The Prince of Egypt 1998 cartoon movie passed me by with neither children young enough nor yet grandchildren to appreciate it, but I was excited by the advance publicity for the new musical with a score by Stephen Schwartz, the composer of Wicked. I was thankful that I knew enough about Moses from school to grasp the basics of the story because otherwise I would have been very muddled instead of merely partially muddled.

The story is a blend of biblical history and new stories but the words for the introductory number were drowned out by poor balance between the many singing on stage and the orchestra. I knew about Moses, the baby in the bullrushes, who in this instance is rescued not by the Pharoah’s Daughter and brought up as her adopted son, but by Queen Tuya (Debbie Kurup). Tuya is Seti, the Pharoah (Joe Dixon)’s wife and they raise Moses as a brother to the heir apparent Prince Ramses (Liam Tamne).

You make think initially you have come to an S and M show as the whips crack and the Hebrew slaves are badly treated, including of course the population controls ordered by the Pharoah of killing babies. The staging of the bullrushes scene has Moses rescued by some blue balletic swans who wouldn’t look out of place in Billy Elliot. The blue is presumably a reference to the Blue Nile but I am still useless at geography. Great blocks of building materials construct the Pyramids.

The Egyptian court is finely dressed although I couldn’t quite see lumbering Joe Dixon as a majestic Pharoah but the amount of gold is appreciated. Birkenstocks must have done a roaring trade in oversize, gold male sandals! Hanging fringe curtains reflect the Egyptians’ predilection for pleating fabric and heads of the Pharoahs are projected right into the auditorium side boxes, as are later screens of hieroglyphs or Egyptian drawings.

Behind the fringing are projections of landscape, often of the desert. A secret room in the temple, ruled by the villainous priest Hotep (the musical star we all love to hate, Adam Pearce, who has finally escaped from shows of Evita) is used by Ramses and Moses. Hotep has some good tricks up his sleeve like turning a staff into a serpent courtesy Chris Fisher illusions. This secret room has a line of human caryatids holding the beam and, seeing them only from the rear, they are a fun design feature.