May 15, 2013

Horse 1483 - The Lion King... of Narnia


... because according to Mrs. Rollo, every conversation in our house always comes back to The Lion King, Elton John or Titanic.

The Daily Telegraph ran a full double page over advert for "The Lion King" musical.
Little Miss Six on the bus asked her mum if The Lion King was Aslan, to which she said "no". I wonder though.
Aslan himself said that he "had been known as many names" and that "he was very very old". What's to say that as a young lion, he didn't have a penchant to appear in musical theatre?

Maybe Aslan wouldn't have been in "The Lion King" but with his big booming voice he would have been very good in something like "The King & I", though I don't know how audiences would react to seeing a lion with a shaved head on stage. Maybe they might think he was punk or something. Also, there's the distinct problem of making a lion dance in numbers like "Shall We Dance" but that might be easy if Aslan used some of that "deeper magic" he was found of talking about.

There'd be a strange sort of irony if Aslan appeared in "Les Miserables", a musical set in revolutionary France with the bringing down of the monarchy. He'd look a little out of place because people mistake his mane for a ruff, which would be a fashion faux pas; missing the time period by about 150 years, and although having a lion singing in revolutionary France is already strange, having him be unfashionable as well would be intolerable.
If Aslan appeared in "West Side Story" the costume designers might have a lot of fun in addressing the technical issues of putting a leather jacket on a lion, as equally as they might in "Grease" where they'd have to outfit him in a denim jacket.

Of course all of this assumes that Aslan likes that sort of musical. He might be into rock music; so would work very well in a production of "Hair". How do we know for instance that he doesn't like break beat and/or acid house or dubstep? Aslan might be very good on the turntables, he could even scratch on the discs using his paw.
"Screeeeee, wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub, BAAAAAA vorp vorp vorp, wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub WAAAAaaaaaaaHhhAaaaaAAAA..."

No, it's obvious really. On reflection if Aslan were to appear in a musical the only logical choice is that one by Andrew Lloyd Webber - "Cats".

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