The stage is dramatically lit as a sunrise, as the first sung notes of a Zulu chant electrify the air. Life-size puppet animals start their slow, graceful parade from the back of the theater up the aisles toward the stage, as the chanting rises, joined by drums and African harmonies, and slowly transforms into “Circle of Life.”
Is there a musical with a more jaw-dropping first five minutes than “The Lion King?”
“Especially if they’ve never seen the show, I don’t think anybody realizes the capacity of what you’re about to watch exactly,” says former Atlantan Courtney Thomas, who will be part of that opening when Broadway in Atlanta’s “The Lion King” opens at the Fox Theatre on Oct. 2 for a run through Oct. 20…