bright green so he didn’t blend in and stuck out like a sore thumb, I’m not sure what the thought behind that was but it was a very minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

The ultimate seal of approval was gained too - Ash did not fall asleep and actually really enjoyed it and was raving about it just as much as I was when it finished. After 20 years of waiting it did not disappoint, it’s an amazing performance and I would urge anyone visiting New York to go and see it. Even if you don’t usually like musicals it was so far from a musical Ash described it like watching a live film and I’d agree with that.

It was unlike any other, a once in a lifetime experience and well and truly worth the wait.