'THE TEN COMMANDMENTS' Outlandish revisions, do-nothing star plague musical

The feel-good fable has Moses and Pharoah reconciling.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Val Kilmer sings his way through plagues and out of slavery in a production that one critic has labeled a "big, fat biblical boondoggle."
Kilmer portrays Moses in one of the most improbable musicals of the year: "The Ten Commandments" at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
Pop musicals inspired by the Bible have packed theaters before -- but those focused on the star power of Jesus or Joseph's funky clothing, not the epic Angst of the Exodus. And despite "The Ten Commandments" big-name draw, the show might need a miracle to last much past its planned mid-November run.
The musical opened last month to mostly negative reviews. The producers canceled three shows a week, making it unlikely that this is the next "Jesus Christ Superstar" or "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."
Kilmer has won critical acclaim for his on-screen portrayals of drug-addled Jim Morrison, Wyatt Earp's sidekick Doc Holliday, Gotham's caped crusader and even the voice of a cartoon Moses. But in the current production, he is given little to do on stage.
Leaves singing to the pros
Though he does croon Pharaoh into submission, most of the time Kilmer just watches stoically, draped in striped robes, staff in hand, as seasoned singers get most of the show-stopping numbers. Kilmer strikes dramatic poses -- head up, arms outstretched -- and delivers his songs with the help of large screens displaying the lyrics.
It's hardly the Moses of Charlton Heston in the Cecil B. DeMille epic movie. Instead, the producers took their cues from the original French stage musical, "Les Dix Commandments," which downplays the tale's religious aspects to emphasize the relationships between brothers as well as mothers and sons.
This Exodus is a revisionist tale, a feel-good fable showing Moses and Pharaoh -- who were reared as brothers but parted in conflict -- reconciling after the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea, an outcome told neither in the Bible nor the film version.
"The message we are trying to convey is really love, peace and brotherhood," Charles Cohen, the show's co-producer, says. "This is not a religious piece, this is not a Broadway musical. This is a crossover of a pop concert and a theatrical piece."
The show skips the dramatic presentation of the stone tablets at the peak of Mount Sinai. Instead, Moses hurls the commandments to the ground after descending to see his people engaged in an orgy of sorts at the foot of the golden calf. The final song, "A Prayer for Life," during which the cast takes its curtain calls, puts an exclamation point on the nondenominational nature of the theme.
"Here on Earth, we must draw each other near," Moses sings. "Our faith will not divide us, only our fear."
The show, with tickets ranging from $37.50 to $137.50, is scheduled to run through Sunday. The producers are hoping it will be extended into December. Plans to take the show on a national tour are uncertain, as is Kilmer's future availability.