The story of Moses, now with a twist ending and a special guest star! Or, a theatrical review.

My 11-year-old son attends our local Catholic school. He's doing quite well academically, if I do say so myself, and he really likes it. This year, they're covering ancient civilizations in social studies and the field trip was to Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster to see their production of the story of Moses and the Exodus. S&S make no bones about the fact that they're about evangelism, so I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to chaperone. But my son asked me to do it, and I'd never been there before, so I figured why not.

I wasn't disappointed. Since I'm Jewish, the story is familiar enough because I've celebrated Passover since, well, birth. I've seen The Ten Commandments a zillion times and The Prince of Egypt a few times. I know the whole magillah inside and out.

Overall, the production was well done. Real animals are involved; Egyptian soldiers rode majestic horses up and down the aisles, donkeys schlepped straw for the Hebrews, and camels were involved because, well, Egypt. The sets were massive and, aside from the beginning of the second act, worked well. The special effects were especially grand. The Angel of Death descended onto the stage, her wings flowing about her body as she killed the firstborn male in every Egyptian household while sparing the Hebrews. The Red Sea parted perfectly, allowing the Hebrews to escape while engulfing the evil Egyptians. The Ten Commandments were expertly carved on the tablets with fire. It was a beautiful, visually stunning production. The only problem I had was with the stage lighting. At one point, a light went right into my eyes, and now I've got a migraine. You try to have a cogent conversation with your son's principal when the scotoma is at its peak. It's hard.

The acting was OK. They're professionals, so the dialogue was fluent and acceptable. Not great; I don't think I'd nominate the cast for any Tony awards, but not bad, either.

Now, call me crazy, but as I said, I'm pretty familiar with the book of Exodus, and I'm also pretty familiar with Jewish tradition, and I'm pretty sure that the Hebrews didn't go around singing the Shema during the Tenth Plague, as they did in the show. (The Shema, for those not of the Jewish persuasion, is the central prayer, the first prayer that every Jewish child learns and the last one he says when he dies. It is biblical, but it's Deuteronomy 6:4. In other words, considerably after the Exodus.)

Ah, yes. The twist ending and the Special Guest Star. The play ends with Moses getting the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Moses mentions that these will be a tough sell, and God says that while he wrote the Commandments on stone, he'll send his son to write them on men's hearts. Then Jesus showed up. I'm pretty sure that Jesus, who was born at least 1300 years after the events of the Exodus, wasn't in Egypt. I've also never before been to a professional theatrical production that had an altar call.

I know that I'm not in their target demographic, but I still enjoyed Moses immensely. Sometimes, you have to put art aside and just go for pure spectacle, and as spectacle, this did not disappoint.