When you will start watching the video, it will appear to be nothing more than the Circle of Life for a The Lion King on Broadway, but in Russian. The thing is, there is no TLKoB Russian version. While the entire play exists in other languages, it doesn't in Russian, so what makes this particular presentation so special?
When I saw The Lion King on Broadway, I don't remember seeing a guy in a tuxedo appear on stage during the Circle of Life and deliver a monologue next to a model of a Russian TU-2 bomber with "Nord Ost" (Норд Ост) - North East in German, on the wings.
Well, the thing is that this was a special presentation of the Circle of Life, done by a Russian theater group which previously had performed a WWII-themed play called Nord-Ost, explaining the bomber.
The reason for the Circle of Life was that just the year before the song's presentation, somewhere in 2002, the theater was subject to a terrorist attack that went horribly wrong during the rescue operation. This event is often described as "the Russian 9/11". Therefore, the Circle of Life performance was done very much in a spirit of defiance and as a message of hope from the theater group - that they will move on from the terrible event. In fact, the man in the tuxedo was one of the directors of the Nord-Ost play, and was one of the hostages that had to go through, and witnessed in person, the entire terrible ordeal.
I have to say that of all the things the theater group's survivors could have done, holding a rather lively Circle of Life presentation is a really good way to announce to the world that they will not stop just because of an attack. For the monologue in the middle, here is my translation for it, so that you can know what the man is saying (monologue starts at 3:00 in the video):
- We need to overcome the pain, and become strong.
We must think of the future,
we must think of good times,
we must think of the children,
and then once more a new day will begin,
and the sun will rise,
and we will be reborn
of course we will be reborn.
We will live.
Because nothing can stop the circle of life.
On a side note, when I showed the video to my sister, I purposely left out the reason behind it before having her see it, so when she heard the monologue in the middle, she felt like it was some very unnecessary and heavy words - an opinion she quickly reversed when I told her the full story behind the performance.
Spoiler: show
