The first time I saw "The Lion King" Broadway show I swore the elephant walking down the aisle was real, and bragged to my friends about it for years. After having the opportunity to see the show again Friday night at the Wharton Center, I discovered I was wrong, and the elephant was just one more of the countless incredible costumes used in the performance. And I’m happy to say that my realization didn’t cut down on the absolute magic of the experience for me at all.

With a story everyone already knows from the beloved Disney movie, The Lion King musical doesn’t need to overemphasize the plot. This has left the musicians, stage directors and performers with plenty of room to aggrandize the show with all the power, feeling, culture and fun to live up to the story and setting on pride rock.

The show contains many of the same songs as the movie, with an exciting and colorful presentation of “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and a deep, feeling and fairly sensual rendition of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” Of course all the original characters must appear in the show, from the crazy, chatterbox Zazu to a majestic Mufasa and Timon and Pumbaa with their middle school senses of humor. All were pulled off with passion and skill, both vocally and physically, as if the roles were still new and exciting to them—even though the actor playing Zazu, Tony Freeman, has performed his exact role more than 1,300 times.

But the real show in The Lion King is not the presentation of familiar songs and funny vignettes with a farting warthog. It’s the culture and meaning behind the story. With tribal prints, African songs and even Rafiki, Phindile Mkhize, rattling off in click-tongue onstage, the strong spirit of pride in the culture of the continent was visible. The chorus made up almost entirely of beautiful black faces and painted bodies added to the experience, whether they had lion headpieces on or not. It gave new meaning and reverence to the “Circle of Life” as how it applies to the countries where such a story could have taken place.

Finally, the show and its meaning is nothing without the intense and impressive costumes and staging. Chorus members dress up as everything from hyenas to grasslands to towering giraffes and, as I mentioned before, even one very realistic elephant. But the actors and their devotion to capturing the essence of each creature they enact is what is most interesting to watch. As the young Simba shows all the energy and playfulness of youth in his incessant leaping and scratching, Scar’s slinky and quick movements portray his slimy persona perfectly. To make a full stampede happen onstage and a whole army of sleazy hyenas marching around an elephant graveyard is a huge undertaking, but one the directors, and consequently the performers, got exactly right.

From the actors’ animal-like choreography to the swelling music of the final song, the powerful and heart-warming story of family tradition and responsibility and love shine in this intricate show. And I was glad to see small children in aisle seats gawking as the “animals” paraded past them throughout the performance. Maybe one of them thought the elephant was real, as well.