'Prince of Egypt' receives West End musical adaptation

Directed by Scott Schwartz and choreographed by Sean Cheesman, the run is set to last 39 weeks, from February 5 to October 31, at the Dominion Theatre.

By AARON REICH
A screenshot from the 'Prince of Egypt Musical' trailer. (photo credit: screenshot)
A screenshot from the 'Prince of Egypt Musical' trailer.
(photo credit: screenshot)
With Passover only a few months away, the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt now has a West End theatrical adaptation.
Based on the critically acclaimed 1998 Dreamworks animated film of the same name, The Prince of Egypt Musical first debuted in 2017, but has now begun a run in London's prestigious West End.
Directed by Scott Schwartz and choreographed by Sean Cheesman, the run is set to last 39 weeks, from February 5 to October 31, at the Dominion Theatre.
The show also features some revisions from previous iterations, most notably 10 new songs, including one entitled "Never in a Million Years." The song was composed by Grammy and Academy award-winning musician Stephen Schwartz, and is sung by Luke Brady and Christine Allado, who play the roles of Moses and his wife Tzipporah, respectively.
Schwartz, who also composed the songs for the Dreamworks film such as the Academy award-wining "When You Believe," said: "This is another new song for the stage production of The Prince of Egypt, the show's love song. Moses and Tzipporah, from two very different cultures, are surprised to realize that their early hostility to one another has somehow blossomed into love."
In addition to the 10 new songs, several songs from the original Dreamworks film remained in the musical, though one – "You're playing with the big boys now," which is sung by Pharaoh's priest-magicians as they display their power to Moses – was notably cut from the production.
"[It] was no longer appropriate to the show, because one of the characters [High Priest Huy] who sang it was eliminated and the whole nature of the other character [High Priest Hotep] had changed," Schwartz told Digital Spy.
"But there are five songs that are in the movie that are in the show. All of them are slightly different than the way they are in the movie, but essentially they do the same storytelling job, and they speak for themselves."

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Schwartz also composed the music for theatrical smash hits Wicked, Pippin and Godspell.
The musical has so far had 27 performances as of March 2, and according to the play's official Twitter account, each was met with standing ovations.

Tickets can be purchased here.



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