Tag Archives: Dominic Gettins

The Prince of Egypt

★★★★

Dominion Theatre

ReviewsAdam Filipe, Adam Pearce, Addy Chan, Alexia Khadime, Alice Readie, Ann Hould-Ward, August Eriksmoen, Carly Miles, Casey Al-Shaqsy, Chris Fisher, Christian Alexander Knight, Christine Allado, Christopher Short, Danny Becker, Danny Williams, Dave Rose, Debbie Kurup, Dominic Gettins, Dominick Amendum, Dominion Theatre, Dreamworks, Felipe Bejarano, Gareth Owen, Gary Wilmot, J. Scott Lapp, Jack Harrison-Cooper, Jay Marsh, Jessica Lee, Joe Atkinson, Joe Dixon, Jon Driscoll, Kalene Jeans, Kevin Depinet, Lauren Storer, Liam Tamne, Lloyd Thomas, Luke Brady, Mark Collins, Mercedesz Csampai, Mike Billings, Molly Smith, Natalie Green, Niko Wirachman, Oliver Lidert, Pàje Campbell, Philip LaZebnik, Rachael Ireson, Ricardo Walker, Sam Oladeinde, Sasha Woodward, Scott Maurice, Sean Cheesman, Silas Wyatt-Barke, Simbi Akande, Soophia Foroughi, Stephen Schwartz, Tanisha Spring, The Prince of Egypt, Tristram Kentonthespyinthestalls

The Prince of Egypt

Dominion Theatre

Reviewed – 25th February 2020

★★★★

“With its creative and production heft, this will undoubtably be around a long time”

Born in ancient Egypt and delivered via an unconventional route, this new work from the creators of Wicked (Dreamwork Theatricals) arrives kicking and ululating in the mighty palace of London’s Dominion Theatre. Having first been an animated feature film, this is the story of Moses told with a lot less religion and a lot more bromance, tracking the relationship between young Ramses and his foundling sibling as they grow close, then apart, then further apart.

A thrillingly executed chariot race kicks off an evening of peerless creative arts, from choreography to video projections, from wardrobe to set design. Then, as Ramses (Liam Tamne) steps up to fill the Pharaonic boots of his father Seti (Joe Dixon), Moses heads the other way down the pecking order, by falling for an enslaved dancer, Tzipporah (Christine Allado). Exile ensues as he pursues her into the embrace of the desert-based Midianites, a blissful commune lead by the genial Jethro (Gary Wilmot) who teach him how to dance in 5/4 time. After meeting up with his previously lost family, in particular sister Miriam (Alexia Khadime), Moses realises his identity and takes up the cause of those Hebrew slaves still slogging themselves to death on Ramses’ pyramids.

Enslaved to an unwieldy source, the script by Philip LaZebnik suffers under the strain, with wars and plagues, exile and deliverance having to be explained through the eyes of two brothers in the few gaps between 25 musical numbers. With so much work to do in a small space of time, some lines edge beyond parody. “Moses!! I haven’t seen you in a long time” says Rameses as if spotting a mate in McDonald’s when Moses returns from exile to let his people go. “How did you let the people go?” complains High Priest Hotep (Adam Pearce) as if the multitude escaping was equivalent to losing your Oyster card. However, it does the job of keeping the action and effects speeding along, especially in the second half with plagues being visited with exhilarating brevity. Hotep is no sooner popping open his vestal top to reveal boils than meteors are descending on the backdrop. But this is all, as intended, creating a thundering, crowd-pleasing display, that bears little analysis (should we really applaud a plague?) but gives excellent opportunity for some impressive visuals. The design team in particular (Kevin Depinet’s set, Mike Billings’ lighting, Jon Driscoll’s projections and Chris Fisher’s illusions) create spectacular landscapes, pyramid interiors and Red Sea partings.

Great effort too has gone into Stephen Schwarz’ reworking of his own score. Best known for Wicked and Godspell, here his music and lyrics wrestle absorbingly with the constraints of Egyptian-sounding cadences (courtesy of Hollywood’s biblical blockbusters) and lilting Yiddish melodies, while blending in some old school rock opera and, inevitably, the saccharine sound of Disney Musicals. The cast is universally highly competent as you might expect, the dancers all limb-perfect in service of Sean Cheesman’s superb choreography. With the two leads perhaps lacking enough contrast, only Alexia Khadime truly soars vocally, but Christine Allado and Gary Wilmot join her in managing to project a third dimension to their originally two-dimensional characters. With its creative and production heft, this will undoubtably be around a long time, but doesn’t have the heart of a Lion King.

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Tristram Kenton

The Prince of Egypt

Dominion Theatre until September 12th

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Big The Musical | ★★½ | September 2019

Click here to see our most recent reviews

Omelette

★★★½

VAULT Festival 2020

ReviewsAli Wright, Alice Boyd, Anna Spearpoint, Dominic Gettins, Kwami Odoom, Long Distance Theatre, Omelette, Rajiv Pattani, Seren Noel, Tash Hyman, Tom Bevan, Tommo Fowler, VAULT Festival 2020thespyinthestalls

Omelette

Cavern – The Vaults

Reviewed – 18th February 2020

★★★½

“not just funny but well-structured with a neat ending”

‘I’m vegan!’ blurts out white, wealthy Mai on first meeting black, broke Mo, an instant assertion of her right-headed and socially conscious credentials. To Mai, of course, Mo has no need for such credentials, so the two progress immediately to probing each other’s commitment to saving the planet and changing society. They declare their attendance at climate protests and refusal to take Ubers, except in exceptional circumstances. They abhor any organisations with questions hanging over their right-headedness and social conscience. As their relationship nervously moves through the gears, an arms race of committedness commences. They move into Mai’s inherited home, negotiate the minefield between their respective privilege and realism and wind up living the reductionist result of their posturing, existing indoors, without gas or electricity, eating chickpeas and chanting daily their promise to preserve the earth’s resources. Inevitably, the relationship frays, from about the moment they are forced to eat Mai’s pet goldfish.

The writer of Omelette, Anna Spearpoint, plays Mai with spot-on comic timing, as you might expect, while the promising Kwami Odoom adapts easily to the chippy interplay. The upshot is an unrelenting to and fro in which Mai’s habits, neuroses and ethical blind spots are matched with those of Mo in a stream of sparring, snogging, preaching and pledging.

Long Distance Theatre has its own pledge, to produce works that shake us while raising a smile. Anna Spearpoint’s script certainly does the latter, not just funny but well-structured with a neat ending. However, unclear which case it’s making, it doesn’t quite do the former. Our dietary threat to the planet, the contradictions of activism, the plight of the let-down-badly generation, or the death spiral of relationships all seem like good candidates. The zero-carbon nature of the production supports the idea that the play’s subject is climate anxiety, but as a snapshot of a generation desperately grasping security and meaning, it hints at something darker, helped by Tash Hyman’s direction. Wheeling round each other on a circular stage, the movement and precise lighting (Rajiv Pattani) dramatise the physical and intellectual dances the two characters must perform. Sound design (Alice Boyd) provides angsty links, slipping time forward in skips and leaps, while props appear mysteriously, indeed mystifyingly, via motorcycle-helmeted couriers (production design by Seren Noel). Accompanied by VAULT Festival’s own thundering train rumbles and dripping water, the whole ends up, like Mai and Mo themselves, a bit more apocalyptic than necessary.

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Ali Wright

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020