The Lion King

So this past week, everything was about The Lion King.

Millie discovered that she could sit throughout the entire movie without getting scared- and then she discovered the Broadway musical soundtrack. She learned that she could make herself weep during "quiet time" by listening to the song Shadowlands 100 times in a row and that she and Ellis could perform a beautiful pas de duex to Can You Feel the Love Tonight.

Since the Broadway tour of The Lion King is coming to Salt Lake City in August, I ordered a bunch of tickets last July for my school (faculty and students). Since I ordered so many tickets, I was invited to The Lion King Musical Cocktail Party last Monday. Since I got to bring guests, I brought Jackie and Brent and Amanda Cox from the high school. None of us had ever been to a cocktail party before so here's my thoughts (I hope Jackie, Brent and Amanda will leave comments if I left anything out):

• We arrived to the Rose Wagner Theatre and they had it decked out with food on three levels, an open bar and servers circulating the area. I think they were hoping people would get pretty loose so they could open their wallets and order tons of Lion King tickets for next summer. I already purchased my tickets so I wasn't falling for their ruse. But in using the facilities, Amanda discovered a lonely bartender stuck by the bathrooms that became our go-to guy for getting multiple Cokes and Diet Cokes without standing in a line.


• They flew in 3 leads (Rafeeki, Simba and Nala) from the Las Vegas production to perform 4 numbers for us. They also brought in members of a local Baptist church choir to sing and sway- with the minus track.


• One of Disney's head honchos in the theatre department talked about Disney on Broadway- and made a man shriek with excitement behind me when he lead us to believe that Julie Taymore (the director of The Lion King who is way too busy trying to save the new Spiderman musical to fly out to Utah to pimp her show) was backstage ready to answer questions. She spoke to us from a video filmed over 10 years ago.

• The poor Broadway Across America Salt Lake spokesperson was REALLY NERVOUS. I thought he was going to pass out and forget his own name as he welcomed us. I felt bad for him.


• They were serving 3 kinds of shrimp: cocktail, tomatillo and "gin". I was tempted to get the gin kind (it was offered) but I refrained. They also served really good potato balls. And curry things.


• Tiramisu tastes good with The Lion King trademark dusted in gold on top.


• The goodie bags were great. They included: A plush doll (retail $16-20) of either Simba (mine), Scar (Jackie and Amanda), Puumba (Brent), the Broadway soundtrack, the Broadway souvenir program ($20), a DVD featuring Rosie O'Donnel screaming and weeping about how much she loves the show (Ellis and Millie watch it every moment they get).


• Somewhat unrelated, today during the sacrament portion of our meeting, Ellis climbed into Jackie's lap and began singing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" at the top of her lungs. If she had waited just 10 minutes, it would have been a beautiful testimony to share with the congregation.

Overall, it was fun to go to- but it seemed odd to ask us to buy tickets when most of us got invited because we had already purchased A LOT of tickets to begin with. It was good to learn that if you happen to drop a bunch of shrimp into a puddle of gin, you can still eat them- they'll be alright.