Richard Lane

The Magician’s Shoes

The Magician's Shoes are gone! A pair of shoes of a performing magician invite you on a journey of discovery and wisdom as they escape their shiny black box and set off to see what the world has to offer. In this enlightening and playful musical fable with its witty narrative and enchanting dialogues, Richard Lane prompts children as well as the child in all of us to get in touch with our innocence and purity regarding our point of view and truly remember that it's not always what it seems to walk in someone else's shoes.
Maria Giannakopoulou, 18 September 2017

As for the recording, it was done in 1978, not 1974.

Sergei Prokofiev and Richard Lane, Peter and the Wolf and The Magician’s Shoes, Kids Stuff Repertory Company, Kids Stuff, vinyl, 1978.

The 1974 versions were done for performances at a shopping mall in New Jersey...

'Michael Lund recalled performing both of these pieces at Gimble’s department store in Paramus, New Jersey.

I was the narrator and Isadore Freeman, Lane’s own teacher, played piano for the performance. We also played Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on the same performance, but the audience preferred The Magician’s Shoes more, and even requested it as an encore. It’s a shame that piece has been lost in the repertory. Hopefully it can be resurrected.

As Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf has become a classic piece in the literature of children’s music in both performance and recordings, Lund’s recollection of how The Magician’s Shoes was received in comparison is poignant.'