The Prince of Egypt: Live from the West End

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.

I gave it a 3 stars rating just because, the mapping on the LED screens was good, also the lighting was nice.

That's about it. I didn't like anything else.

The costumes sucked, the casting sucked, the added songs sucked, the creative licences sucked... I'm a big musical theatre fan, and I was hoping to be baffled and I was incredibly disappointed.

The " burning bush" and the opening of the sea were the stupidest staging I've seen. I don't understand why they didn't use anything magical and went the way of more choreography and interpretative dance.

The costumes were so modern that only highlighted the inaccuracy in everything else.

Honestly I was bored to sleep.

Read the other reviews...

Ever since I saw The Prince of Egypt for the first time ever nearly 2 years ago, I have been completely obsessed with it ever since. I have the film on Blu-Ray and digital and have the soundtrack and have seen it at least a few dozen times. But when I heard it was converted into a musical, I immediately checked to see if it was available to watch. Once I saw that it was, I rented it right away. While it's not as entertaining nor "enjoyable" as the original film, it's still worth watching. The songs added in are really decent and full of emotion, as if they were actually from the film, which wasn't surprising considering they were all written by Stephen Schwartz who also did the film as well. The costumes are absolutely stunning and beautiful. The dance moves are mind-blowing and leave you wondering "how did they do that so flawlessly?" while still keeping your eyes glued to the screen. The visual effects/lighting/etc are also breathtaking. Makes me wish I had known about this film earlier so I could've seen this play in person, but oh, well. If you love the film, you need to see this!!

The first act was phenomenal, but the second made my jaw hit the floor! What in the name of all things biblical was that?!

First of all, Moses feels burdened and guilty for the plagues - singing a song about having to live with the consequence of what HE (not God) has done!! They completely removed how the plagues showed God's majesty over the Egyptian gods' powerlessness. In fact, Moses was ready to go back to Egypt to help Rameses "get the priests in line." WHAT?!

Then, Moses "prophecies" over Pharaoh (who survives), declaring that he will "build the greatest empire on earth without slaves" while "we Hebrews will have our little kingdom by the sea." Lord, help us!

They changed the whole story! It doesn't follow the FLAWLESS, emotionally gripping, and captivating animated at all...much less the actual story of Moses. Nothing about Moses' faith, God's commands, NOTHING. The costumes and styling are strange and don't match the time period or the geographical location. Why does the pharaoh look like the prince from cinderella with the shoulder pads and tassels?

The new (TOO MANY) added songs, storylines are forgettable and don't add anything to the story.

Acting/delivery was over done and cheesy and in no way draws me in like the animated movie. This had SO much potential they pretty much cheapened the whole story. Like why is Zipporah writhing and twerking in a cage for them? Why is she sing-growling all the time?

I'll be forever disappointed, I've been waiting for someone to turn this incredible movie into a musical theater production since I was a kid :(