Prince of Egypt movie is one of my all-time favorites, so I was beyond excited when I saw a couple of the promo songs on YouTube. The movie did take some liberties from the Biblical story, but stayed true to all the main themes. I assumed this musical would do largely the same.
Oh boy was I mistaken!!
Many of the emotional/storyline payoffs to the Moses story were either skipped through very fast or were completely changed.
- The ending especially, when Rameses and Moses make up at the end and it turns out Hotep is the all-of-a-sudden real villain was a poor change.
- Or how about Moses feeling personally responsible for the plagues - even though in the Biblical story it is clearly from God?
- Or Miriam essentially acting like an insane member of a cult?
The dancers that essentially co-starred as a living set piece were mixed. Sometimes it was amazing, like when they functioned as the Nile River. Other times is was pretty lame like when they were chariots or archways. Other times is was weird and cringey like the burning bush scene.
The singing performances, particularly from Moses and Tzipporah were terrific. His adopted mother, Queen Tuya, has a beautiful voice. But they did take away a great scene from her. The climax of the show was when she sang at Moses "Did you hate us all along?" and was actually a powerful moment. But then they ruined it with the dancers twirling in to the scene and ruining the moment.
A lot of the show seemed to be filler without much point to it, particularly most of the added songs. The show got a bit boring at times.
Tl:DR If you enjoy spectacles and a lot of fun movements, you will enjoy this. If you want a good, coherent storyline, or want to watch a remotely accurate story about Moses, don't bother.
