The beginning of The Prince of Egypt.
Hello and welcome to your very special
journey behind the scenes
of the West End's extraordinary new
musical The Prince of Egypt.
Based on the acclaimed DreamWorks
animated film, it tells the story of two
young men raised together as brothers in a kingdom of privilege.
Suddenly divided by a secret past,
one must rule as pharaoh, the other must rise up and free his true people.
Both face a destiny that will change
history forever.
Let's take a look.
Whilst The Prince of Egypt is one of the
biggest musicals ever to be staged in
London.
Today we're bringing our show to your
living room with some exclusive
performances, interviews and
we're going to be answering your
questions.
Now we begin with a very special
conversation between
the writer and composer of both the
movie
and the musical, Philip LaZebnik and
Stephen Schwartz.
My fellow classmate Oliver Lidert sat
down with them to find out how they
brought this story to life.
For more than three thousand years this
tale of dignity, identity and the search for a better
life has passed down through the
generations.
So I'm thrilled to be able to explore it
a bit further with the extraordinary
creative team of
Philip LaZepnik and Stephen Schwartz.
Thank you both so much for coming to join me.
Oh thank you it's great to see you again.
So I have a few questions for you gentlemen today.
And the first one is the 1998
film The Prince of Egypt was the first
animated
feature by DreamWorks. Could you tell us
about the genesis
of DreamWorks and its relationship with
the original
story and film and now musical?
Well I had a meeting shortly after
the formation of DreamWorks with
Jeffrey Katzenberg with whom I worked
at Disney,
and at the meeting were also Steven Spielberg
and David Geffen and
they asked me to come in because they
wanted to discuss the possibility
of my writing the songs for their first
animated feature.
Obviously I was very enthusiastic about
that idea without knowing
at all what the subject matter was going
to be. Steven Spielberg said
'Well we're thinking of doing an animated
version of
the Ten Commandments but we're not going to call it that, we're going to call it
The Prince of Egypt and we see it as a brothers story'
and then I became very intrigued and
very enthusiastic
about working on it and through all
these years and all these incarnations,
it's remained a brother's story.
Would you both mind telling us a bit about
the process in developing the stage
production?
Stephen happened to be in Denmark, where
I live
because I had invited him to do the
songs for musical about Hans Christian Anderson
and during the rehearsals,
one of the cast members said you know
there's a
small community theatre in Sweden, right
across the bridge from Denmark
which is doing their own version of
Prince of Egypt.
So we went over to Sweden
and we saw this this community theatre
production of Prince of Egypt.
I think it's safe to say that they were
stunned to have Stephen in the audience.
It was quite a a big deal for them
and afterwards we said you know it works
pretty well as a stage show.
Yeah the first actual production was at a
regional theatre
in California and at that time
it was still thought that we would
do a tryout production, try and
basically get the show right and then
release it for groups around the world
who were interested in doing it. That
production proved so successful
that there began to be interest in
maybe doing it on a bigger scale
and that's how it led us to the
production
at the Dominion Theatre.
What do you guys think the difference is writing for the stage than screen?
A film is a sequence of short moments of
cuts, but you can't cut on stage you have
to let the scenes flow, they have to grow. I really felt
that the stage
version was an opportunity to discover
much more about the characters, to delve
much more deeply into
relationships.
Of course many more songs
were required, there are 10 new songs
in the stage version of Prince of Egypt
whereas there are just five songs that
were carried over from the movie
and you just have the opportunity
to investigate both the situations, the
characters
and most importantly to me at least,
thematically and dramatically
what is going on. The story can be made
richer
when you tell it for the stage, you have
more time,
as I say you have more songs and you can go into it,
you can make it more profound.
Deliver Us
is one of the standout songs from the
movie and also opens the musical
production with the full
ensemble on stage. Stephen can you tell
us what the song is about and how you came to write it?
Deliver Us was the first song that was written for
the animated feature,
about a year before anything else, it
sets up the entire situation.
So we are in Ancient Egypt, it's around
3,000 years ago and
there are Hebrew slaves who
are in a very desperate situation, we see
them
labouring to build
pyramids and statues for the Egyptians
when we see soldiers grabbing infants from distraught mothers
and then we encounter one specific
mother
Yocheved who is singing a lullaby to her
son and who is going to protect him
from the Egyptians and
therefore she puts him into
a basket and cast him adrift
onto the Nile hoping that somehow
God or fate or something will protect him.
Mud
Sand
Water
Straw
Faster
Mud and lift
Sand and pull
Water and raise up
Straw
Faster
Feel the sting of the whip on my shoulder
With the salt of my sweat on my brow
Elohim, Adonai, can you hear your people cry?
Help us now
This dark hour, deliver us
Hear our call, deliver us
Lord of all remember us, here in this burning sand
Deliver us, there's a land you promised us
Deliver us to the promised land
Eldihato vera
Ahatira vertiva
My son, I have nothing I can give
But this chance that you may live
I pray we'll meet again if he will deliver us
From despair, these years of slavery grow too cruel to stand
Deliver us, there's a land you promised us
Deliver us to the promised land
Deliver us
So following on from that, the
million dollar question as they would say,
is why is this story important right now?
We live in a time when we are being
overwhelmed by
events that are beyond our control,
that are
bigger than any of us. There seems to be
decreasing empathy and
decreasing understanding of
of others rights and others points of
view
and of course we live in a time where
racial issues are I think very overdue being considered and
coming to the fore
and the sort of artificial definition
of people based on this construct
of race that affects how they're treated and how their
lives go and all of these ideas are
part of the story of Prince of Egypt so
it feels
I think more contemporary now
even than it did when the movie
first came out and of course this is a
story that's been around for thousands
of years but it
seems to be dealing with situations,
ideas and themes that are
very current for us you know in 2020,
2021 and beyond.
Yeah I think it's an extraordinary time that we live in.
What I really was happy about was that the
audience was as diverse as our cast was
on stage, I mean I've never seen an
audience like a young,
old, veteran, theatre-goers, people had
never been to a show before
in their life. This show I mean perhaps
because of the nature of the film also
brought people, brings people and will
bring people to the theatre
who are unexpected, who don't normally
come to a theatre, that's just
so enormously gratifying.
So as we all wait with
baited breath to sit in the audience of
The Prince of Egypt again
how can people who love the material relate to it now that we're in lockdown?
Well something happened that was lucky
which is that we recorded this cast
album
before the show opened and I think it's turned out
extremely well, we have amazing singers in our cast
and of course there are these beautiful orchestrations byAugust Eriksmoen
of the music so I guess I would say if
people are interested in
sort of experiencing part of what
the show might be, the cast album is available I'm
happy to report.
I will also say that there are a lot of
YouTube clips out there of snippets of
the show,
many of them I believe on The Prince of
Egypt official website
so you can get an idea of what
this show is by seeing those.
One of the new songs which is actually
on the album I believe,
is Never In A Million Years which was a
new song
just for the stage production.
Stephen would you mind telling us a bit
about its place in the show and what the song's about?
Well as I said one of the
pleasures of doing the show for the
stage was the ability
to investigate more deeply
some of the relationships including
the love relationship, in the improbable
love relationship between Moses and his eventual
wife Tzipporah which is
of course in the film but rather
briefly dealt with by necessity but in the show
we can explore how their relationship develops
more fully and this is a song
in which Moses and Tzipporah rather shyly and
a bit surprised at their own depth of
feeling for one another
finally admit to the fact that they're in love.
Would you ever have thought
Given where we started
You and I would chance to meet?
Never in a million years
And now could you have dreamed
If we should be parted
We’d feel somehow incomplete?
Never in a million years
Could you ever have imagined we’d be here like this
Ever nearing the inevitable day we kiss
And if you should ask how soon I think this feeling disappears
Never in a million years
Could I ever have imagined I'd be here, like this
In the afterglow of finally reaching our first kiss?
And if I were asked how soon I think this feeling disappears
Never in a million years, my love
Never in a million years
We're really missing our audiences from
all over the country and beyond.
It was so awesome looking out into the
auditorium and seeing such an
amazingly diverse audience on their feet
every single night so whilst we're
missing that connection,
we're delighted to at least be able to
answer some of your questions now.
A massive massive thank you to everyone
who sent in their questions for us,
I'm actually joined by some of the cast
from the show, we couldn't all fit in but there is a
fair few of us here.
Hi everyone!
So the first question is, what is your favourite part of the show?
It has to be the parting of the red sea, it's
astonishing.
I've never seen anything like it before
in my life, certain elements were brought together
to create something very very special
just visually and musically as well, my
favourite part of the show has to be the
plagues.
Plagues, oh just the way it moves.
My favourite part of the show has to be
Deliver Us, it's such an incredible opening sequence,
it really sets up the show
and it's the moment at the end of this
opening
song and the audience go bananas
and that's my favourite, it's like a
barometer for the show for me,
that's probably my favourite part of the show.
What do you miss most about
performing?
The team, definitely especially with this
show.
We had a really intense rehearsal period,
spending six, sometimes seven, days a week
with each other-
And it's become a second family, it's
such a close-knit
group of people, they're just such a
lovely bunch.
I really miss the ritual of
getting focused and getting into
character and then
walking out onto the stage to
live that character's journey and tell
the story
and to really connect with not just my
fellow actors but to connect with the
audience.
One of my favourite moments is
seeing the audience reaction at the end
of act one,
like their hands, I mean there's nothing like
it.
Were you familiar with the film
before you auditioned for the musical?
Absolutely, I was a fan and
yeah the music I just kind of grew up
with and
knew it was in my DNA.
Such a great animation.
Somewhere in a deep dark corner of
someone's attic is a recording
of me and my younger cousin singing
When You Believe together.
The Prince of Egypt was one of the first
movies I saw in the cinema.
What is your top tip for learning your lines?
My top tips for learning my lines are
writing it out loads and loads and loads
and loads and loads of times.
Okay so I always record my lines, I'll
get somebody to read the scene with me
and read the other characters or
character.
And also repetition.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
I think it was Anthony Hopkins
says that he reads a script
or certainly his part of the script at
least a hundred times before he gets
in front of the camera.
How did you
prepare for your role?
It was quite an intense preparation for
me because
some of the notes that I have to sing in
the show
you don't sing that often or they're
not that exposed.
Coming from a classical training I had
to sort of give
the voice a real sort of focus and
discipline
I cycled to Egypt, I put a lot of Egyptian mud
all over my body and then I lay on a
pyramid
and I chanted my character's name
pharaoh Seti.
I took dance classes so I took belly dancing, I took lyrical dance, I took a
bit of ballet, contemporary even a bit of
hip-hop, just to kind of
feel a bit more confident in my body and
stuff and yeah I think it's,
I think it's paid off.
If you could play any other character in the show, who would it be?
Well it's not often I get to play the
antagonist so I would have to say
Ramses my son.
For rockstar status I
would love to play
the Gary Wilmot, Jethro, just to
show up and sing the absolute best
song in the show and just like I'm done, mic drop.
Hotep.
Hotep because he's
an evil legend
Played brilliantly by our
Adam Pearce,
yeah he got to go to magic school so a
little bit jealous.
Now I love to dance and look at me I'm
not a dancer
but the incredible work that
our dancing ensemble do in this show is
mind-blowing
and I would love for just one day, one
show to be one of the dancers, they are
incredible.
What would your ten
commandments of lockdown be?
Thou shall find routine, yeah routine has
been really really important for me.
DIY, I moved house during lockdown
which was hell.
Thou shalt remember to
stay grateful
and keep positive and optimistic.
Get creative, I know lots of people have started
baking and things like that.
Thou shalt
call a friend or a relative, someone that
you love
and just check in, just the simple act of
seeing if someone's okay I think is
important at this time.
If you could revisit a moment in history
what would it be?
The great library of
Alexandria.
Apparently there were records that were
just
gargantuan and we lost all these sort of
crucial artifacts, medicine, science,
so if I could have prevented that maybe
or just seen it in its glory to be
honest.
As corny as this is would have to be to
do with Ramses.
I would actually would love to go back
and visit Ramses at the point of where
he signed the first ever peace treaty.
Super Saturday, 2012 London Olympics,
that day in that stadium must have
been electric.
This is a good one, what item would you choose to take to the afterlife with you?
I don't know.
This is a
pretty dark question.
Well having been consulted by my agent
and my manager and PA,
I would have- that it would have to be my
children
I would take my pets which happened
to be two dogs.
Sorry to my husband but my dogs
would have to come with me
and my wedding ring.
My wedding ring.
I'd like to take a
Steinway
grand piano to the afterlife
so when I get there I'd like to do the
thing thatI do most
and that sings some songs.
I think I'd
bring my library of
video recordings and audio recordings
just so I could
just revisit that time and yeah,
remember everything that made life
on earth special and beautiful.
I'd have to take Spotify with me, is that a possibility?
Can I take my cats? Yeah I want to take
Eggy and Boo.
Thanks for your questions and joining us
for this exclusive programme.
We've got one final performance to share
with you before we go
and here's Stephen Schwartz to introduce
it to you.
This is When You Believe, it's of course
a song from the film
and during the song, the Hebrew tribes
are celebrating their freedom and their
deliverance from bondage in Egypt.
Many nights we prayed
With no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts a hope for a song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know there's much to fear
We were moving mountains
Long before we knew we could
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe somehow you will
You will when you believe
In this time of fear
When prayer so often proves in vain
Hope seems like the summer birds
Too swiftly flown away
Yet now I'm standing here
My hearts so full, I can't explain
Seeking faith and speakin' words
I never thought I'd say
There can be miracles
When you believe (when you believe)
Though hope is frail
Its hard to kill (mmm)
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve (You can achieve)
When you believe somehow you will
You will when you believe
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
Its hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe somehow you will
Now you will
You will when you believe
You will when you believe
