On The Scene: ‘The Lion King’s’ Official Broadway Reopening Night

“Broadway is back.”

Words that carry more depth, more happiness, more life than any others I’ve heard recently. Words that mean everything to me, words that run through my ears as I sat in the Orchestra of the Minskoff Theatre last night as I witnessed the official reopening night of Disney On Broadway’s The Lion King 

Growing up in New York, Broadway has been the pinnacle of my passions, my love for the city, and has been responsible for so many of my incredible childhood memories. When I think of my core memories I think of Broadway, I think of being ten years old wearing a blue dress with a little daisy on it and sitting in the front row of the Mezzanine to see Matilda, my very first Broadway Show. I think of seeing Annie not so long after that, and Mama Mia after that, and each and every time having a feeling inside of me that I was on top of the whole world. Broadway changed my life, it’s affected who I am in so many different ways and I attribute it to so much greatness in my day to day. As we grew up, Broadway became more of a routine than a special occasion because of how much we loved it, but it never once lost its magic. We would scramble for tickets on sites like TDF, wait in rush lines at 7 in the morning, and enter Broadway lotteries left and right, ending up never going more than two weeks without a show, fueling our love of the art right out in front of us. At every Broadway show, I’ve been too since that first day at Matilda in 2013, every experience has been different. Different theaters, different actors, many different shows, but the one thing that has remained the same through hundreds of Broadway Shows, was the person sitting next to me. My mom came with me to every show, every tear I shed in a broadway theater was witnessed by her, it had become something that we shared and adored, there was nobody else in this world I’d rather share a show with. We grew up together in and out of theaters, as she watched the incredible world of live art and entertainment that was broadway erupt before my eyes. When the shutdown happened over a year and a half ago, Broadway went dark and it felt like a part of our life had as well. Our multiple monthly Broadway outings were a thing of the past, the happiness it brought us had been placed in a little locked box, one that we weren’t quite sure would ever be opened again. Our hearts ache for the performers, for the stagehands, directors, ushers, makeup artists, child wranglers, sound and lighting designers, for every incredible person whose unmatched creativity and love for their craft poured together to create a Broadway show. Seeing the industry that had given us so much struggling the way that it was broke our hearts, I spent so much time thinking about the first night we’d be back on broadway. 

I love Manhattan more than anything else in this world and I attribute so much of that love and appreciation to Broadway, seeing something that my city produced at such a young age made me feel so much pride, so much happiness that the place I lived created such incredible art. So many of these people on stage shared a place of home with me, some of them may have grown up the way I did, too. Though I grew up just outside, I knew throughout my whole life, since seeing Matilda at ten years old, that I needed to move there at some point. So not too long ago at seventeen I packed up my things and moved here, but two things were missing. Broadway, and the person who was by my side in every show. Moving here without my mom was one of the most difficult things I’ve done, living under the same roof as your person and then all of the sudden being in a different place entirely was not easy for us, but the lack of Broadway in my city, the lack of the thing we used to love made it so much harder. 

But that brings us to last night. Last night on September 14th at 7:30 pm, the lights went down in the Minskoff Theatre for the first time in over 550 days. The overture began to play for Disney On Broadway’s The Lion King, and in that moment I remembered that feeling of being a little girl so vividly, that feeling of being ten years old and sitting in a Broadway theater ready to do anything I set my mind to, a feeling that I thought I’d lost and had been chasing ever since. 

“Welcome back,” Tony Award-Winning Director Julie Taymor said as she walked onto the stage. The room absolutely erupted into a fit of cheers, not a dry eye in the house. This reminded me how much every single person in that room, every single person with a love of Broadway had felt the same way as me. I wondered if they also felt like a kid again, I wondered if this took them back to their very first show. I shared the room with The Today Show’s Jenna Bush Hager and Carson Daly, Gloria Steinem, Kristin Chenoweth, Salman Rushdie, Jelani Alladin, Heidi Blickenstaff, Ashley Brown, Greg Hildreth, and John Riddle. Though all of us got to witness the opening number in person, so many Tiktok users around the world got to experience it too via a Livestream of the “Circle Of Life.” After the show a friend of mine texted me to tell me how much he had cried watching the stream, the idea of welcoming everyone back to Broadway at the same time and not just those who could be in New York that night truly encompasses everything that Broadway is about. It’s about coming together and appreciating this incredible art form that’s upon us all. When singing the song “He Lives In You,” The Lion King ensemble teaches Simba that his father’s legacy and strength live within him and that he can be whoever he wants to be.  The reopening performance went to show that the love of Broadway lives in all of us and combined with the magic of Disney, nothing is impossible.