The play that I chose to analyze and design costumes for is “The Lion King.” I loved this movie as a child, and would love to see it on Broadway someday. “The Lion King” has been on Broadway since 1997. This story is about a young lion prince born in Africa (Simba), thus making his Uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own.I think it’s amazing to change humans into animal costumes in Broadway. The way that they portray them is amazing. Costumes really do make the play. They get the actor into the character and they are appealing to the audiences’ eye.
The major characters in the play are: Simba, Scar, Mufasa, Nala, Rafiki, Timon, Pumbaa, Zazu, Sarabi, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed.
The costumes are pretty awesome for “The Lion King.” They are so creative, so extraordinary, and so believable. I think it’s important for the character/costume in the play to be believable.
This particular play uses a lot of makeup on the actors and it also uses a lot of props on the actors themselves. For example: they have to make the actors look like lions, hyenas, birds, monkeys, etc. It would be hard to do that with just makeup. Therefore, they do it through a lions’ head on the head of the actor for the lions, having “Zazu” the bird have a bird on his shoulder, the hyenas have a hyena head on their costume, etc. I just can’t get over how extraordinary and amazing the costumes for this particular play are.
Again, costumes make the play more exciting and they are appealing to the eye of the audience. The costumes must work together and communicate the message of each scene and costumes are vital for the show. Imagine if everyone who played in "The Lion King" just wore street clothes and had no costumes. Would we really get the whole jist of the play? I don't think so.
