It's been a very long time since I have stayed awake to midnight, seeing as how I wake up at 1am 5 days a week to do my weather shift. But this past Saturday I had no trouble doing so...in fact, it was quite the trick to just gear down after a rare night out. The broadway show "The Lion King" is in Charlotte through late August, and at mom's behest got rare tickets as the whole run is but a handful of tickets away from being sold out.
I can see why. It's hard to blow me away, and after having to pay a heftier than normal price just to find tickets period down in the Orchestra section (only there and the 'nosebleed' seats were left), it was worth every hard-earned penny and more. The costumes, the sets, the integration of humans into animal forms, etc. were simply mind-boggling.
Top character award I give to "Zazu", the bird who calls itself the major domo to the King...the actor (Mark Cameron Pow) was "on" at full speed in virtually every scene, and paid exquisite attention to detail. A close second if not outright tie went to the storytelling-narrative baboon Rafiki (Phindile Mkhize - you pronounce it!), whose edgy and rather proselytizing voice was perfect for the role.
Pumbaa and Timon, the warthog and meerkat respectively, were also quite humorous and well-done (Ben Lipitz and Mark Shunock...and as an aside I might add how hard it was to find photos of the broadway production on-line, as they were/are few and far between. I found this photo on an actor's portfolio page, for example).
In all, a magical night not soon forgotten, and a delight for all ages.----------------------------------------------------
5 years ago I was part of the original 'launch' team for News 14 Carolina in Charlotte, doing my morning weather shift for the Charlotte market. One of our producers extraordinaire was Alison Woo, whose vibrant self is now editing away for Charlotte Weekly and the (new) Union Weekly, among her many irons in her fire. Haven't seen her for about a year and a half when last we had lunch to catch up - an endless bundle of energy and ideas, that one.
While waiting for the doors to open to the play, the elevator door popped open in front of me and there she and her brother were, right in my face. We quickly caught up and went on our ways. After the performance, with the hordes exiting the Blumenthal Theater into the warm night air, I happened upon them a couple of blocks away at a crosswalk...said howdy again. Walked on down to one of the several parking decks, hiked to the 4th level, and joined the slowly inching masses out of the parking deck...and lo and behold in my rear view mirror, right behind me....yep, Alison and her brother. It can be a very small world, friends, a very small world.
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