Although there are a few fully exposed, totally cut chests on display for the men and sheetrock abs for the women, the wardrobe is considerably more modest than what viewers of the cartoon, or indeed The Ten Commandments films and, er, all Egyptian iconography might expect. No commandments are technically broken here, although there may be some bending of the first, the one about having no other gods, and possibly the one about keeping the Sabbath holy, what with matinees and all. Venue: Dominion Theatre, London In a musical re-telling of the Exodus story that is bigger on plagues than on developed characterization, subtlety was always going to be in short supply. Theatre reviews and latest news updated daily. ), shifting planes that swoosh pleasingly as they’re hauled to and fro across the stage. It's the oldies that are still very much the goodies, and the majority of new ones are largely unmemorable. Instead of the draped columnar silhouettes you see in tomb paintings on the ladies, Queen Tuya (Debbie Kurup) and Ramses' regal wife Nefertari (Tanisha Spring) sport fitted evening gowns variously encrusted with rhinestones, mostly in whites and golds, like cocktail lounge chanteuses but with comfy flat-footed sandals. Liam Tamne has a multi-faceted take on the tortured and conflicted Ramses (a different iteration to Ralph Fiennes' more clean-cut baddie in the movie), and if it even needs saying, Tamne also has a cracking voice to boot. Alongside the roar of lushly harmonized choral numbers, routinely reprised, there are the expected anthemic power ballads, replete with mostly anodyne lyrics strongly orchestrated by August Eriksmoen. In the desert they at last have authentic-seeming “folksy” moves, but they are preceded by balletic poses with impressive leg extensions for no discernible reason. Last Updated 03 April 2020 There’s sincere weight to the sensitive scene following the smiting of the first-born and, as expected, projections go into overdrive for the parting of the sea. His ruthless on-stage wife Nefertari (Tanisha Spring) gets a moment to shine with the carefully crafted new number "Heartless". Thankfully LaZebnik lets the pace quicken in the second act as the plagues set in and Moses battles to free his people. Music supervision and arrangements: Dominick Amendum Moses supposes this is okay if you like your musicals super-bombastic. Luke Brady does what he can in the role of Moses, laying on the gravitas half way through after being busily boisterous with youthful dialogue via Philip Lazebnik’s clunky book, which sees fit to have Rameses’s grateful, “You’re always at my back” followed by Moses’s “I certainly don’t want to see your front.”. © Copyright 2020 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Director: Scott Schwartz Elsewhere, with Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack gone from the proceedings, he fills gaps with fresh songs to complement the movie hits. There’s also a screen above the stage upon which images of rolling clouds and super-saturated sunsets are projected, and the tonal palate makes “Gone With The Wind” seem the model of restraint. Instead of flies and props, the quick-changing scenery is mostly a creation marrying projections and cast, with the kneepad-equipped ensemble dressed to represent everything from slaves to shifting sand dunes to rising walls of Red Sea water at the climax, thanks to some strategically placed blue fringe and harnessing. But anyone who fell in love with the animated DreamWorks classic in the last 20 years (as this critic very much did) will not leave disappointed – much in the same way that Disney's Aladdin or The Lion King musicals are often an ode to their silver screen counterparts. Directed by the composer's son, Scott Schwartz, with the bombast dial turned to 11, this production pushes beyond the stage at the cavernous Dominion Theatre (home of Queen jukebox musical We Will Rock You for donkey's years) in London's West End after runs at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and in Denmark.