‘The Little Prince’ Review: An Uneven Broadway Spectacle Based on the French Children’s Book

variety.com:

A.D. Amorosi When is a timeless children’s tale not quite right for children’s theater? When it is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved and ever-so-slightly surreal 1942 novella, “The Little Prince.” Published following France’s liberation during World War II, the French aristocrat turned military aviator’s story was always something of an adult-oriented, nebulous dreamscape, one in which a tousled-haired young prince travels through space, lands on various planets (including Earth) and touches quietly on topics as nuanced as love and as rough as our loss of humanity and earth’s natural resources.“The Little Prince” is a lovely, delicate story.

But now try to imagine your child sitting through it with gentle quietude. Enter Anne Tournié. Directed and choreographed by Tournié — a mainstream avant-gardiste renowned for Cirque du Soleil-esque acrobatic, global-dance-theater escapades — and starring a playful international cast, “The Little Prince” at the Broadway Theatre surely was intended to energetically open up its fine dialogue to include children of all ages.But not so fast.

Tournié’s “Little Prince” is given the same French-forward international flair that she’s given “event” productions such as “Franco Dragone: Le Rêve” in Las Vegas and “The House of Dancing Water” in Macau.That means a soundtrack of highly-layered acousto-electric music inspired by Astor Piazzolla’s torridly askew tango and Laurie Anderson’s icy experimental fuzak.