Lion King - Off the Broadway!

With the onset of movies and DVDs theaterical performance appears to be a lost art. But in Broadway New York City, it’s a whole different story. A lot of crews still put on that make up, speak dialogue without a retake, and the loyal audience always pay a visit to these performing arts. I have been part of some stage - dramas in my school days but never had a chance to see one though! Ever since I came here I always wanted to go to one of those Broadway shows. That chance came by on Friday.

Disney's famous Lion King Cartoon has been performed on stage in Broadway theatres often. For a few days the crew is performing it in Hartford's Bushnell theatres. Since it is winter and there was no other good stuff to do and it was less than 10 mins drive when my friend suggested this idea I was all in. We made advance booking with the box office, infact they were kind enough to give us adjacent seats, even when we did not book them at the same time :) As planned we had our dinner and drove down to the theatre (I was excited to dress up in a long skirt and formal tops :)). The overflowing crowd, some formally dressed, some on a lighter note, some really dressed for a show and a few in usual jeans (the CT style ;)) was enchanting enough that we did not complain much about the weather or the parking :).

An elderly lady gave us our tickets and guided us to the balcony seats. The show promptly started at 8:00 pm. Have you watched the Lion King 1, 2 & 3 cartoon movies? If you have, then remember the faces of those lions and lionesses - Simba, Nala, Mufasa, his wife, uncle Scar, the way they move around, and all the other characters, Pumba, Timon, the Monkey, Giraffes, Hyena's, the Birds, and those lovely landscapes of the African jungle. All those were not very tough to achieve in a movie, but imagine those being achieved on the stage.

Two people with really long sticks for legs walked to the introduction African song (one of my favorite's in the movie) as giraffe's. The artists looked exactly like giraffe's, the movements, the legs. Amazing... and the monkey character was remarkable. She had painted her face and walked so much like the one in the movie, and her voice, the laugh... If I had a chance I would have gone behind the screens and asked for her autograph. The lions though did not paint themselves but wore yellow color robes and had a big lion faced hat on their heads. They turned and moved like a lion, in certain angle when they bend their face; it was exactly like a lion! The others however did more like a puppet show... they had a Pumba, Timon and bird puppets with them tied to their hands and legs and they moved the strings and talked like that animal. The hyenas, giraffes though were people disguised in the animal's clothes.

The background changed so much, they used lights, paintings and lots and lots of creativity in making the geyser's come on stage, the high skull mountains for Scar and the night sky, stars, farm lands, trees... everything was made and it was absolutely stunning to watch. It was all flawless, the actors infact sang most of the songs themselves... circle of life, the morning report, Hakuna Matada, I just cant wait to be king, Can you feel the Love tonight?, He lives in you etc.,

The drama is still reverberating in my ears, nothing else could have made the otherwise slow and easy weekend into an exciting one. The 2 hrs and 45 mins was well spent. No photography was legally allowed, so had to Google them. My favourite artists were the ones who performed the Monkey and (ofcourse) Timon!

The Winter, the Beach and the Stars!

It’s not the title of a new thriller novel, but it’s about a weird beach experience I had. After a week's good weather again winter took its toll and came with its favorite single digits mid last week. Weekend was no different. After spending the whole of Saturday at home (eating, sleeping, reading) I could not muster the courage to do that on Sunday too. So woke up early, had breakfast outside and went shopping. The winter weather was not very ideal for that either and soon lost interest. Without much option left decided to drive down to the shore point.

Here's some History. I am not a frequent beach visitor back at home or in California or here, for one thing beach was always an hour's drive from wherever I stayed. But I like going there occasionally on sunny summer days. Other than that once I visited the beach at Long Beach, CA on a Thanks Giving evening. My friends and I was the only people there :). Now back to present...

The beautiful hue of sunset invited me warmly against all the cold wind blowing there. I walked to the rail nearby and bent over to look at the water below and beyond... sheets of ice was crashing on to each other and washing away furiously into the Atlantic Ocean. It reminded me of watching the arctic ice melt down in the Discovery Channel. The lighthouse in the far end was standing majestically, and the yapping sea gulls were missing... Infact there was not even a living soul to be found in sight. When I could not take anymore of the freezing air I had to turn back to my car. But curiosity kept me going to the beach.

I was flabbergasted to see a girl in her bathing suit walk away with a surf board (Are you kidding me???) Pushing aside the thought of that competing idiocy I walked to the beach battling the harsh winter winds of -7F(-21C), crossing the beach soil frozen in ice with a pattern hard set on it buy the waves and then a plain stretch of snow that must have piled up from Wednesday's snow fall. The beach itself was calm, dark blue, spooky in low tides with a deep red sky for the backdrop!! I felt I could not get enough of it. As the sun went down, had a nice dinner at a local Indian restaurant (never been there before). While I was driving back saw that big, yellow moon smiling broadly at me. Eagerness to see a starry sky flushed me with new energy. Most of the beaches and parks were closed in the vicinity by then, so took some exit and got to an open land. It was a boat landing site with frozen river. When I switched off my headlights and got down WOW!! Never seen so many stars in my life... It was so heavenly that I could not tell if my heart was pounding in joy or in fear of the coyote’s howl. Stood there for some time taking in that celestial scene.

After some getting lost and hour's drive I got back home. Still thinking about the vivid day went to sleep. That surf board appeared again and the stars twinkled before my eyes!