North West’s stage debut last weekend didn’t go down well with some social media users who didn’t hesitate to trash her poor performance.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s eldest daughter, 10, performed as Young Simba in the 30th anniversary live concert special of Disney’s The Lion King at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and people were not happy about her performance, claiming that nepotism played a part in North landing the coveted role.
After her performance, North was met by a standing ovation, per Mirror, who revealed that Kardashian and West were in attendance as well as Kris Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, and Travis Barker. Despite the audience loving the show, people who watched her performance online had a different take. One TikTok video, with 18.3 million views, showed a clip of North’s performance, where she is seen in a yellow hoodie with a fur-lined hat, matching yellow sweat shorts, tall yellow socks, and yellow slippers (all the other actors and dancers were in elaborate Lion King costumes). In the clip, she sang “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King.”
The TikToker said that her daughter has been on Broadway “four times” but lost out to North. In the video, the angry mom tells a story about her daughter, and claimed that Kardashian “pulled strings” to get North the part. “[My daughter] made it through four rounds of callbacks. The final round was three girls, and my daughter was one of them,” the TikToker said.
“But while we were waiting in the audition room with one other girl and her mother, someone walked in. It was Kim Kardashian with North West. We had heard that there was someone that was in the industry that was pulling strings to get their daughter in front of the casting director.”
People also took to Twitter to voice their disappointment. “I’m sorry but casting North West as Simba when there are hundreds of properly trained theatre kids with voice coaches, dance skills, and experience was a HORRIBLE choice,” one person said. “It definitely makes you question the credibility of the casting director. You let Kim pay to ruin your show.”
“Not all kids are good at all things and they need to be taught that,” said another person. “There were likely dozens of experienced kids that should have been cast.”
