Having missed seeing The Lion during its short run last summer at the New York City Center Stage II, its return has afforded me the opportunity to appreciate as well as embrace this emotionally effecting solo musical autobiographical journey written, composed and performed by Benjamin Scheuer. Weaving through its mostly sung narrative is a cycle of pop-rock songs by which the good-looking, amiable, personable and charming (what more could you ask for?) thirty-something Scheuer musically relates to us his difficult childhood, his terrible relationship with his father, his estrangement from his family, an unhappy marriage and his long, debilitating and painful bout with stage-4 Hodgkins lymphoma. But he easily captures our attention as he wins our hearts from the moment he sits on a chair playing the first of the five guitars with which he is surrounded.
Accomplished with all of the guitars at easy reach, excluding the significant toy instrument - "Cookie-tin-Banjo" - which he nevertheless sings about in a song and that frames his musical narrative. That instrument now locked in his memory was given to him in his youth by his father, a man who loved playing music but who suffered from severe depression. He sadly took his suffering and pain out on Ben, the oldest of three boys who grew up unable to reconcile with him before his untimely death. Scheuer covers a lot of territory in only 70 minutes that include his adventures traversing between New York and England where he was raised and where his semi-estranged mother lived and then back to New York to work through difficult familial relationships, a disastrous love affair, and surviving a horrifying illness . . . through which he learns what it means to roar like a lion.
The songs are tuneful, and the lyrics captivating, a winning combination in this mini-bio musical that has been fine tuned by director Sean Daniels. Scheuer's story-in-song is as rewarding and inspiring as any you are likely to hear told from any stage this season.
