The show’s lighting and staging are also spectacular. In creative, innovating, and stunning ways, Taymor and the show translate some of the film’s more complex scenes for the stage.

Ten years ago, it must have been quite a feat for director Julie Taymor (“Frida”) to transform “The Lion King” from a kids movie to a Broadway extravaganza. Somehow, she managed to do it, combining the story of the animated classic with modern dance, African masks and Japanese puppetry, all the while blurring the line between man and animal.

“The Lion King” is a visual treat for theatergoers. The show has hundreds of beautiful costumes and intricate masks. There are no animals used in the performance, but dozens of actors slip into animal costumes. These are no ordinary costumes however, as there is no attempt to hide the actors from the audience.

Women wear bird headdresses as they dance across the stage, men walk upright as the legs of a lioness, while they control her wooden torso and front paws with strings. Scar and his hyenas have masks supported on arched metal bars that move, and give them freedom to reveal or conceal their human faces. The audience’s role then is to fuse the actor and the mask or puppet into one.

This is surprisingly easy to do, except in the case of Timon. The actor controlling Timon was covered in green from head to toe; this was incredibly distracting because every other actor blended seamlessly with his or her puppet.

At first, I thought it was for the upcoming scene where Timon, Pumbaa and Simba walk through the jungle, yet there was never enough green on stage to make him completely disappear. It wasn’t distracting enough to make me dislike his performances, but it did make me wonder, why green?

The show’s lighting and staging are also spectacular. In creative, innovative and stunning ways, Taymor and the show translate some of the film’s more complex scenes for the stage. Such is the case with the wildebeest stampede.

In the film, Simba is standing in the middle of a gorge with hundreds of wildebeests rushing around him, not an easy task to replicate on stage. Yet with a moving canvas scroll, rotating wheels of puppets and live dancers, Taymor achieves, through scale and perspective, and illusion of wildebeests galloping toward Simba and the audience. This scene, though difficult to describe in words is breathtaking to witness.

Rather than work against the constraints created by fitting the Serengeti onto a stage, “The Lion King” accepts these limitations and delivers a rich performance that simultaneously pays homage to the Disney classic and elevates it to a mythical masterpiece.

While very similar to its animated counterpart, “The Lion King” has some noticeable differences. It is about an hour longer than the Disney film, which gives Taymor time to flesh out some of the story’s more one dimensional characters. She delves into Scar’s back story, and gives Nala a dose of feminine pride.

Taymor has said in interviews that she felt the story lacked strong female characters, which is why Nala takes on a more important role in the production, and also why Rafiki is a female baboon.

The show features the familiar music composed by Tim Rice and Elton John, including “The Circle of Life,” “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” along with a few new songs that incorporate more African rhythms.

The performance of “The Circle of Life”, which included a 13 foot elephant that walked through the aisles up onto the stage, was degraded by a poor speaker connection that made one of the right speakers break apart as the music swelled. Fortunately this problem was short-lived and did not impact the rest of the show.

“The Lion King” will be showing at the Milwaukee Theatre (500 W. Kilbourn Ave.) through March 2. Tickets range in price from $18 to $68.

Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster or through the Marcus Center box office (414-273-7206). For more information about the show, visit www.marcuscenter.org.

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