The Lion King review – Disney’s Broadway juggernaut roars to life in Sydney

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Capitol theatre, Sydney With breathtaking aesthetics and joyous performances, the audacious adaptation – now almost 30 years old – is greater than the sum of its parts Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email The opening of The Lion King is a bona fide five-star moment that reminds you why this musical still rules the theatrical savannah. Forgoing the sentimentality of the 1994 film and the razzle-dazzle of its Broadway peers at the time, it taps into more primal, powerful delights. From its first incantation (translated as “All hail the king” – or “Look, a lion, oh my god”, depending on who you ask ), it builds with a chant, a gathering of human bodies, and finally a procession of animals that leaves the stage to come into the audience, enveloping you in a kind of choreographed ritual. (This is a good moment to check in on your date; if they’re not Having Feelings, they may be some kind of joyless ghoul.) This sequence encapsulates the best of the show: director Julie Taymor...
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‘Demolishing democracy’: how much danger does Christian nationalism pose?

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Documentary Bad Faith looks at the history of a group trying to affect and corrupt politics under the guise of religion

Bad Faith, a new documentary on the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States, opens with an obvious, ominous scene – the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 – though trained on details drowned out by the deluge of horror and easily recognizable images of chaos. That Paula White, Donald Trump’s faith adviser, led the Save America rally in a prayer to overturn the results for “a free and fair election”. That mixed among Trump flags, American flags and militia symbols were numerous banners with Christian crosses; on the steps of the Capitol, a “JESUS SAVES” sign blares mere feet from “Lock Them UP!”

The movement to overturn the 2020 election for Donald Trump was, as the documentary underscores, inextricable from a certain strain of belief in America as a fundamentally Christian nation, separation of church and state be damned. In fact, as Bad Faith argues, Christian nationalism – a political movement to shape the United States according a certain interpretation of evangelical Christianity, by vote or, more recently, by coercion – was the “galvanizing force” behind the attempted hijacking of the democratic process three years ago.

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