CAMELOT Theatrical Special Effects

I just got back from the stage version of The Lion King, a travelling three-hour special effects overload extravaganza. Yes, Julie Taymor's puppet creations were marvelous and the actors who controlled them were brilliant. As for the rest, I need to see it again from further back in the theatre to appreciate it all. I mean, it featured every stage special effect known to man... all going on simultaneously! You want volcano vents spewing steam? Got it. Flying by Foy? Yup, Dave Hearn designed that. Intelligent lights? Check. How about some strobes to give the epileptics in the audience fits? Sure, those too.

The story? As you recall from the cartoon, it's Hamlet "where a ghost and a prince meet and everyone ends in mincemeat" except it's a family show so Ophelia doesn't go mad, Hamlet doesn't die and they get married in the end. Well, lions don't actually marry; they just get together and make more lions. They are very efficient.

I got the tickets through Ticketmaster the hour they went on sale. I selected the best seats in the house: ground floor, ten rows back, on the aisle so we could see the animal parade and Taymor's work close at hand. I hit the "Submit" button under pressure ("You have one minute remaining... You have 30 seconds remaining...") and back came the confimation: LIMITED VIEW, NO REFUNDS OR EXCHANGES. I hate Ticketmaster.

So there we were, at the theatre, all worried about whether we were going to be sitting behind a post or what. I had hoped, at best, that the LIMITED VIEW might be some of the special effects machinery, perhaps, which would not have bothered me at all; I would have been more interested in that than in Elton John's musical score. Instead, the LIMITED VIEW turned out to be "Seating for oversized audience member." Yup, you've got it: there was a special chair in front of my seat for a guy who brought his own gravitational system with him. Here's the view from my seat at The Lion King.

Okay, the ticket was 20 bucks cheaper than those of the folks sitting two seats over, but hey, Ticketmaster: How about providing that information BEFORE the order is accepted, or maybe give Jumbo a shorter chair or a part in the show?

posted by C. J. # 12:50 AM