The Lion King Madrid

The Lion King opens on a sunrise, a gathering of animals, and a newborn cub held up above them who is expected to rule one day. Simba grows up certain of it. His uncle Scar, who has spent a lifetime being second, has decided that the succession is negotiable.

A stampede, a death and a lie do the rest. Simba runs, convinced he caused what happened, and grows up far away in the company of two animals with no interest in responsibility of any kind. The kingdom he left is failing under Scar, and the case for going back is made by a childhood friend who has been looking for him and by a father he keeps seeing where nobody is standing.

The stage version has a book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, music and lyrics by Elton John and Tim Rice, with additional music by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor and Hans Zimmer. Taymor directed it and designed the masks and puppets, and it reached the stage in 1997. Her contribution is what makes it theatre rather than a transfer: the animals are visibly performed by people, never disguised as animals.

That decision governs everything. Giraffes are actors on stilts, a herd is a rolling wall of puppets, grass is worn on the head, and the audience is invited to see the mechanism and believe it anyway. The score adds African choral writing to the songs, and the opening number is sung out to the house rather than to anyone on stage.

Underneath the spectacle it is a plain story about a boy who believed a lie about himself for years, and what it takes to put it down.