'The Lion King' roars in Army Officers' Club

Kathmandu, Oct 3: The students of Adarsha Vidya Mandir Higher Secondary School (AVM) on Sunday staged a musical show titled 'The Lion King' at the local Nepal Army Officers' Club to mark its golden jubilee.

The drama is conceptualized from “The Lion King”, an animated musical film produced by Walt Disney in 1994 featuring music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice.

The film is said to be Broadway’s third longest running show in the history and the highest grossing Broadway productions of all the time with whopping over $ 1 billion.

The drama performed by the students of AVM attempts to replicate the animal kingdom. The jaw-dropping theatrical performance of the children mainly focused on preserving nature and respecting all living creatures.

Mufasa, the Lion King teaches his son, Baby Simba a lesson for protecting a great circle of life while wandering in the jungle. Stern in his discipline, the King, time and again, warns him not to cross the boundary.

"Everything you see exists together, in a delicate balance. As a King you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures - from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope," once King Mufasa shares the pearl of wisdom with Simba, his frivolous son.

Responding to the queries of his little one with insatiable curiosity, the King explained, "When we die, our bodies become the grass. And the antelopes eat the grass and we are all connected in the great circle of life."

The King fell eventually falls prey to a treachery by his younger brother, Scar, and is killed by a heard of wild buffaloes. Samba tossed out of the boundary he was told not to cross.

With the tragic end of the King, anarchy prevails and ecological imbalance surfaces all over the jungle prompting an acute shortage of food and water within the territory.

A lost prince, Simba, comes to know of his identity and ancestry after seeing his reflection in a pond and eventually agrees to return the native land and took patronage of his subjects. He valiantly fights Scar (his uncle) to restore his kingdom and goes on to become the King of the Pride Lands where his father once ruled.

The audiences remained enthralled by the well composed music, apparent dialogues and smooth dialogue delivery of the characters and the perfect set up of the stage, paraphernalia, costumes and lighting system.

This musical drama is a collective effort of 125 students where they seemed to live the characters rather than portraying them.

Avaya Aajracharya enacted Mufasa while Rebika Ghimere played the baby Simba and Anish Manandhar performed Scar. The supporting cast, including chorus singers and dancers among others also seemed to leave no stone unturned to enchant audiences with their performance in the one-and-half-hours play.

As its motto of serving the needy and disadvantaged people, the proceeds from the fourth show will be made available to the “ADARSHA SAUL SCHOOL for differently-abled children” of Bungamati, Lalitpur, according to AVM school principal Sujeeta Manandhar.