LION KING, THE: PRIDE ROCK ON BROADWAY [Hardcover]

Julie Taymor (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You saw the animated film, you bought the video, you couldn't get tickets to the stage show--here's the coffee-table book. But wait: what keeps The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway from being just another commercial Disney tie-in is the iconoclastic voice of director/designer Julie Taymor. She uses the text of this book as a diary for her personal struggle to merge her off-off-Broadway avant-garde sensibility with Disney's unabashedly bigtime commercial one. Her chronicle lends context to the already lush and abundant illustrations, photographs, and sketches of Taymor and her collaborators at work.

Product Description

Disney meets the avant-garde in this sensational theatrical event that promises to be the most exciting, most spectacular, and most publicized stage show of the decade. The Lion King features a full developmental history of the production, recreated through beautiful artwork, photographs, and behind-the-scenes details.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Disney Editions; 1st edition (January 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786863420
• ISBN-13: 978-0786863426
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #562,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost better than seeing the show, September 20, 2003

By	Eli (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LION KING, THE: PRIDE ROCK ON BROADWAY (Hardcover)

"How could the book be better than the show?!" You may ask yourself. Well, although this is a phenomenal show, the book is not simply a collection of pictures for the show but a totally round experience throwing light on every angle possible of the creation of the show, *aside* from displaying pictures from every scene in the show.

For theater people, this book is completely engrossing. If you are a set designer, you can see how the set developed through the original ideas years before production to the final set onstage, with concpet drawings, explanations, models and of course final production photographs. If you are a lighting designer you can find explanations about the lighting, and a partial technical diagram of the lights above the stage that only a lighting designer would understand (it is partial because the full diagram is so extensive that it could never fit onto a page in the book. I preffered having a detailed partial diagram to pore over rather than a full one where you couldn't read anything.) If you are a director, you have pages upon pages of Julie Taymor expaining the source of her ideas, dilemas she had, disagreements she had with the producers and a great section about the tech rehearsals with a list of major problems the team encountered and their solutions (like "The actress palying Sarabi is scared of heights and she has to walk up Pride Rock at the beginning of the show. It is 20 feet high, it turns, rises from the stage and has no railing. Solution: she will get over it". Most problems required more creative solutions.)

If you are not a theater person, you will still appreciate this book simply for how beautiful it is. It is filled with endless amounts of pictures from the show and rehearsals, workshops and scene/costume/puppet shops.

So even though there is nothing that compares to seeing a really good show like this one, the book in this case offeres an amazing and interesting experience.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it's a great book of the musical!!!!!!!, May 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: LION KING, THE: PRIDE ROCK ON BROADWAY (Hardcover)

"The Lion King : Pride Rock on Broadway" was really fun looking at.It had wonderful photos from the show and told how the show came together from conception to production design.It showed you costume designs, the actors in full costume, the sets, how they did the phenominal special effects, and much more!It's cool, and one of my favorite theater books!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasically unmissable, it's worth it, February 5, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Stewkley,United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LION KING, THE: PRIDE ROCK ON BROADWAY (Hardcover)

I've ordered a total of 6 things from amazon.com and I have to say that this is the best of them all. It offers culture, education, freedom, fun, memorabilia and best of all the chance to see the Best Walt Disney Film Ever Made shown in behind the scenes action as it turns into a Broadway Production. My friend introduced me to it, and he will also be auditioning for a part in the London production coming soon he is very talented and this book is made up of the Best of the Best of the very very talented. Buy it I assure that it's a good buy. Em