The Stage

The Little Prince

Published Wednesday 10 December 2008 at 17:40 by Mark Shenton

Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s 1943 novella Le Petit Prince may have become the most translated work in all of French literature, with more than 80 foreign editions, and a total global sale of some 80 million copies (making it one of the best-selling books of all time), but something has apparently been lost in translation on its journey to the stage in Anthony Clark’s politely pallid musical version.

Clark, who first staged a version of this adaptation at Manchester’s Contact Theatre in 1986, refers in a programme note to it being described as “a children’s fable for adults”, but his staging, which features earnest melodies by the late Mark Vibrans (and to whom this new production is now dedicated), falls fatally into the gap between the two.

There may be a lot of metaphysical musings on the great mystery of why any of us are on this planet at all, but an even greater mystery may be why this show is. As an adult aviator reflects back on his first feelings of failure at the age of six and has now crash-landed in the Sahara, he meets a being from another world, asteroid B616, who introduces him, and in turn us, first to his own home and then to characters from other asteroids.

It’s painfully pretentious when not unbearably coy. The cast, led by Simon Robson as the pilot who does nifty double duty as one of the two onstage pianists (opposite musical director Dane Preece) and Jade Williams as a giggly Little Prince, do spirited work to illuminate it, but the show stubbornly fails to delight or ignite, either as social satire or charming storytelling diversion.