El Principe Rana (The Frog Prince), a new musical based in the classic tale by the Grimm brothers, opened May 18 at Mexico City's Teatro Aldama for an open-ended run.
This new children's musical features 14 original songs by David Tort, Eduardo Zarate, Jose Luis Munoz and Lorenzo Gonzalez, and tells the story of a Terio, a young prince who is transformed into a frog by the malevolent Irina, an ambitious witch who wants to rule the prince's beautiful kingdom. Only a kiss from an arrogant princess will break the spell, and the prince frog must search for it in a term no longer than 7 years, otherwise the spell will become unbreakable.
Mario Tadeo (Godspell) stars as Prince Terio and Diana Navarro (Annie, The Little Show of Horrors) as Princess Nadia. Also in the cast are Juan Ignacio Aranda (Harvey, Beaujest), Arturo Echeverria (La Cage Aux Folles, The Most Happy Fella) and Teresa Ulloa (M. Butterfly, Fiddler on the Roof).
Designing El Principe Rana are Victor Carbajal (sets and puppets), Alfredo Pereda (costumes), Laura Bonilla (make-up) and Emmanuel Marquez (lights).
A website with pictures and audio clips from the show is available at www.elprinciperana.com.mx. Produced by Gerado Rodriguez and Marzo XXI Productions, El Principe Rana runs at the Teatro Aldama on Sat. at 11:30AM & 1:30PM and Sun. at 5PM. For information and tickets call (52-5) 546-1026.
--By Claudio Carrera
Mexico Correspondent
