The Lion King at Orpheum Theatre San Francisco

The Lion King musical cast is here to tell you “Hakuna Matata!” at the Orpheum Theatre San Francisco on Thursday, November 30th, 2023! This 3rd longest running Broadway show has 110+ million audience members worldwide, and 70 major theater awards internationally. Expect majestic puppets and masks that took 37,000 hours to build and indigenous African languages sung and spoken throughout the show (Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, Congolese).

The Lion King musical is a stage adaptation of the iconic Disney movie of the same name. The musical premiered its first show in 1997, only three years after the original film was released. The story of The Lion King begins with King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi as they introduce their newborn cub, Simba, to the animals at Pride Rock. Simba would then grow up to become a rather mischievous cub and disobeyed his father’s orders, much to Mufasa’s dismay. Meanwhile, Mufasa’s scheming and jealous brother, Scar, is devising a plan to kill Mufasa so he can steal his throne as King. Scar would then use Simba as bait to get Mufasa to jump into a gorge full of hyenas. Once Scar has ensured that Mufasa is dead, he convinces Simba to run away because he caused his father’s death. While Simba was running away, Scar ordered the hyenas to kill him, but their attempt was unsuccessful. Pumba and Timon would then save an unconscious Simba and raise him to adulthood. From then forward, Simba would lament over his ability to be King and blame himself for his father's untimely death.

The Lion King musical received rave reviews from musical theater critics, with one from the New York Times saying that "Seen purely as a visual tapestry, there is simply nothing else like it. Suddenly, you're four years old again, and you've been taken to the circus for the first time. You can only marvel at the exotic procession of animals before you: the giraffes and the elephants and the hippopotamuses and all those birds in balletic flight. Such is the transporting magic wrought by the opening 10 minutes of The Lion King, [director Julie] Taymor has introduced a whole new vocabulary of images to the Broadway blockbuster."

Watch this show’s emotional storytelling coupled with its remarkable music and its perfect visual execution of translating the animated movie to a live stage adaptation at the hottest spot of entertainment in California. Invite your friends and family to watch this timeless classic in Orpheum Theatre San Francisco on Thursday 30th November 2023! Book your tickets now!