Review: JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT at Fargo North High

This is a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and their first collaboration to be performed publicly. This tells the story of Joseph from the bible's book of Genesis.

This beloved musical has so many wonderful musical numbers, and was actually the first high school musical production I saw the in Fargo-Moorhead area back in 2008 (Trollwood).

First of all the music... The 19 piece pit orchestra, directed by Dr. Eric Saari, did an amazing job. With this being a sung through musical, the orchestra is playing almost non-stop.

The vocals were all beautiful, so a huge congrats to vocal director Katie Damico on the work she did with these kids.

The choreography by David Triptow, who was in that 2008 production of Joseph, was wonderful. David is quickly becoming a very popular choice as a local choreographer.

This is a more modern telling of the story, with more current costumes (Liv Helm Costume Director) and even features a selfie moment.

The show starts with the three Narrators as portrayed by Amandine Mouche, Brooke Jennison and Bailey Kolesar. The Narrators perform on almost every song in the show and that is a very good thing. All three of such beautiful voices that blend perfectly together, but each also gets a chance to show off individually. Some of the moments that really stood out for me were on "Jacob and Sons", Joseph's Coat", "Potiphar", "A Pharaoh's Story" and "Go, Go, Go Joseph".

Joseph was portrayed by the amazingly talented Tyler Hoverson. I first remember Tyler back in 2019 as a young Scrooge in the FMCT production of A Christmas Carol, and of course his breakout performance last year as Jack in the North production of Into The Woods. Tyler has such a wonderful voice and stage presence. I really enjoyed him on "Any Dream Will Do", "Close Every Door", "Pharaoh's Dream Explained" and of course "Any Dream Will Do". With Tyler being only a junior I look forward to seeing him on stage many more times.

Jacob is portrayed by Drew Burris, who is only a freshman! He was really good on "Joseph's Coat" and "Those Canaan Days". Drew has talent and I really look forward to watching him progress over the next few years.

Reuben, portrayed by Beckett Schultze was another standout. He has some very memorable moments on "One More Angel In Heaven" and "Those Canaan Days".

Kaylee Kern as Pharaoh was definitely an audience favorite. Her performance on "Song of the King" was one of the highlights of Act 2.

Finally I have to mention Ellamarie Jacobson. She portrayed Mrs. Potiphar, but she was truly shining as a dancer. She was mostly in the ensemble, but her featured dance on "Those Canaan Days" was absolutely beautiful.

So many more great members of the cast. All of the brothers did such a great job so congrats to Susannah Schwantes (Asher), Nick Webb (Simeon), Betsy Murchie (Benjamin), Eliza McIntyre (Judah), Isaiah Jensrud (Issachar), Benjamin Trumbo (Levi), Josiah Gillen (Dan), Seth Lamont (Naphtali), Foster Helm (Gad) and Ame Zosel (Zebulon). Their performance on "One More Angel In Heaven" and "Those Canaan Days" were so good.

A huge congrats to everyone else in the cast for doing such an amazing job. A special shout out to the 14 young members of the Dreamers Choir. I hope this is one of many shows all of you.

Congrats to Tom and Rachel Gillen for again putting together a wonderful production.

Again I ask Fargo Public School to give these super talented kids one more weekend of shows. One is definitely not enough.

Photo Credit: deMarcel Photography

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