The Lion King

Last night Linnea and I had a fantastic evening at the Etihad Arena, with the musical the Lion King. This musical, which is based on the 1994 Disney film, is one of the longest running Broadway musicals in history. It has played in more than 100 cities in 21 different countries since it's premiere 25 years ago, but this is the first time it's being staged here in the Middle East.
As soon as the tickets went on sale before the summer I bought two tickets for Linnea and I (as musicals are not really Nathan's thing). Nathan ended up being in Istanbul on overnight anyway.

Linnea wasn't that keen either to be honest, but it was probably because she didn't quite know what to expect. Of course she knows what a musical is, but she had never before seen one - of this caliber.

We came way too early because I had read the ticket wrong. We stressed to be there in good time for, what we thought was the show starting, and instead it turned out to be in good time for the doors opening, argh. But, that might have been what gave us a bit of a lucky break!

While we were sitting outside the Arena waiting for the doors to open a nice Emirati man working for the event approached us and asked which section we were sitting in, and then proceeded to tell us we would be upgraded, and if we wanted to follow him.
So we did, and very surprisingly we got shown to two seats in the large, comfy leather chairs - in the front row! Oh WOW!

It was us two, and two English girls, and none of us could believe our luck! It looks really empty, as we were seated before everyone else, but it filled up nicely both behind us and in the VIP section where we were before the show started.

Unfortunately you weren't allowed to neither photograph or film, so I can't show any photos from the show itself - but I can tell you, that it was AMAZING! We both laughed, and cried, and laughed some more - and truly enjoyed every minute.

What a production! The actors of course were fantastic, and what a set! The backdrops, the costumes, the masks, the puppetry... Around 500 animals were depicted on stage, all absolutely magical - especially seen from the front row..!

To give you a taste, here's a video of Rafiki (South African performer Futhi Mhlongo) delivering the opening song, Circle of Life, from the top of the Etihad Arena (in this video you can also spot our new community, just across the water from the Arena!):