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Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the new segment The Sound of Musicals. I will be joined by Oliver, who is a musical enthusiast, and has also had years of practice in amateur theater groups. Welcome back to the studio Oliver.

Hello, thank you.

In our first ever episode of this segment, we talked about one of the, probably the most depressing musicals of all time, Les Misérables.

Yes, yes. It was a very sad episode, but a fantastic musical.

Yeah, I know, I'm ready for something a little bit more jolly. So what we’re gonna talk about today?

Today we've definitely gone for happier and more family friendly. Today we are going to be talking about the Lion King which is a great musical on the stage.

狮子王。Lion King I think for most of our audience perhaps hearing Lion King, they think of the animated movie that was released in the 90s because that was very popular, that was very famous, and then they did another one just a few years back, thinking 2019, maybe, they did another sort of CGIed (Computer-generated imagery) Lion King.

But both are movies. Musicals, when did it start? When did it debut?

The Disney movie was in 1994, and in 1997 in the U.S. is when the Lion King musical went onto the stage into the theaters. So it was only 3 years later they were very fast with putting it onto the stage, but it works so well because the music is already there, the story is there. You have to think about how to make people into animals, but the basics are already to go onto the stage.

And that's why the music was originally from the movie and then they sort of just adapted it to the musical, right?

They did. Yes, if you watch the musical, the music is nearly exactly the same. The same famous songs are still there, sung by the same characters and works very nicely in the transfer from movie to theater.

I think that's also how I got to know names like Elton John. I think my first impression of Elton John is someone who wrote Lion King music.

For me, I heard of Elton John because my mom listens to Elton John. When I found he made the movie for Lion King, I thought “No, Elton John, my mom listens to him, he wouldn't do something cool like Lion King”.

But Lion King I don't think we need to really go into the story, because I think most people have watched the movie or watch the movie with their kids. But there's some rumors or people are talking saying that this is somewhat related to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Yes. You can definitely see the similarities and the connections there. The basic story of a Prince and his King father, and the evil, devious, cruel uncle, exactly. And then the King, the father is murdered by the uncle, and the son has to find who he is and get back his throne to become King, to get rid of the uncle. The story is very similar, the ending is very different. But the basics of the story are very similar between the Lion King and Hamlet. Yes.

Because originally Hamlet is a tragedy, but obviously Lion King, the minute Disney makes it, you know it's gonna be happy ending. Anyways.

Of course, Yeah. You couldn't copy the ending of Hamlets into a Disney movie because it would be the saddest children's movie you've ever seen. And nobody would want to watch it. So they changed the ideas behind it, especially the ending. But, there are similarities there.

Talking about the plot, even though we don't have to retell the story, but like any good stories, they're also conflicts, right? Like you said this whole fighting for power, the plots to remove the King. And then later on this young King or the young Prince coming back to take his throne that should be rightfully his.

Yeah, there are lots of conflicts in the show, the biggest one being the true King Simba versus the evil King Scar. The fight for who is the true king, who has the true power.

But there are also things like responsibility and duty versus doing what you want. For instance, when Simba meets to Timon and Pumbaa, the pig and the meerkat, they teach him “It doesn't matter! Enjoy your life, do what you want to, relax”.

Hakuna Matata, exactly. That's the whole point of the song. Don't worry about it, relax. But in the end the responsibility and duty of being a king, of being the King, the true King, brings Simba back into the final fight with Scar to get back his kingdom. So there is the conflict of doing what you need to do and doing what you want to do as well.

Yeah, even though this is about the royal family like in the show, obviously, it's about Prince, King, it's not about common people. But I think this is a theme that every one of us can relate to choosing whether to live up to your responsibilities, your duties either to your family to your job, or just lie down like we say now in China living an easy life more about how you feel. This is always a constant struggle and conflict for most of us.

It definitely is, yes. We are not kings and queens and we are not lions, but we all have jobs, we all have families. And sometimes we don't work with what we want, but it's the choice of what you should do. It is the conflict that we all have. Sometimes on a day to day basis.

Yeah, OK. I think we've given the audience some of the background of the story. I think we're gonna wrap up here for the first episode. In the second episode we're gonna get into some specifics about the musical like the costumes and also the music. But we will end this episode with some of the music from this particular musical as well.

I Just Can't Wait to Be King

I'm gonna be a mighty king, so enemies beware!

I've never seen a king of beasts

With quite so little hair

I'm gonna be the mane event

Like no king was before

I'm brushing up on looking down

I'm working on my roar

Thus far a rather uninspiring thing

Oh, I just can't wait to be king!

No one saying do this Now when I said that--

No one saying be there What I meant was--

No one saying stop that What you don't realize--

No one saying see here Now see here!

Free to run around all day That's definitely out--

Free to do it all my way!

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