Lions and Tigers and ...

There are some moments in life that we instantly want to forget. There are moments we grow to regret and then there are golden days that produce moments that we want to capture forever on old fashioned cassette. Okay, so that was a poorly shoehorned trio of rhymes but you get the picture.
Capture all the golden moments you can
Two weeks ago today I was sat in the Lyceum Theatre with moist eyes and a mini tub of pringles at my toes. Just to reassure any of you natural born worriers, the pringles were not the cause of my wide and watery eyes. I mean I love snack food but I am yet to cry over it. Yet..

No, the tears were emotionally formed ones because this time two weeks ago I would have been part way through my first ever viewing of The Lion King in the West End. Despite it being one of the saddest Disney movies ever (it's tied for first place with Bambi, Dumbo and The Fox & The Hound in case you wanted to know) it still holds a special place in my heart. I don't recall the reason why, but between the ages of about 3 and 5 it was my favourite ever film. (Little tangent here but I find this very telling about future me. Or rather present me/future little me. One, it proves that from a young age I preferred animals to humans. My proof? Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty? Couldn't care less. Apparently I wouldn't even watch Snow White because I objected extremely emotionally to the Evil Queen and the witch. Looks like these films had a real effect on me during my formative years. As for telling point number two, it proves I knew early on the benefits of repetition. No matter how many times I watched The Lion King, there was always room for another viewing the next day or the next week. This is, I believe, a skill I harnessed aged four and now fully utilise when watching Netflix)

Anyway, those golden moments I was talking about? Heading up to London on the 7th January to witness what was probably the best musical I have ever seen, was one of the purest, most sparkly moments of them all. The show came at a time when I needed the biggest pick me up ever and it did not disappoint (even if I did start crying as soon as the show started and didn't really stop until well into the interval..) The performance is absolutely phenomenal. The talent, the staging, the music, the props, the costumes and the puppets - all of it is so vividly rich and as an ensemble it is such an overwhelming experience. It's not often that you see such a multicultural cast on such an incredible stage and it gives me so much hope for the future. What I didn't expect so much was to feel a real longing for the past. For the days where my Mum and I would sit and watch Disney's The Lion King together, whilst my Dad was away in Australia and my newborn brother finally slept and for the days I'll never know, about my heritage in the Caribbean and the richness that I wish I could somehow recapture.

As this somewhat lengthy (sorry) post is clearly demonstrating, the performance touched me deeply so of course I had to scrapbook about it. Scrapbooking is kind of my thing. I'm 22 going on 62, don't you know? A splash of watercolour and a few lines of uniball ink were never going to match up the memories inside my mind but they do a nice enough job of filling up a page in my ever-thickening scrapbook.


So now as I sit on a chair in my room with the The Lion King's soundtrack on repeat, wishing I was recapturing two Wednesday's ago, I urge you to snap up the chance to see this musical live if you are ever offered the chance.

(source)

Jade x

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