Theatre Calgary’s newest offering, The Tale of the Gifted Prince, might just be this winter’s best reason to leave your house. Calgarians might think this a bold statement, given the severity of the city’s recent cold snap, but the world premiere production stuns — delivering audiences a larger-than-life musical flush with Broadway splash.
Penned by Lezlie Wade, composed by Daniel Green, and presented in partnership with Somerled Arts, The Tale of the Gifted Prince drops us into the fictional Chinese Kingdom of Tang and introduces the — ostensibly incompetent — heir to the throne, Prince Ren (Kennedy Kanagawa). When a peasant uprising threatens the serene rule of Kelvin Moon Loh’s King Tai, Ren (pronounced “zhen”) sets forth on a journey to save his father, prove his royal worthiness, and safely deliver a quintet of more-than-meets-the-eye gifts along the way.
Wade’s script is an adaptation of prolific children’s author Lloyd Alexander’s novel The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen. Marketed as a family-friendly experience, Wade and Green’s musical reimagining maintains the youthful whimsy of Alexander’s story and favours familiar fairy-tale-esque threads over narrative density. Theatre Calgary’s production capably straddles the divide between young sensibilities and adult palatability, yielding an adventure likely to charm just about anybody. Well, mostly — there are moments that spill into over-explanation, especially within chronicling by the show’s mystical narrator (Ma-Anne Dionisio), but I commend the musical’s attentiveness to smaller audience members.
It feels important to note that, despite neither Wade nor Green bringing lived Asian experiences, a fleet of Asian-Canadian/American talent features in the show. In addition to its all-Asian company of actors, Chinese-American director and choreographer Darren Lee has guided Gifted Prince for nearly eight years of development and the show has benefited from extensive cultural consultation, as outlined in the production’s program.
Spearheaded by Lee, the production’s realization is precise and radiant, harmoniously leaping between layers of puppets, songs, sword fights, and dance numbers. Lee’s choreography further galvanizes an already ambitious show, with the staging of an aquatic scene leaving me especially awestruck by its simple yet effective mise-en-scène.
In an interview with the Calgary Herald, Lee connected Gifted Prince’s puppet action to that of The Lion King on Broadway, and, after witnessing the designs first-hand, I can attest that his comparison holds up. Local Métis-led company, Green Fools Theatre, have created a troupe of puppets depicting a variety of animals both big and small. Most imposing of the bunch, though, is a herculean tiger that takes up half the stage and prowls like a living, breathing beast. Honestly — you gotta see it to believe it.
What’s more, Beyata Hackborn, who designed last season’s The Play That Goes Wrong, has concocted another transcendent set. With every scene change, the Max Bell Theatre blossoms into a new landscape that broadens the dimensions of the mythical Kingdom of Tang. Each fixture, whether a shining throne or delicate pine tree, stakes the production in a historic medieval Chinese milieu while folding in hues of shimmering gold. The effect is a world that, however fantastic, rings sincere.
Designer Jessica Poirier-Chang’s elaborate costumes similarly deepen the productions’ textural and cultural breadth. Multi-layered and -coloured, her collection of designs hit various points on the spectrum of pragmatism to reverie, without veering into overstylization. Whereas the show’s nobility and otherworldly folk showcase striking silhouettes with metallic finishes, Tang’s peasants and rebels balance the palette with more earthy, patterned robes. However, Poirier-Chang does have a select few glitzy pieces on offer that — literally — take us to new heights; the falconer, played by a courageous Michelle Yu, dons sweeping, luscious wings as she soars above the stage.
Gifted Prince’s large cast is a comprehensively robust company for Wade and Green’s energetically and vocally demanding two-and-a-half hour show. In the impressive absence of a technical underbelly, it was certain character performances that gripped opening night audiences quicker than others. Nikko Angelo Hinayo, thanks to their nimble rhythm and comedic know-how, is captivating as self-identifying “moral thief” Mo Sha, who abides by a code of strict ethics that make it nearly impossible to steal from anybody. Kanagawa’s Prince Ren and Kelsey Verzotti’s Zhi Hau are a warm romantic pair, displaying equal parts emotional and vocal chemistry, and Olivia Yang is small but oh-so-mighty as the falconer’s young daughter, Lan.
On the whole, this production is a trailblazing union of Chinese mythic tradition and Western musical theatre. From a revolving door of scenery, to staggering puppets, and a high-flying cast, The Tale of the Gifted Prince is an irresistibly fresh buffet of theatrical wonder. And though Theatre Calgary’s production indulges in spectacle and a high-production value, there is a heart thrumming below its glittery surface — albeit a young one. Yet I can’t deny just how much fun I — a childless adult — had at this family-oriented production, leaving me no doubt that it will continue to enchant beyond Calgary’s firecracker premiere.
The Tale of the Gifted Prince runs at Theatre Calgary until March 15. More information is available here.
Eve Beauchamp wrote this review as part of Page Turn, a professional development network for emerging arts writers, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and administered by Neworld Theatre.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
WRITTEN BY
Eve Beauchamp
Eve Beauchamp (they/them) is an award-winning Calgary-based theatre artist, playwright, and graduate of the BFA in Acting at the University of Ottawa. They are the co-artistic director of Levity Theatre Company and primarily create work that explores queerness, capitalism, and neurodivergence through humour, poetry, and storytelling. Currently, you can find them pursuing their Master of Fine Arts in Drama at the University of Calgary.
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