The Lion King (West End)
Ends Mar 2025 2h 30m
The Lion King (West End)
92%
92%
(1528 Ratings)
Positive
94%
Mixed
3%
Negative
3%
Members say
Entertaining, Enchanting, Delightful, Clever, Absorbing

About the Show

Disney's 1994 animated film is brought to life in an award-winning theatrical experience.

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Critic Reviews (5)

The Guardian (UK)
January 4th, 2011

“The kaleidoscopic visual brilliance of Julie Taymor's production...lies the ultimate source of the show's success...The show was, and is, a shrewd synthesis of global avant garde techniques; and, even if nothing matched the opening parade of antelopes, elephants and zebras down the Lyceum aisle, it provided a feast for the eyes...I don't believe it's the archetypal narrative structure that is the secret of the show's success. In the end, the eyes have it.”
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Shy Strange Manic
June 30th, 2022

If there is one thing Disney knows what to do it is put on a big show. This journey into theatre spectacles started with the Disney classic, The Lion King which has existed in theatres worldwide since 1997 and has held strong in the West End since 1999.
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The London Evening Standard
October 20th, 1999

“A beautiful dazzle of invention and imagination...The Disney cartoon's air of sweet whimsy is quite banished. With intricate mobile masks, puppets, exotic costumes and even stilts, these jungle creatures capture a fresh dynamic theatricality...John's very soft-rock music and songs generally serve as no more than a pleasing and heartfelt background. For this is a show where the eyes, not the ears, do the feasting...It lights up the West End with the blaze of Taymor's fabulous imagination.”
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The Telegraph (UK)
October 17th, 2014

“15 years on, it still works brilliantly...It’s easy to overlook what a radical piece of theatre ‘The Lion King’ is, and always was....Taymor has created a world that is fiercely non-literal, often to moving and wondrous effect...There’s a tough-mindedness about her method of story-telling...But it works superbly. The performances in the London production are outstanding."
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Time Out London
March 15th, 2018

“’The Lion King's’ absolute theatricality is astonishing. Techniques from all over the world are smashed together in an explosion of spectacle. It's perfect for a musical, allowing both distinct flavours and an eclectic carnival spirit. Things deflate when it sacrifices this defiant originality for subservient approximation of the film...Its plot is thin...and the score remains disjointed...Nonetheless Taymor's theatrical fireworks...are more than draw enough...A show that demands to be seen.”
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