Review: 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'

In the 1980's Andrew Lloyd Webber seemed to have the Midas touch with a string of Tony-award winning musical hits: Evita, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera. His success, sadly, zapped his creativity and the 1990s brought forth a string of embarrassing and expensive failures including Aspects of Love, The Beautiful Game, Whistle Down the Wind and the excruciatingly bad musical version of Sunset Boulevard.

What Lloyd Webber is missing these days is the sense of fun and adventure that characterizes his early pieces. His score for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, for instance, offers plenty of toe-tapping tunes in a pleasant variety of styles. Tim Rice's lyrics are, at best, serviceable. They are loaded with awkward rhymes and mis-accented words but they do seem appropriate for a Sunday school pageant, which is the style this show is trying to create.

What makes Meadowvale Music Theatre's production so enjoyable are the performances, starting with Blair Barnsdale as Joseph. With his boyish good looks and sweet voice he creates a portrait of Jacob's favored son that is so compelling you almost wonder why his brothers hate him so.

The brothers, individually and collectively, sing well enough but could use a little boost in energy so that the lyrics are not obliterated by Erica Feggan's small but tight musical ensemble.   

Cheyenne Harvey as the Narrator uses her strong voice and personality to lead a group of children though an anachronistically modern retelling of the tale of Joseph. The kids, each and every one, sing amazingly well and handle the dialogue with a naturalness that should be the envy of every professional actor.

Credit director Doug Feggans with coming up with the idea of incorporating the children into the action more so they participate in Joseph's story. The crisp, high-energy choreography by Cathy Smith blends seamlessly with the action and keeps the show moving at a lively pace. The Joseph megamix finale reprises all the major tunes in a clap-along, energetic staging that left the audiences screaming for more.

It's always great to leave the theatre remembering the songs and wishing the show had lasted longer.

 

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat plays at the Meadowvale Theatre until March 1. Evening performances are at 8 PM with a 2 PM matinee on March 1. Call the Meadowvale Theatre Box Office at 905-615-4720.

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