Lion King Jr.: Play Analysis

I saw two plays that I was interested in writing about, however, I realized that Lion King Jr. was the performance that piqued my interest the most. I attended the first showing on Thursday, March 2 after hearing about it from a family friend whose children were part of the cast. Courtyard Theatre Productions presented the play at the Church of Christ in Jenks, Oklahoma. Caroline Frame directed the Lion King Jr. with her assistant Libby Rose. The actors in the play were all children ranging from middle schoolers to early high schoolers; same with the tech and makeup crews. The main characters in the play were played by Cobin Stockstill as Mufasa; Emma Swank and Evi Rose as young and old Nala; Caleb Matlach as Scar; and Tanner Matlach and Jack Ransdell as young and old Simba.
The Lion King is

a widely known Disney movie and play. Simba, the king to be, runs away from his kingdom after getting his father killed and goes through many trials in order to find himself and take his kingdom back from his evil uncle Scar. During the journey, Simba makes friends, falls in love, and grows to be a powerful king. Though the play can be serious at times, it would be considered a comedy and musical. There are times when people might want to laugh, cry, or sing along which makes The Lion King a great movie/play for families to watch.
The first thing I noticed when walking into the auditorium was the stage. On the walls, there were green leaves everywhere making it look more like a jungle, and on the sides of the stage, there were large coverings that obstructed the audience's view of where the cast would be walking back and forth. The cast did not wear costumes that completely made them look like the animals they were supposed to be, but instead, had clothes on that resembled the animal, and masks for the main characters that were either on their hands or the top of their heads. I could tell that everyone worked really hard and that Frame and Rose wanted to make it very authentic by making the cast sing songs with a variety of African languages and teaching some kids how to use stilts.
Even though I enjoyed the play, it still was not without fault.

Throughout the play, there were technical difficulties with the microphones and sound systems. The microphones continued to go in and out throughout the play and at times the sound system would not be loud enough for people to hear and went out completely during one of the songs. Also, some of the male cast were not the best of singers. I do believe that a lot of the problems could have just occurred during the first showing and not the rest of them, yet, even with the problems, I would recommend this play to people because I was very entertained and everything but the directing and costume making was done by children.
All in all, I think the play was delightful. The costumes were great, especially for one person to make them. and the children did a fantastic job. I was really pleased with the choreography that Tanner Matlach, who played Simba, made all on his own. Though there were problems, I believe that if one is not completely judgmental, that for paying $5 it was a pretty good deal. The actors used emotion, hard work, and dedication to make their performance a good one, and I believe they did just

that.