The Madness of King Scar
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| "The Madness of King Scar" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Heather Headley, Geoff Hoyle, Tracy Nicole Chapman, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Kevin Cahoon and John Vickery | |
| from the album The Lion King: Original Broadway Cast Recording | |
| Released | 1 January 1997 |
| Length | 5:27 |
| Label | Walt Disney |
| Composer | Elton John |
| Lyricist | Tim Rice |
| Producers |
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"The Madness of King Scar" is a song written by English musician Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, which premiered in the musical The Lion King, a stage adaptation of Disney's 1994 animated feature film of the same name. "The Madness of King Scar" had been added to the musical along with two other songs. It is one of two tracks that more prominently features vocals from the character Nala. The title is a reference to the 1994 film The Madness of King George.
Opening the musical's second act, "The Madness of King Scar" primarily consists of dialogue between Scar, Nala, Zazu, and the hyenas Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed following Scar's rise to power due to his brother Mufasa's death. The lyrics revolve around Scar's paranoia, specifically his anxiety on the comparisons between himself and Mufasa, and his plan to produce an heir for his kingdom with Nala. Scholars had various interpretations of the song's lyrics and composition, who felt it used stream-of-consciousness to portray Scar as a Shakespearean character or interpreted the instrumental as a tango underscoring Scar's behaviour towards Nala. For later productions of the musical, "The Madness of King Scar" was made shorter in length. At one point, was included on the cast album for the original production, with John Vickery portraying Scar. It was also put on the records for the Mexican and Madrid productions.
"The Madness of King Scar" primarily earned positive reviews from music critics, who believed it added more depth to the character of Scar. However, some commentators had more mixed to negative responses; some felt uncertain about the decision to add new material not found in the film to the musical, while others disagreed with the song's explicit content. In 2014, animator Eduardo Quintana created an animated sequence for the song for the 20th anniversary of the animated film. The video received positive reviews from media outlets, who found the animation quality to be on a professional level.
"The Madness of King Scar" is one of three original songs that Elton John and Tim Rice had added for the musical adaptation of Disney's 1994 animated film The Lion King.[1] John had composed the music while Rice wrote the lyrics; the title is a reference to the 1994 film The Madness of King George.[2] Created to further elaborate the storyline,[3] it is one of two new tracks that feature the character Nala, along with "Shadowland". In the original film, she had only performed in a supporting role in the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".[4]
The song was inspired by a planned reprise of "Be Prepared" that was storyboarded for the original film, but was ultimately cut from the final version.[5][6] Smosh's Mikey McCollor wrote that it was removed from the film for being "so creepy", primarily due to Scar's sexual comments toward Nala.[7] Echoing McCollor's comments, io9's Lauren Davis described Scar's interactions with Nala as creepy,[5] and Moviepilot's Olivia van der Will attributed the exclusion of the song to its lyrics' reference to sexuality.[6] Matthew Roulette of TheFW believes that the scene was abandoned because of the characters' significant age difference.[8]
Over the years, several changes have been made to the musical in the interest of streamlining its complex backstage logistics. Part of this effort was trimming "The Madness of King Scar" down to a shorter length,[9] removing the middle verse where Scar sees Mufasa’s ghost. The removal of Scar’s internal perspective resulted in a significant change to the song’s tone, with the current version of the song being less sympathetic to Scar and more focused on the external impact of his actions.
The full original version is included on the cast album for the musical, which was released on 1 January 1997. The recording of the song includes the show's original members Heather Headley, Geoff Hoyle, Tracy Nicole Chapman, Stanley Wayne Mathis, Kevin Cahoon, and John Vickery;[10] Vickery had played the role of Scar for the official recording.[2][11] The song was also featured on albums for the musical's Mexican and Madrid productions.[12]
