Broadway Musical The Lion King vs. Festival of the Lion King

[farmermom]

We went to the musical The Lion King in April of this year (super awesomely fantastic by the way) and will be going to Disney World in November. Do I need to try to fit FotLK into my AK plan? Am I going to be disappointed after the musical? Or is it just as good and you can never have too much Lion King? Thanks!

 

[scrappinginontario]

I have seen both and my recommendation is to go with no expectations whatsoever! Both are great but also very different from one another. You can thoroughly enjoy both, just don't try to compare as they're apples and oranges.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

They are nothing alike. The Broadway version is a 2-hour traditional musical. Festival of the Lion King is a 20-minute variety show. It is not attempting to re-tell the movie's story. It's absolutely worth doing.

 

[mom2rtk]

Don't miss it!

 

[challada]

If you are like me, you probably paid hundreds of dollars for your seats to the Broadway show. On the other hand, Festival is essentially FREE with your admission (to the best park in the WDW system, IMHO). You cannot expect them to be the same....and frankly, I would find it really boring if they were.

Lion King on Broadway is a musical miracle that keeps selling seats because of the quality of the production and puppetry.

Festival in AK is a family variety show losely tied to the Lion King. I always view it as an indoor parade that morphed with a circus.

I love them both, but for significantly different reasons!

 

[LaurenT]

Completely different thing. It's not the story. It's lion king music with a sort of cirque de Soleil vibe - dancing and acrobatics and such. The theater is filled with music and color and you should not miss it. Just don't go in expecting the Broadway show (but go see finding Nemo too, it's more of a Broadway type show)

 

[LaurenT]

 

[momof2n2]

Totally different.
And, despite the fact that the idea of sitting through FOTLK again makes me shudder, my kids love FOTLK.

 

[isestrex]

I went into Festival of the Lion King THINKING it would be like the broadway musical (after all, they did the same thing with Beauty and Beast in HS). But I walked away much more disappointed with the actual show. It's basically glorified sing along of the main songs with dancers, jugglers and acrobats performing.

 

[mickeymom629]

I went into Festival of the Lion King THINKING it would be like the broadway musical (after all, they did the same thing with Beauty and Beast in HS). But I walked away much more disappointed with the actual show. It's basically glorified sing along of the main songs with dancers, jugglers and acrobats performing.

Interesting! I do not like to watch the Broadway-types over and over, but I can see the FOTLK every trip!

 

[elaine amj]

I went into Festival of the Lion King THINKING it would be like the broadway musical (after all, they did the same thing with Beauty and Beast in HS). But I walked away much more disappointed with the actual show. It's basically glorified sing along of the main songs with dancers, jugglers and acrobats performing.

FOTLK is like a Cirque show

Nemo is Broadway-style.

We love both but the color and energy of FOTLK make it our favorite show in WDW

 

[farmermom]

Wow! I had no idea it was so different. Sounds great!