Lion King
- From: Gary <Gary111@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 13:36:03 -0500
I don't know if anyone has posted yet about the Lion King show.
We went last night on free tickets given out to employees of Mandalay Bay. I have a friend that works there in one of the restaurants and he already saw it twice, so he gave us the tickets.
We arrived for the 8PM show at 7:15 and wandered around MB for 30 minutes, checking things out. The place was pretty empty. Most of the machines sat vacant and the tables were about 20% occupied. The bars were mostly empty. The Sportsbook was busy. There was a game on. And the Poker room was full.
At 7:45 we went to the show room. This is the same room that used to house Mama Mia and they changed only the side lighting and stage lighting. The room quickly filled to about 95% occupancy. Not many vacant seats. We were in row QQ, 1 row from the back of the theater, right center. As with Mama Mia, the only really bad seats are the ones all the way on the right or left, and those directly behind the audio and lighting board. The side seats don't see well and the seats behind the audio board have the light from the board to contend with.
The show started at 8:10. If you saw the movie the Lion King, you know the story. The play barely deviates. Staging in minimalistic. 2 or 3 tiny sets, pride rock, Scar's rock. Everything else is done with b\rackdrops, curtains and lighting. The actors wear headpieces desigination who they are (Simba, Mufasa) or costumes shaped like the character (Pumbaa the Warthog, Timon the Meerkat, Zazu).
The songs are almost identical to those of the movie, with a few added scenes that they could have cut to shorten the running time. The show runs 2:30 minutes with a 20 minute intermission. Cut those 3 or 4 added numbers, wasted in our opinion and you could have shortened the show to 1:45 and skipped the intermission.
The singers and dancers are all good and the show isn't bad, but in our opinion, it isn't close to what's being reported in local media. Jersey Boy's blows it into the dust and Love is far superior. Even Phantom is better in my opinion. We left feeling good that we had not paid for tickets and if I would have paid, our seats were valued at $86 with taxes and fees, I would have been very unhappy. For free it was OK. A good excuse to get out of the house. But not worth making a special trip for and not worth paying full price for.
We stopped at Cadillac Ranch at Town Square afterwards for a beer. Drinks were half price until midnight, as were most appetizers. We sampled a couple of the draft beers and ordered the onion rings (very good), mini burgers (not bad) and Ahi tuna (excellent). 4 beers and the 3 appetizers came to a total of $23.xx. We got the last order of tuna, which made the 2 guys sitting next to us at the bar somewhat unhappy, as one really wanted to try it. I offered to share some with him as I could not eat it all. They also tried some of the rings. Made a couple of new local friends. Tuna guy works at the Palms in marketing and the other guy is a host at Paris. They gave us their cards and said if we ever want to see or do anything at their hotels or need a room, to call. I love this town.
Cadillac Ranch is an interesting place. Kind of schizoid, not knowing if it wants to be a sports bar with dozens of TV's everywhere you look, or a western bar with the mechanical bull ride (drunk young women were of it all during the 2 hours were there), or a casual restaurant with a very full menu, or a rock & roll bar. The prices are normal for an upscale locals destination bar and grill/meet market. 1/2 price was a good deal. We didn't feel out of place in nice jeans, but many of the younger crowd were dressed up for a night out at the clubs. Music was rock/club. There was a sign advertising service industry nights and another ad on one of the TV monitors for ladies night on Thursday.
Cadillac Ranch is upstairs in the rear of Town Square, near the movie complex.
Tonight we're seeing Louie Anderson, also free. And then David Sanborn.
Gary
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