The Ten Commandments: The Musical

Val Kilmer (Author), Patrick Leonard (Author), Maribeth Derry (Author) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• ASIN: B0028BGXFK
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Editorial Reviews

Original cast CD. The disc has 15 tracks and a playing time of 57:07.

Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Cool Musical!, September 3, 2009

By 

Gretchen "Theatre Lover" (Fairfield County, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ten Commandments: The Musical (Audio CD)

The Ten Commandments: The Musical starring Val Kilmer along with Adam Lambert

"The Ten Commandments: The Musical" starring Val Kilmer as Moses, and features Adam Lambert as Joshua, the man who succeeded Moses, and ultimately brought the Jews to the Promised Land, via Mount Sinai. Overall, I thought that Patrick Leonard, the composer, and Maribeth Derry, the lyricist, did an admirable job adapting The Exodus into a musical, once you contemplate the magnitude of the narrative. Considering that I know the story reasonably well, I have two rather significant complaints about the storyline.

My first complaint is the fact that Joshua, portrayed by Adam Lambert, was not even ALIVE when the Exodus began. God told Moses that because no-one had enough faith to trust God, every original person who physically left Egypt would die before they found the "Promised Land." Moses, Aaron, Miriam, and the entire original Hebrew nation walked in the desert for FORTY YEARS because of that. The first time we hear about Joshua in the Bible is when Moses picks Joshua and Caleb along with several other men to participate in a reconnaissance expedition to check out the land of Canaan, bringing back grapes, pomegranates, and figs. Again, when Joshua first appeared onto the scene, it is about halfway through the book of Numbers, which is the Third Book of the Five Books of the Torah or the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Moses was 80 when he implored Ramses to let the Hebrews leave Egypt, and 120 years old when he died, at the end of Deuteronomy. Based on that info, I would deduce Moses was about 100 years old when Joshua first appears.

My second complaint is that one of the songs is chronologically incorrect, which would be "The Horns of Jericho." When the walls surrounding Jericho actually tumbled down, it was many years AFTER Moses' death, in the Book of Joshua.

Act 1 begins with Seti, the Pharaoh who would become Moses' stepfather, commanding his soldiers to kill the firstborn son of each household, eventually bringing Moses into his own house. Moses and Ramses become adults, Moses' banishment, meeting his wife, talking to God through the burning bush, returning to Egypt and his eventual reunion with Ramses, pleading with Ramses to let the Hebrews leave, going through all the plagues, culminating with Ramses' son dying, and Ramses telling Moses that the Hebrews could finally leave Egypt, with his blessing.

Act 2 begins with the Hebrews celebrating their freedom from Ramses, goes through the terror of Ramses coming after them to make them slaves again, the crossing of the Red Sea, creating the golden calf idol, ending with Moses bringing the Ten Commandments from God.

Val Kilmer does a very nice job singing, especially since I knew he did his own singing when he portrayed `Jim Morrison' in Oliver Stone's movie, "The Doors." There were a couple of songs where Val speak-sings, sort of like what Rex Harrison did in the movie "My Fair Lady," but I put that more to the song itself, rather than Val's vocal techniques. In addition, when Moses confronts the burning bush, God speaks with such a weird robotic monotone voice, which I found to be rather peculiar, and not in a good way. I think that anyone attempting to do "God's Voice," his voice should be very dramatic and flowing, like Patrick Stewart, or James Earl Jones.

There were a couple of scenes which were creatively staged that caught my attention. One happens in the beginning, where Moses' mother places baby Moses in the basket to "float" down the river, and Pharaoh's wife draws Moses out of the river, and it seems that a river is actually there! In addition, the scene when Moses is getting ready to part the Red Sea, so they can finally escape Pharaoh, is extremely inventive. I almost do not want to describe it, because I think it is worth seeing, and I honestly do not know if my description can do it justice.

You can tell that they recorded the show specifically for this DVD presentation, as they use several cameras. As a result, some of the visual effects are rather obvious. Though certain lighting effects COULD have happened on stage, I am leaning on the side of post-production video editing. Despite that, I would have enjoyed seeing this particular show live, just so I could have something to compare. Someone justly mentions how some of the lighting effects when the Pharaoh - NOT Ramses - appears, he gives off this golden glow, which is extremely tacky. Of course, when the tablets featuring the Ten Commandments glow from behind, I appreciate the gravity of the moment, but again, it was rather cheesy.

Adam, of course, does a WONDERFUL job as Joshua, and I can pick his voice out easily. Not only that, his character helps tell the story. Though "Is Anybody Listening?" is his principal solo as it is an entire song, he has many solos verses throughout the entire show. Considering the placement of this particular song, it is a major turning point in Moses' life.

Close to the show's finale, the Hebrew nation did not believe that Moses was ever returning from on top of Mount Sinai, despite what Aaron and Mariam told them, so they created an idol out of gold, and began to worship it. Consequently, when Moses appears with the Ten Commandments, then seeing the riotous behavior surrounding the idol, Moses is furious and throws the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments onto the ground, shattering into several pieces.
I think one of the most breathtaking moments of the entire show is when a young boy puts the pieces back together, and sings the Ten Commandments. He has such an angelic, soprano voice, and sings with such innocence, one has to pause and actually listen to these basic laws that God gave the world. Remember Connie Talbot, the 6-year-old girl who sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on "Britain's Got Talent" a couple of years ago? There is such purity and innocence in a voice like that. The young boy who sings the Ten Commandments has a similar voice.

One can purchase the DVD for under $10, which I think is worth the investment, as there are some entertaining bonuses on the DVD. One of them is the "Behind the Scenes" which features the main cast being interviewed, but ADAM is asked a question, and in full costume! There is also a Photo Gallery of the show, and Adam's "Is Anybody Listening?" opens the photo gallery in its entirety.

Ever since I first watched this, I have to say that it has been the only DVD I have been watching on a regular basis. Because of that, I have been thinking about a certain section of the DVD much more in depth, as something is irritating me. It is not a big deal at all, but nevertheless it is still annoying.

On the DVD, after the Hebrews, or Israelites, successfully crossed the Red Sea, Moses somehow met up with Ramses to say good-bye. That scene just does not sit well with me. That caused me to actually re-read that section of Exodus in the Bible, and nowhere in it does it say that Moses & Ramses managed to say farewell to each other. To tell you the truth, I have always assumed that Ramses, being that he is the leader of his army, would have perished along with his army. I have already given the people who wrote this show some literary license so the story could move along, so I am therefore assuming that they wanted the audience to be pleased that Moses and Ramses parted on such good terms.

I have done some extra research about the Red Sea, working on the assumption that somehow Moses and Ramses did manage to have a last minute reunion. I realized that there are two divergent Gulfs at the northern part of the Red Sea: the Gulf of Suez, and the Gulf of Aqaba. If one looks at a map of the Sinai Peninsula, also known as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf of Suez is on the western side of Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf of Aqaba the eastern side. As Moses and the Israelites were leaving Egypt, it would make sense that they actually crossed the Gulf of Suez, rather than the Red Sea itself, since the narrowest part of the Gulf of Suez is 12 miles wide. 12 miles is no small distance to walk, and if Moses is slogging through shallow water, like low tide, which numerous scholarly people have offered as a hypothesis. I honestly do not think that there is any way that someone could do that quickly, twice. Frankly, if I had been Moses, even with all of his faith in God, traveling through the Red Sea on foot, with colossal walls of water on either side of me, I would want to get the heck out of that situation, and onto safe ground, well away from Ramses.

One thing that truly caught my eye about the total production of the show is not only was it co-produced by Max Azria, who is THE Max Azria, of BCBG Max Azria, he also designed the costumes that the entire cast wore throughout the production.

For what it is worth, upon my initial viewing of this, I thought that the melodies were nice, but something that I could almost hear at churches that use songs of the Contemporary Christian Music genre throughout their services. Surprisingly, I have woken up having Moses' and Ramses first big song, "When We Rule the World" running through my head. These songs now have substance to them, and I WANT THE SHOW'S SOUNDTRACK ON CD!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT - Distribute SOUNDTRACK, June 4, 2010

By 

June M. Brokos - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ten Commandments: The Musical (Audio CD)

PLEASE distribute a Soundtrack for this EXCELLENT film!
I agree with the first reviewer on all his points except it was Pharaoh's daughter not his wife who raised Moses.
I loved the music and their take of this historical event - it has lots of historical errors but that allows for conversation and personal research. Great job! Ramsey was equally as entertaining as Val Kilmer as Moses. A great family film! We have watched multiple times.