The Cast Photo by Madeline Bilan

It includes the years of his growing up in Pharaoh Seti's house as the "brother" of the pharaoh's son, who eventually becomes Ramses II, known as Ramses the Great. (This is probably not historically true, but it makes for a good story.) When Moses finds out that he is really a Hebrew, he leaves the pharaoh's house, goes to the desert, marries, and lives as a shepherd until he encounters the burning bush from which God tells him that he must go back and liberate his people.

Ramses has become Pharaoh of Egypt by now, and although he would love to reconcile with Moses, he cannot for political and economic reasons free the Hebrew slaves. Moses has to call down plague after plague on the Egyptians, culminating in the killing of the first-born children of the Egyptians but the sparing of the Hebrew children (the Passover). This finally convinces Ramses to let the Hebrews leave Egypt and follow Moses to the promised land, the "land of milk and honey."

One of the things I like about this adaptation of the familiar biblical tale is a scene focusing on Moses's remorse over the deaths of so many innocent Egyptian children. A few of the things I don't care much for are some time-consuming scenes in the first act, such as a couple of dance numbers and a scene in which Moses and Ramses race their chariots through the marketplace, which cannot be effectively staged in most theaters. By and large, though, it's an affecting retelling of the Exodus story.

The musical The Prince of Egypt began life as a 1998 animated film by Dreamworks Animation, with a screenplay by Philip LaZebnik and songs by Stephen Schwartz. One of the songs, "When You Believe," won the Best Original Song Oscar. The film was a financial success, and I'm guessing that this is what prompted Schwartz and LaZebnik (bookwriter) to turn it into a stage musical, the way Disney had done with several of its animated movies.

They added some dance numbers and ten new songs, which are not very memorable. The stage musical never appeared on Broadway. It opened in London in 2000 but closed quickly because of the pandemic. It reopened the next year but never came to New York.

Now, Musical Theatre Southwest has taken it on, and it's almost certainly their biggest production ever. There are 37 people in the cast, and they all have to be costumed, sometimes with several different outfits. On top of that, there's a live fifteen-member orchestra, excellently conducted by Dr. Gregory Gallagher. The show needs a big performing space, so it's being done at the African American Performing Arts Center, which is much bigger than MTS's own black box theater.

With so many characters on stage and quite a bit of tech involved (microphones, projections, etc.), the production could have become unwieldy, but director Justin Salada and assistant director Linnea Mae have kept it all in order and flowing well. Stage manager Lisa Hancock and assistant stage manager Ki Garrett have a lot to do, and they do it well. The set design by Justin Salada is somewhat minimal, which allows for quick changes of scene. For the most part, scene changes are accomplished by changing the projections, which have been ingeniously created by Jordon Embree. The Nile turning into blood, for example, is well done.

Costuming this show is a big undertaking, and Khristah Garcia and assistants Rachel Mixon and Heather Hagler have done a good job. Lighting by RayRey Griego is effective, and the sound design by Justin Salada also works well, considering the number of microphones used. Jonathan Ragsdale and assistant Dru Martinez are the choreographers. Much of the dancing is appropriate to the time and location of the story, but the Broadway-style numbers are out of place.

The large cast is uniformly good. The show centers around Moses and Ramses. MTS is lucky to have Ryan Pennington, with his beautiful voice, as Moses. Nick Goodwin is fine as Ramses, as are all the supporting players who are too numerous to mention individually.

I give MTS a lot of credit for tackling a show this big and pulling it off. The next three MTS shows are on a smaller scale: Spring Awakening, The Light in the Piazza, and Come From Away. In December they're taking on one of the biggest of the big shows, Les Misérables. Let's hope they do it as well as The Prince of Egypt.

The Prince of Egypt runs through March 29, 2026, at Musical Theatre Southwest, African American Performing Arts Center, on the grounds of Expo New Mexico (the State Fair grounds), 310 San Pedro Dr NE, Albuquerque NM. For tickets and information, please visit mtsabq.org.