Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

May 22, 2003 performance reviewed by Pat Nichols

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, now at The Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, runs through May 25 and then again from May 28 through June 1.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical retells the Biblical story of Jacob and his twelve sons, incorporating the music of other eras, from rock to go go to French ballads, country and the steel drum sound of Calypso.

The musical examines family jealousies carried to extreme, regretted and later rectified.

The play opens with a group of children dressed in white, the epitome of innocence, who want the Narrator (Karla Shook)to tell them a story. Soon after her story starts, a door at the rear of the round stage opens and the exuberant sons of Jacob bound through.

When Joseph, his father’s favorite, twirls around to show off the multi colored dreamcoat, a wondrous, work of art his father gave him, the rest of the sons turn to jealousy and then revenge.

As the story spins out, the outraged sons take Joseph captive and sell him to a group of itinerants who then turn him over to Potiphar, who pays with a credit card and whose wife, Mrs. Potiphar, (Tiffany Thornton) vamps her way through a campy attempt at seducing Joseph.

Potiphar throws Joseph in jail where he despairs until he luckily interprets the Pharaoh’s dreams to his delight and the Pharaoh becomes both Elvis and pals with Joseph.

One scene after another provides choice moments as when the brothers sing the French ballad wearing berets with cigarettes dripping from their lips or Brian Murphy swivels his hips a la Elvis. In another, dressed as cowboys the sons sing while moving their cowboy hats from one head to the next, never missing a beat.

The singing and dancing, mostly by the sons sometimes joined by their wives continues through the play, rousing songs that relate the adventures of the men and their eventual maturing to the point where they regret the loss of their brother.

The round stage works well with the actors exiting into the audience and the darkness beyond. The movement of the spare ramps and steps that enable the actors to run off and on the stage without accident, happens seamlessly.

Actors go from the long garments of biblical times to the sixties attire to the cowboy look quickly and efficiently.

While the sons pound on and off stage and dance with controlled abandon on stage, The Narrator maintains the sung story beautifully, circling the stage to face different segments of the audience.

Joseph,(Chad Heuschober) displays the innate goodness of his character despite his deprivations. As Jacob(John Baker) evokes the pain of a father facing the news that one of his sons has died.

Director/choreographer Rusty Curcio kept this high energy show moving without it losing focus. The action rarely stops and the evocation of a heritage of music will appeal to a wide audience.

Don’t be surprised if you want to dance your way out of the theater to the beat of the Calypso sound. I did.