The Little Prince

With Stanley Donen, one of America's leading directors of film musicals at the helm, words and music by Lerner and Loewe and Bob Fosse and Gene Wilder in the cast you'd have good reason to expect something special from this rendition of the classic children's tale by Antoine de St. Exupery. Unfortunately you'd be considerably disappointed.

The perception of adulthood as a loss of childhood innocence, which is at the centre of this story, probably appeals more to adults than children, who need not concern themselves with such issues. But this theme is realized with such little élan as to lack charm for any adult, let alone any child. Lerner and Loewe's songs are entirely innocuous, Richard Kiley, who plays the stranded pilot, appears to be some low rent Herman Lom type with a cheap hair piece, and the squeaky Little Prince is seriously wanting in the cute department. The Rousseau-like set-design has its moments and Bob Fosse does a good snake but even that effort is negated by Gene Wilder's fox, more a pederast with St Vitus's Dance than Basil Brush.

 

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