Theatre / The Prince of Egypt

"Deliver us to the promised land..."

"How can I live
Knowing my people anguish
While only I am free?
I saw a miracle
And now it's up to me..."

— Moses

The Prince of Egypt is the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of DreamWorks Animation‘s 1998 musical film of the same name, itself based on The Bible's Book of Exodus. The show features music and both returning and new songs by the original film’s songwriter Stephen Schwartz, with its book written by Philip LaZebnik.

The stage show follows the events of the movie. In ancient times, the Hebrews live miserable lives as slaves in Egypt. Desperate to save her infant son from an Egyptian order to kill all newborn boys, Yocheved puts him in a basket and spirits him down the river, where he winds up in the care of the Egyptian royal family. Moses grows up a brother in all but blood to the crown prince, Ramses, but when events result in him learning his true identity as a Hebrew, Moses escapes into the desert. He realizes that it is his duty to lead the Hebrew people to liberation, even if it means going against Ramses.

Following an international debut in Copenhagen, the show made its West End debut in February 2020. After the COVID-19 Pandemic forced it to close after just six weeks of performances, productions resumed in 2021. It played its final London performance in January 2022.

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Tropes specific to the stage musical:

• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The conflict between Moses and Ramses ends on a more positive note than the film, with the brothers making amends at the Red Sea and leaving each other on good terms. It is now Hotep who chases after the Hebrews with the army, and they're quickly wiped out while Ramses returns to his kingdom.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Moses feels much guiltier about the plagues wiping out innocent people. He's in absolute despair by the time the firstborns are killed, and sings about how the tragic night will haunt him for the rest of his life.
  • Once they reach the Red Sea, Tzipporah feels heartbroken about having to leave her family forever. Moses gives her the option to turn around and return to her people, but she opts to stay with him.
• Adaptational Context Change: The royal banquet now serves as a celebration of Seti's victory over Midian, and it is he who presents Tzipporah as a "gift" to his sons.
• Adaptational Explanation: The musical explains what happened to characters who just disappeared in the film:
  • Seti obviously died offscreen due to Ramses becoming Pharaoh, but he dies onstage at the closing of the first act.
  • Queen Tuya is still alive upon Moses' return, though resigned to her chambers, summoning Moses to her in the hope that he will patch up his rift with Ramses.
  • Hotep, due to his expanded role, is killed in this adaptation, drowning in the Red Sea alongside the soldiers.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Here, Ramses actually demurs from attacking the Hebrews at the Red Sea. Hotep, on the other hand...
  • Seti has a verse in "All I Ever Wanted" where he explains his actions regarding the massacre of the Hebrew babies, and while in the film he was somewhat regretful but dismissed the victims as "only slaves", here he definitively states that his actions, while necessary and part of his responsibility as Pharaoh, also "scarred his soul" and were not what he wanted.
• Adaptational Modesty: Animated Ramses was a Walking Shirtless Scene even after he became pharaoh, while the stage version wears royal white garments throughout the show. The same can be said for Moses, who never goes shirtless like in the beginning of the film.
• Adaptational Slimness: Hotep is noticeably thinner here than he was in the animated film where he was quite obese.
• Adaptational Villainy: Hotep goes from a comic relief character to The Dragon, using his power as the high priest to pressure Ramses into making drastic decisions. At the end, he goes into full Starscream mode and takes control of the troops from an indecisive Ramses at the Red Sea.
• Adaptation Expansion: The stage production has more time to flesh out certain characters and story elements, thanks in part to the additional songs.
  • In the film, Moses and Tzipporah's relationship develops during "Through Heaven's Eyes", and the song ends with them getting married. Here, their love is given more time to grow, and they don't marry until the end of Act I.
  • Nefertari is a more established character now (keep in mind, she wasn't even named in the film), and her relationship with Ramses is expanded upon.
  • Seti‘s death, and Ramses becoming the new pharaoh, are all shown onstage.
  • A new scene has Moses informing the Hebrews that Ramses has agreed to set them free, and they all celebrate with the song "Simcha". Then Hotep storms in to announce that this isn't the case, and that their workload has doubled. Angry and betrayed, the slaves berate Moses for giving them false hope.
• Adaptation Name Change: Amun, the son of Ramses, is now named Seti II, after his late grandfather.
• Adapted Out:
  • Hotep's buddy Huy from the film does not appear as a character here.
  • Tzipporah only has two sisters now, instead of three.
  • The first of God's wonders isn't the staff turning into a snake anymore; instead, it's Moses turning the Nile into blood. There is still a scene where Hotep pretends to perform this act, as a little Mythology Gag.
  • Moses' ring, which served as a symbol of his and Ramses' brotherly bond, is not included in the story.
  • For pragmatic reasons, the fiery inferno that blockades the soldiers at the Red Sea is removed entirely.
• Age Lift: By the time Moses returns to Egypt, Ramses and Nefertari's son had just been born. In the animated film, the son is already an adolescent boy. This tragically means that they lose their child to the plagues while he is still a baby.
• Artistic License – Religion:
  • Young Miriam informs Queen Tuya that the name Moses means "deliverance." In fact, the Bible states that Tuya named him Moses as it meant "I drew him out" (of the Nile).
  • The finale of Act II contains a reprise of "Footprints on the Sand," and both Ramses and Moses sing about how their deeds will live on after their bodies are gone. However, this would be a major affront to Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, which Ramses presumably still holds to — the Egyptians considered the preservation of the body to be crucial to the soul's eternal life, so they went to great lengths to preserve them (hence mummies). Ramses II's corpse is still around in recognizable enough condition to deduce things like his hair color.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Ramses' wife goes from a Living Prop to being a named character (Nefertari, her name in real life), who has lines and her own solo; "Heartless."
  • Commensurate with Huy being Adapted Out as per above, Hotep's role is significantly expanded into becoming Ramses' Dragon.
• Bittersweet Ending: It's somewhat better than the original movie. Moses has successfully delivered the Hebrews from the oppression of Egyptian slavery and he and his brother Ramses part on better terms, but Egypt is probably still wrecked from the Ten Plagues and the brothers will be separated for life to face their respective destinies. However, Moses makes the (correct) prediction that one day Ramses will be remembered throughout history as the greatest pharaoh in Egyptian history.
• Composite Character: Hotep is the only high priest in this version, filling both his and Huy's roles from the film.
• Dark Reprise:
  • "Deliver Us" wasn't exactly a light song to begin with, but it goes from being a plea for God to save His people to Aaron and the Hebrews bitterly begging Moses to leave them alone and take his troublemaking behaviour with him.
  • "The Plagues" contains a section from "Make It Right" (previously about Ramses vowing to cover up Moses' true self and help him stay as his brother in Egypt, while Moses sadly proclaims that "no power on Earth" can change the truth) to Moses pleading with Ramses to "make things right" by letting the Hebrews go and Ramses countering that "no power on Earth" will change his mind.
• Death by Adaptation: In the original movie, Huy and Hotep's final fates were ambiguous. Here, Hotep drowns in the Red Sea.
• Decomposite Character: Most of Ramses' more villainous traits are transferred to Hotep, who uses his position of power to influence the young pharaoh's decisions. He's also the one who attempts to seize the Hebrews at the Red Sea, an act led by Ramses in the movie.
• Demoted to Extra: Ramses and Nefertari's child is only a baby (portrayed by a prop) in this adaptation, so he isn't much of a character like in the movie.
• Distant Duet: Both Act I and Act II have Moses and Ramses singing from different places about their respective lives to come.
• Dragon Their Feet: At the end, in stark contrast to the 1998 film, Ramses refuses to kill Moses or send his men after the Hebrews despite Hotep's goading, stating there's been too much death already. Hotep then seizes command of the army and attacks anyway, leading to him and the soldiers being drowned.
• Dramatic Irony: Moses' main solo, "Footprints on the Sand," has him muse to himself that as Pharaoh's second son, he won't be remembered, in contrast to his father and older brother. The audience, however, knows that Moses will end up becoming one of the most important figures in human history.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Zig Zagged. Hotep, whose deep voice is provided by Ryan Knowles in Sag Harbor, Will Mann in Mountain View and Adam Pearce in the West End performance, is The Dragon to Ramses, the musical's primary antagonist. However, Ramses himself is a tenor and actually has a higher voice than Moses.
• Fake Wizardry: Just like in the film, Hotep performs an assortment of illusions to pretend that he's empowered by the gods. He can't even let Seti die without putting on a show, using his "powers" to make the pharaoh's body vanish into thin air.
• Greek Chorus: The ensemble acts as one, appearing in nearly every scene to portray either people (Hebrews, Midianites, the royal court), or the environment (statues, the Nile, the desert sands). They also come together to simultaneously portray God, symbolizing the omnipotence of the Almighty.
• Grief Song: Following the Tenth Plague, Moses and Nefertari have one of these, "For the Rest of My Life" and "Heartless" respectively.
• Hope Spot: Ramses promises to let the Hebrews go if Moses stays with him as a brother once more. The Hebrews throw a dance to celebrate, before learning that their troubles have only begun...
• More Despicable Minion: Pharaoh Ramses is the primary antagonist, but he's clearly a good man at heart and he's mostly defined by his profound love for his brother. Hotep, the high priest ostensibly subordinate to Ramses, is the truly evil one, doing his damnedest to stop Ramses from freeing the Hebrew slaves, and even outright staging a coup and taking command of the army when Ramses refuses to kill Moses and pursue the leaving Hebrews.
• Musical Nod: When Hotep pretends to turn water into blood, the melody for "You're Playing with the Big Boys Now" (his Villain Song from the film) is briefly played.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Tzipporah's sisters now fight off their harassers alongside Moses; in the movie, he shooed them away by freeing their camels.
  • God no longer intercepts the pursuing soldiers with a flaming inferno, likely because the parted Red Sea is enough of a spectacle for the stage.
• Reprise Medley: Crossing over with Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number, both Act I and II end on one of these, each with approximately five different medleys, the latter including several characters (Yocheved, Seti, Tuya) echoing lines from earlier.
• Saved by Canon: Since the biblical Pharaoh is Ramses II, he is naturally spared from the waves that drowned his army, this time it is because he had a Heel–Face Turn and leaves rather than pursuing the Hebrews through the Red Sea. The musical goes one step further by having Moses predict that Ramses will become the greatest pharaoh that ever lived, implying that the ten plagues of Egypt would ultimately be nothing more than a meager footnote in Ramses II's historical legacy.
• Spare to the Throne: In "Footprints on the Sand" Moses muses about how lucky he is to be the king's second son since he can afford to goof around, but also knows that it means he won't amount to much historically.
• Voice of the Legion: In contrast to the animated film and The Ten Commandments, where the voice of God is performed by the same actor as Moses (Val Kilmer and Charlton Heston respectively), the stage version uses the entire ensemble. This makes it more clear to the audience that it is God who sings "The Plagues", as the ensemble's verses are still sung from His perspective.
• Villain Song:
  • Though "You're Playing With the Big Boys Now" is omitted, the Egyptian god chant is still included as a recurring Leitmotif for Hotep. He also has a few smaller parts that still qualify, like an ominous prayer to the gods.
  • Downplayed with Ramses, as most of his songs are intended to be sympathetic; however, his new verses in "The Plagues" count, as it's the first time he acts truly villainous.
    Moses: This isn't about you, Ramses!
    Ramses: Everything is about me! I am Pharaoh!
    Like Menkeperre Thutmose, Horemheb the Warrior, Menmaatre Seti. Did you think I would not be as strong? Some weak link, now you see you are wrong!

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