The Prince of Egypt (musical)


The Prince of Egypt is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a book by Philip LaZebnik. Based on the 1998 Biblical animated film of the same name, the musical follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt.

Plot

The Prince of Egypt is an adaptation of the biblical story of Moses, who grows from a Hebrew baby set adrift on the Nile by his mother Yocheved to escape genocide, to an adopted Egyptian prince, and finally into God’s deliverer of the Hebrews from the oppression of his brother, Ramses.

Productions

Mountain View

The Prince of Egypt made its debut at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View, California on October 6, 2017, choreographed by Sean Cheesman and directed by Scott Schwartz.

Copenhagen

The musical had its international premiere in a Danish production on April 6, 2018 at the Fredericia Teater in Fredericia, then followed by a Summer season at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen 2019. Fredericia Theater believed that for a larger, older and more visited stage, something new and grander was more fitting, and so they reinvented the visual design and created new dance choreographies. The song "The Plagues" omit the lyrics pertaining to Moses and Rameses' relationship. All versions of the musical since the TheatreWorks premiere made additional omissions, including the removal of the character of the High Priest Huy and his and High Priest Hotep's song, "Playing with the Big Boys", whose melody and lyrics mentioning the names of the Ancient Egyptian gods remain, but are included in the scene of the Ten Plagues instead.

Utah

The Tuacahn Amphitheatre in Ivins, Utah also staged a production of the musical from July 13 through October 20, 2018.

West End

A significantly revised new version opened at the Dominion Theatre in London's West End for a limited 39-week engagement from 5 February to 31 October 2020, with an opening night on February 25, 2020, directed by Scott Schwartz and choreographed by Sean Cheesman. The West End version features new costume, set, projection, illusion and sound designs as well as a world premiere song. A cast of 38 is headed by Luke Brady, Liam Tamne, Christine Allado, Alexia Khadime, Joe Dixon, Debbie Kurup, Gary Wilmot, Mercedesz Csampai, Adam Pearce, Tanisha Spring and Silas Wyatt-Barke. The production was forced to take a lengthy hiatus starting 17 March after just 6 weeks. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom mandating the closure of all theatres.
The show has since been extended to September 5, 2021.

Musical numbers

''Titles of songs which appeared in the original 1998 animated film are in bold.
; Act I
; Act II
On March 15, 2020 Playbill announced that a cast recording of the West End production would be released by Ghostlight Records. It was released on April 3, 2020.

Casts