Is The Prince of Egypt eyeing a West End premiere?

A private industry reading for the stage musical adaptation of the hit 1998 DreamWorks Animation film will be held in London this week.

UPDATE: Since this story was published, it has been confirmed that The Prince of Egypt will receive its world premiere at the Dominion Theatre. The Prince of Egypt tickets are available now. 

Currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary year, DreamWorks Animation's hit movie The Prince of Egypt may well be getting a West End makeover!

Producers DreamWorks Theatricals (a division of Universal Theatrical Group), alongside Michael McCabe and Neil Laidlaw, are holding a private industry reading in London this week, under the direction of Scott Schwartz, who is, of course, the brother of Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist behind the animated feature film.

The stage musical adaptation features a book by Philip LaZebnik (who also wrote the screenplay) and new songs by Schwartz, alongside the film's iconic score which features the Academy Award-winning "Best Original Song" "When You Believe," as well as "Deliver Us," "All I Ever Wanted," and "Through Heaven's Eyes."

Although The Prince of Egypt was previously staged at TheatreWorks in California in autumn 2017, playing a record-breaking, sold out engagement at the venue, and at Denmark's Fredericia Teater in spring 2018, the London reading is said to include a revised book, as well as a brand new song.

Based on the book of Exodus, The Prince of Egypt tells the story of Moses, who was born a child of Israel, but brought up as a Prince of Egypt, after being found by Pharoah's wife in a wicker basket floating on the Nile. Eventually, after several miraculous plagues befall Egypt at Moses' command, he leads the people of Israel out of slavery (at the hand of his adoptive brother and new Pharoah Rameses) and takes them on a journey to the Promised Land, even parting the waves of the Red Sea for their passage.

The movie grossed well over $200 million at the worldwide box office and featured the voice talents of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Stewart, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Helen Mirren.

A timeline or casting information for a future West End production is yet to be announced. DreamWorks Theatricals were last represented in the West End by Shrek The Musical, which played the Theatre Royal Drury Lane from May 2011 through to February 2013.

Check out the official music video for the Oscar-winning track "When You Believe", performed by Mariah Carey and the late Whitney Houston, below!

^{(Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation)}