Since time immemorial (one tends to lose track of time in Las Vegas), producers have been making musical versions of movies and the other way around. Although many have registered as box office hits on Broadway, few have truly and lastingly conquered the stages on the Strip.

Some remakes have been far from successful. Take the “Lord of the Rings” musical, for instance. Tolkien’s masterpiece barely fit in three silver-screen installments, and Peter Jackson’s movies were almost three hours each! The production costs were immense, but at least the result was easy on the eye and the incomes were not disappointing, to say the least. The costs of bringing the epic tale on stage, however, were of about 12.5 million pounds - a new record in musical history, while the reviews were abysmal. Another interesting fact is that no British stage was large enough for the production (or the egos of its makers, it seems) and the musical premiered in a Canadian theater.

Recently, Disney decided to take over Las Vegas and its stages, namely the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The production which is supposed to baffle the mind and enchant the eye is the musical remake of...”The Lion King”. This is not the first dancing-and-singing Simba production, though, as the original musical hit Broadway in 1997.

The movie chosen seems to be in tune with Vegas’s partial re-branding as a “family-friendly” city. On the other hand, successful Broadway productions seem to be followed by a curse in Las Vegas. Such fine examples are “Hairspray” and “The Producers”, which plummeted to their deaths (reviewers’ words) after their widely advertised and anticipated premieres in Las Vegas.

For the sake of “Lion King” fans around the world, we can only hope that this new screen-to-stage adaptation will be well received by the Las Vegas residents and visitors in April 2009, as the production will have strong competition, in the shape of slot machines and blackjack tables.