‘Story About Belief’: ‘The Prince of Egypt: The Musical’ Director Talks Passion Behind Project
By Movieguide® Contributor
Movieguide® recently interviewed “The Prince of Egypt: The Musical” director Scott Schwartz, who shared his passion and vision for the production.
“One of the things that was so wonderful about getting to work on this is we can take…this beloved great film and expand it for the stage, you know, and really delve more deeply in some cases into the characters and the relationships, but also take the great and iconic moments like ‘Deliver Us’ or ‘Through Heaven’s Eyes’ or ‘When You Believe’ and figure out theatrical ways to bring that to the stage,” Schwartz told Movieguide®.
The musical, an adaptation of DreamWork’s 1998 animation of the same name, was produced and filmed in London’s West End. Per the Musical Theatre Review, it hit limited theaters in the UK in October. It’s recently available to stream on Prime and other streaming services.
“It was really a thrilling process from start to finish, and I think I worked on the show for, you know, close to…maybe 10 years before we brought it to the West End,” the director said. “So it was a really wonderful journey. I love the score. I love the story…To take this massive story and find a way to put it on stage was a really thrilling opportunity for me as director.”
In addition to the songs in the movie, the musical features 12 new songs. Scott Schwartz’s father, Stephen Schwartz, a well-known composer whose portfolio includes the plays “Wicked,” “Godspell” and “Pippin,” assisted with the show’s score.
Scott said about his dad, “Really getting to spend the time with him…and the book writer Philip LaZebnik, who was a very important part of the whole process, of course, figuring out how to translate this story for the stage was really a joy. And also what new musical opportunities were there because it was a full-length musical as opposed to a 95-minute film, you know. That allowed Stephen, my father, to expand the musical pallet of the show.”
Scott felt it was important to dive “deep” into the relational humanity of the characters.
He wanted to “really make it a human story about relationships about the struggles that these people go through so the audience could feel a deep personal connection with the people in the story. This story is about people like you and me, you know, trying to navigate in extraordinary times, and I think to tell that story and to tell it in a human and psychological and emotional way hopefully will speak to people whether or not they know this story.”
“In the end, it’s a story about belief and what do we believe, how do we believe, can we believe in ourselves, can we believe in something bigger than ourselves, and I think these are questions we all contend with in our lives,” he finished.
Jewish Renaissance called the musical “spectacularly imaginative storytelling.” It said, “It’s the extraordinary vision of director Scott Schwartz (son of composer/lyricist Stephen) and his team, combined with the sheer high energy and talent of the 19-strong chorus, that lifts this epic out of the ordinary.”
THE PRINCE OF EGYPT animation just celebrated its 25th anniversary on Thursday. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the movie’s producer, previously included Movieguide® in the production of the movie. He asked Movieguide® founder, Dr. Ted Baehr, to assist with the theological foundation for the feature.
Check out Movieguide®’s full interview with Schwartz below:
A part of Movieguide®’s review of the animated picture reads:
Magnificent, groundbreaking art, music, story, and direction combine to make THE PRINCE OF EGYPT an entertaining masterpiece. Although the movie contains some scary scenes, it contains nothing that little children can’t watch as long as parents are involved. THE PRINCE OF EGYPT proclaims the sovereignty of God and His miraculous involvement with mankind. It shows the need for virtue, integrity, character, and the Ten Commandments. The movie also clearly shows God acting in history. It foreshadows the Prince of Peace, who leads all those who ask out of their contemporary bondage into freedom in the kingdom of God. THE PRINCE OF EGYPT is entertainment at its best.
