THE Lion KIng has played 18 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Now it has come to God's Own Country for the first time.

The largest theatre production ever to tour Europe required a fleet of 23 trucks to transport the Disney musical to Bradford for a seven-week run as part of the Alhambra Theatre's centenary celebrations.

The theatre has even undergone a little physical alteration to accommodate the international company of 52 performers from, as chance would have it, 18 countries, as well as hundreds of masks, puppets and more than 700 costumes that represent 26 animal breeds.

The statistics could go on - here's another; 70 million people have seen the show in 16 years - but this musical is so much more than its statistics. The Lion King is a work of theatrical wonder, full of radiant colour, heart, lessons in life, humour attuned to popular culture and, let's be honest, not that many memorable tunes.

For all its association with Elton John and Tim Rice, and especially the ubiquitous hit Can You Feel The Love Tonight from their film soundtrack, the key component is the costume design of director Julie Taymor and her mask and puppet designs with Michael Curry.

Richard Hudson's scenic design and Donald Holder's lighting combine beautifully to evoke the vast expanses of Africa at day and night, and while no-one has ever left a musical humming the set, it has a magic and majesty that sustain once you leave the plain, sorry, theatre.

Taymor takes the best element of Disney's 1994 animated musical adventure, the animal characters, and then adds the best that theatre can throw at it: spectacular stage entries through the stalls aisles; vivacious choreography by Garth Fagan; the aforementioned design canvas; all those costumes; and a marriage of African music and Western pop.

Above all, it is live, and so the struggles of lion cub Simba (Jude Blake/Nicholas Nkuna) to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and his destined role of king become even more epic.

The characters seem larger too. None more so than Gugwana Dlamini's Rafiki, our guide to Simba's world and coming of age with a voice that could be heard across all Africa.

Stephen Carlile's usurping Scar is a cruel-witted baddie on a par with Shakespeare's Richard III; John Hasler's Jewish New Yorker meerkat Timon steals scenes as a cross between Woody Allen and Mr Bean; and puppeteer Meilyr Sion's Scottish-voiced bird Zazu dips into The Proclaimers' back catalogue to "entertain" Scar with a snippet of I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).

This is one of several nods to a life beyond Africa in the musical's book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, who also reference The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) and Riverdance, while the smelly windy ways of Lee Orsmby's Pumbaa go down particularly well with the younger audience members.

The wait has been long, but The Lion King is a roaring success on the Yorkshire stage.

Disney's The Lion King, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, until May 10. Box office: thelionking.co.uk