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7 years ago when I only had 1 kid, The Lion King came to town and it was one of the biggest shows to arrive at then the newly opened Marina Bay Sands Theatre. Wanting to bring my only child then and also wanting to check out the new theatre, we watched our first every musical – The Lion King.

this is a throwback photo from 7 years ago with big J

And yesterday night, I finally managed to catch The Lion King again after 7 long  years and now with all my 4 kids in tow. And not only did it not lose its magic, it was even better with more amazing props , that is why The Lion King remained a perennial favourite especially for family. Frankly it is not just for the younger crowd and families , there lots of adult only audiences too but I of course will review this from the eyes and experiences from my precious kids age 3 to 9 years old.

Frankly I don’t think there is any other musical which can cater to such a wide range of ages – ie adults don’t find it too kiddish, kids don’t find it too difficult to understand and enjoy. But The Lion King did just that – entertaining all ages, I would say coming to 3 years old up till 99 years!

5 reasons why you shouldnt wait another 7 years to catch this epic musical!

1.A powerful story line

I am sure many of you would have watched this Disney animation. This is one of the best Disney animations ever with very strong message in its story line. It tells the story of Simba who is to succeed his father Mufasa as the Kind of Pride Rock, but he was manipulated by his evil uncle Scar into believing he was responsible for the death of his father and flees into exile. There he met his two good friends to overcame his sadness and was reunited with his childhood friend Nala and his shaman Rafiki.

There are lessons of humility, forgiveness, empathy, rising from setbacks, trust and it speaks so strongly for the father and son bond. Trust me , the message and story line feels much stronger watching a live production than on TV. The emotions of actors and the sound systems truly made the whole story come alive.

And to lighten the mood, there is always Timon and Pumbaa to rely on, most of the comedy relief came from them.

2. Amazing props and backdrop

Be sure you are early for your show as the best show was in the opening act when they brought in all its animal puppets into the stage – to the tune of the Circle of Life. I don’t think I can describe how magical the experience was, you just want to catch it yourself.

3. The African culture and songs

I may not have the privilege to bring the kids to Africa and enjoy the music, sounds, culture and scene of Africa. This is as close as I come to. It was as if we were brought to the Africa savannah and back in 3 hours. The costume, music, sounds was truly beautiful.

4. The music of The Lion King

The Circle of Life, Can you feel the love tonight, Hakuna Matata, Be Prepared,  I Just Can’t Wait to be King with the orchestra , the powerful vocals and peppered with the sounds of African musical instruments , that is why this is a world class musical. I enjoyed this segment the most as I am familiar with tunes and musical segments are the parts were by my younger boys were also entertained (you wouldn’t want too lengthy dialogue scenes for the younger kids, there was a good mix of songs and dialogue scenes)

5. An all-rounder 

Some musicals can be strong in props but not vocal, some maybe strong in acting but not in the musical powess. I don’t think there is much to critic for The Lion King. It is a wholesome package  – you have the story, you have the props, you have the music and of course the acting even the kids who played the young Nyla and Simba were naturals!

My younger boys were so enthralled with all the animal puppetry especially the very big elephant carried by 4 puppeteers (yes both my 3 and  5 year old sat through the entire musical, of course they didn’t quite take a liking whenever Scar is out and in particular Mufasa’s death) , my older kids loved the powerful story line of good overcoming evil and I particularly enjoyed the music. There is something for everyone and the ability of The Lion King catering to a wide range of ages is indeed something that most musicals are unable to replicate.

When we grow old /the kids grow up and look back at the many musical productions we have the privilege to catch in Singapore, this will remained one that is forever etched in our memories. And I do hope we don’t  have to wait for another 7 years for another musical of such calibre to arrive at our sunny shores.

And if you think , I didn’t convince you enough, here are some facts from the production.

1. It took three years to develop THE LION KING from screen to stage
2. In the animated movie, Rafiki The Baboon was presented as a male character but the musical changed into a strong female character
3. The musical debuted in Minneapolis at The Orpheum Theatre in July 1997
4. The phrase “Hakuna Matata” (meaning “No worries”) is mentioned 25 times in the show
5. Julie Taymor is the first female director in Broadway history to win the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical (1998) for THE LION KING
6. THE LION KING celebrated its 20th anniversary last year and is the third-longest running show on Broadway.
7. To date THE LION KING has won more than 70 global theatrical awards
8. The show won six Tony® Awards in 1998 for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Choreography
9. It took 34,000-man hours to build the masks and puppets for the original Broadway production
10. There are more than 200 puppets in the show, including rod, shadow and full-sized puppets
11. 5 meters is the height of the tallest animals in the show — the two giraffes in the “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” scene
12. The elephant nicknamed Bertha by the backstage crew in 1997 is the largest and longest animal measuring 4 meters long and 3 meters wide
13. There are six indigenous African languages spoken in the show: Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa (the click language), Sotho, Tswana, Congolese
14. THE LION KING has been translated into eight languages – Japanese, German, Korean, French, Dutch, Mandarin, Spanish, Portugese

In 2011, THE LION KING became the longest running musical in Singapore’s theatrical entertainment history, playing to over 300,000 people during its eight-month season at Marina Bays Sands.

Show Date: Wed, 27 June 2018 – Sun, 23 September 2018 (New shows added!)

Tue to Fri: 7.30pm | Sat: 2pm & 7.30pm |  Sun: 1pm & 6pm

Venue: Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands

Ticket Pricing (Excludes Booking Fee): from SGD65 onwards

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I don’t think I need to go into the storyline as I am sure everyone in the audience would know the story by heart. I saw some Caucasian families enjoying the production despite it being in Mandarin. The antics and the props remain very much like the original – just like in the storybook.

Whenever I choose a Mandarin production for the kids I tend to choose one that we are familiar with the storyline to minimize lost in translation. We are not a mandarin speaking family (due to personal limitations) but I placed the utmost importance in bilingualism as I hear of horror stories of how kids failing the Mandarin subject in school and refusing to speak. I wish not that to happen to my kids but I myself is unable to support that in their mother tongue.

So whenever I see a theatre production in Mandarin, I am both interested yet fearful. Interested as there is more exposure in different form than the usual ie classes etc, but fearful as it may be too difficult for them to comprehend. Hence, the safest would be not to go for original production but based on well-loved stories.

To date, we have caught several SRT’s production in Mandarin – 三只山羊 , 小红帽, Nightingale.

Cat in the Hat to my personal opinion is the simplest to understand of those we have attended thus far , hence it was targeted for kids above 2. There isn’t long and lengthy scripts (I would have loved Sugie Phua and Ann Lek have more script but due to the characters they are playing, they dont have much script to begin with), so that kids from English speaking family don’t get too overwhelmed. There are lots of funny antics and actions of 戴高帽子的猫 , 捣蛋鬼1号and 捣蛋鬼2号 that would tickled their funny bones.

Of course, the one that stole the show was none other that 戴高帽子的猫 (Hang Qian Hou), such a natural and I am sure every kid in the house totally adored him! And the fish did a very strong supporting role too making this a well-rounded production.

There is a child in every one of us who grow up reading this book and wish that 戴高帽子的猫 would appear at the front door and have the best fun ever while mum is out!  The show will go all the way till 7 Sept (the school holidays), do not miss this if you wish to inject some fun and Mandarin exposure to your kids.

photo credit : SRT

photo credit: SRT

photo credit: SRT

photo credit: SRTIt was short 40-minute production but we had so much fun watching our bedtime stories come to life. As the show is targeted for ages 2 and above, trust me you won’t really get lost in translation as the whole show was peppered with many funny antics. Small C laughed the entire show since the minute 戴高帽子的猫 came on stage (esp he probably didn’t understand most of what is said).

The last I check there is a session on 18 Aug.

Big J asked what does Grimmsneyland means. They are not familiar who are Brother Grimm but they surely familiar with Disney movies or Disneyland.  Did you know many of the Disney movies are adapted from fairy tales written by the Brother Grimm – Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, Cinderella , though they are not strict interpretation but these fairy tales served as inspiration to many of the Disney movies and hence the characters in Disneyland – which Andsoforthjr has combined into their adaptation as Grimmsneyland.  They had sold out adult interpretations earlier this year and had re-adapted for our younger audiences.

I try not to have any spoiler alerts so that there is an element of surprise left to the parents accompanying their kids (and reading this review) just like me as I went for  show with just the knowledge it is revolving Brother Grimm’s fairy tales – sleeping beauty, little mermaid and just some photos of very nicely decorated rooms.

Boy, was I in for a nice pleasant surprise even though it is not my first taste of immersive theatre!

I personally thought it was much nicer that Wonderland as we had 4 different theme rooms to go around throughout the 90 minutes show. In Wonderland, we were all confined to 1 room to watch the entire show. My legs got kind of numbed sitting cross-legged. However, in Tales of Grimmsneyland we were ushered from room to room to experience different settings and stories (do take note that the minimum age to enjoy the show would be 4 and above) and at the end of every story, there is a moral of the story.

First order of the day was to dress as villagers. Of course, it is not mandatory, but it is all part of the fun – to be truly immersive! We were back in the same venue as Wonderland, in an indescriptive industrial building in Balestier Road. Do note the entrance is at the back of the building. We were advised to reach 15 minutes before the show in suggested dress code. As you can see one kid didn’t want to be a villager but she wanted to be Snow White herself. Each session is a cosy group of 30 and once we all are gathered , we were ushered to the galaxy with a bar counter where you could purchase hot dog, cookies and sodas while awaiting for the pre-show to start.

And we had our first IG photo – in the galaxy room.

There we met our Fairy Godfather-in0training – small J loved him so much that he practically followed him everywhere throughout the show! He will be the one bringing us around the entire 90 minutes of the show  – through all the 4 themed rooms and stories to meet all the characters in the Tales of Grimmsneyland.

While we bought some food and drink during the pre-show, we were introduced to Mirror Mirror who goes on first name basis  – Mirror . His role was to set the tone for the show – what each of the 4 mirror represents and also some action moves that we need to replicate being villagers in the story. I guess it is not an essential role to the show but just to provide some entertainment and warm-up while we gather , finish our light refreshment before entering the portal.

a quick group photo with all the small kids with Mirror..notice there is one other big kid in pic !

And we began our immersive adventure by entering the portal ………

The first room -underwater club was a ball pit! yes, scream….the kids’ favourite ball pit..to mimic the ocean for the little mermaid and a small spoiler..big kid and small kid alike all get to slide down into the ball pit!

We met forgetful little mermaid who is searching for her way home. We had a treasure hunt and a singing session with Mariah the mermaid, it was lots of fun and plenty of photo ops too!

my snow white checking on the mirror who is the fairest of them all!

fixing the treasure map found in the treasure hunt

Next, we proceed to super pink and beautiful sleeping chamber. To our surprise, we saw some one sleeping high above us! No prizes who guessing which character is next while she woke up to entertain us. We were all sitted on the cushion strewn floor and served soda..which was part of the story line. Sleeping beauty also taught us some dance moves too!

Then fairy god-mother came to pick us into her dining room where she told her a story and promoted our fairy god-father-in-training.  We also to write our wishes and we can make anything happen!

And the last room of it all, which was my personal favourite was the forest where we met Snow White and how we creatively think of ways to get the golden apple for White. We ended with beautiful finale song by White and Fairy god-father.

Tales of Grimmsneyland

Dates:
28th, 29th July
4th, 5th, 9th, 10th , 18th, 19th August (Saturdays, Sunday & National Day Holiday)
Time: 10.30am, 11am, 11.30am, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm
*it will be an intimate group of 30 pax per time slot

Duration: 1 hour 30 mins

Venue: 16 D Lorong Ampas , GS Building, Singapore 328778

Suitable for boys and girls aged 4 and above!

Tickets : SGD 35 per person, SGD 128 for family of 4

For booking, follow this link 

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Disclaimer: We were given tickets to the show for reviewing purpose. All opinions are solely ours.

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Based on the all-time favourite book by Dr Seuss, The Cat in the Hat has been developed into a magically witty play by Britain’s National Theatre. After a successful staging in 2012 and 2015, TLC  has faithfully reproduced the play in Mandarin – 戴高帽子的猫 for children aged 2 years and above.

I don’t think the story need much introduction so I don’t think I need to elaborate further.

When I see names like this Danny Yeo (杨君伟), Sugie Phua  and Ann Lek in the lineup and production, I know this adaptation of this well-loved story would not disappoint me – in fact I have tremendous expectation for it , like in many other SRT’s theatre productions that my kids had watched.   We have watched the English adaptation a few years ago, and my kids enjoyed it tremendously – all the funny antics of The Cat in the Hat – it will be interesting to see how all the English words rhyming are being translated into Mandarin by the talented Danny Yeo.

photo from 2015 English production

photo from 2015 English production

photo from 2015 English production

The Cat in the Hat in Mandarin (戴高帽子的猫)

DATES: 1 August to 7 September 2018
Weekdays 10am
Weekends and Public Holidays 11am and 2pm
PRICES: FROM $26 (excludes SISTIC fees)
VENUE: KC Arts Centre – Home of SRT ,20, Merbau Road, Singapore 239035

For booking , please click here

Ages 2 and above.

As part of a fun day at the theatre, there will be The Cat in the Hat Parent and Child Storytelling Workshops conducted in Mandarin. This drama workshop for parents and children (age 2 to 4) will be fun-filled with exciting games, creative activities and lots of drama skills to be learnt. The pre-show workshops are available 4, 11, 18 and 25 (9.30am) , do click here for registration.

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We are so happy to be invited for another session of immersive theatre for kids by Andsoforthjr. My kids are regular theatre-goers but being a part of an immersive theatre experience is a whole new experience. You can read all about our first experience here 

After Andsoforth’s sellout show , Adventures of Grimmsneyland, they have made an adaptation for the younger audience, Tales of Grimmsneyland.

If “Grimm” sounds familiar to you, it is adaptation of timeless fairy tales by the Brother Grimms – Sleeping Beauty, Snow White , Hansel & Gretel. This theatre requires the young audience to follow the fairy godmother-in-training through different rooms (Enchanted Forest, Sleeping Chamber, Underwater Club to name a few) which showcase well-loved fairy tales. The audience will form part of the village folks and be part of the stories alongside the actors. (This is different from the previous Wonderland story as we had the show in 1 room).

Tales of Grimmsneyland

Dates:
28th, 29th July
4th, 5th, 9th, 10th , 18th, 19th August (Saturdays, Sunday & National Day Holiday)
Time: 10.30am, 11am, 11.30am, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm
*it will be an intimate group of 30 pax per time slot

Duration: 1 hour 30 mins

Venue: 16 D Lorong Ampas , GS Building, Singapore 328778

Suitable for boys and girls aged 4 and above!

Tickets : SGD 35 per person, SGD 128 for family of 4

For booking, follow this link

Website

Facebook

Instagram 

Coming from my previous experiences, I do know that kids get all excited  when the actors come really close to them. In an immersive theatre setting, the actors are all around you and  they have opportunities to watch and interact which is an experience normal theatre productions do not offer! I can’t wait to catch with my older kids!