Section:GDN 1N PaGe:25 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 19:03 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •
National^25
Mark Brown
Arts correspondent
A cast refl ecting the diversity of Britain
as well as a story that is essentially the
Bible’s Book of Exodus has been prom-
ised for the new blockbuster musical
The Prince of Egypt.
The show, due to open in London
next February , is based on the 1998
animated fi lm by DreamWorks , which
tells the story of Moses and his jour-
ney out of Egypt.
It has gone through a long gestation ;
when an embryonic concert version of
the show was announced in New York
in 2016 there was a social media back-
lash against the fact that, for a story set
in Africa, most members of the cast
were white.
That is not the case now. The show’s
British producer, Michael McCabe,
speaking at a launch event in London
yesterday, said: “We went into it all
feeling very strongly that the show,
at this moment in our lives, should be
a true refl ection of our society. That
it was about now, as much as it was
about being authentic to the time the
story is set.
“This show needs to resonate with
all audiences and it cannot achieve
that if what you are seeing is not a mir-
ror of all of us.”
McCabe said lessons had been
learned after the 2016 casting row.
“It focus ed everyone,” he said. “We
all need to think harder, everyone
needs to think more carefully. In the
same way you would not want to go
to a Shakespeare production and see
an all-white cast. It would be kind of
shocking.”
All areas of the arts are under greater
scrutiny to get it right when it comes
to diversity.
That includes commercial thea-
tre. Last month, a number of actors
and writers published an open letter
criticising the lack of Jewish actors
in a London revival of the musical
Falsettos , which tells the story of a dys-
functional Jewish family. Producers of
the show said it would not have been
appropriate to ask about actors’ reli-
gion during auditions.
McCabe said the diverse casting
for The Prince of Egypt had happened
organically and they had not asked
about ethnicity or religion during audi-
tions either.
Cast choices had been made on abil-
ity and how right people were for theBlockbuster
based on
Exodus will
highlight
Britain’s
diversity
PA MediaA collection of Scotch whisky
described as the most valuable to be
off ered at auction is expected to sell
for about £4m.
The collection of 467 bottles and
nine casks, which is to be sold by
Sotheby’s in 394 lots, belongs to a
single owner.
Sotheby’s says it is the most com-
prehensive collection of Scotch
whisky to come to the market from
a private seller – a wine collector who
turned to Scotland’s national drink.
The man, who has asked to remain
anonymous, spent his youth in Britain
but now lives in the US. Whiskies from
Bowmore, Highland Park and The
Macallan distilleries were his focus.
Among the bottles up for auc-
tion is the one said to be considered
the holy grail of whisky – an origi-
nal-label Macallan 1926 60 Years Old
from cask number 263. The cask pro-
duced only 40 bottles and this one is
expected to sell for between £350,000
and £450,000.
The owner said: “Collecting whisky
over these past 20 years has been a real
passion of mine, though it was not
something I set out to do.” He was a
wine collector fi rst, he said, but then
found himself “looking at unique
bottles of Scotch, initially attracted
by the beauty of the labels”.
Online bidding on the collection will
open on 27 September , culminating in
a live auction on 24 October.
Jamie Ritchie, chairman of Sothe-
by’s Wine, said: “ This groundbreaking
sale reminds me of the fi rst wine sales
that Sotheby’s held in New York in
1994 and Hong Kong in 2009, and we
believe it will come to be viewed as
a similarly historic moment in the
spirits market.”Scotch whisky
collection likely
to go for £4m at
‘historic’ sale
▲ The Prince
of Egypt, the
musical – with,
from left, Liam
Tamne as
Ramses, Alexia
Khadime,
Christine Allado
and Luke Brady
as Mosesrole. “We were very lucky with who
wanted to be considered for the show,”
he said. “The industry has signifi -
cantly changed. It is an exciting time
to cast a show like this.”
The show is based on the fi lm, but is
also very diff erent, the producers say.
It will feature 10 new songs as well as
fi ve from the original fi lm, including
the showstopper When You Believe,
which was a hit for Whitney Houston
and Mariah Carey. All are written by
Stephen Schwartz, the man behind
Godspell and Wicked.
Full casting for the show, mostly
actors at the start of their career, was
announced yesterday. It includes Luke
Brady and Liam Tamne in the two male
leads of Moses and Ramses.
Rehearsals for the show, which will
be directed by Schwartz’s son Scott,
are due to begin in December. The
musical will have its opening night at
London’s Dominion theatre on 25 Feb-
ruary 2020.‘This show needs to
resonate with all
audiences and it
cannot if what you
are seeing is not a
mirror of all of us’Michael McCabe
ProducerPHOTOGRAPH: DARREN BELLRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws