Review: JOSEPH…DREAMCOAT at The Empress Theatre

"Go, go, go, Joseph, you know what they say / Hang on now, Joseph, you'll make it one day / Go, go, go, Joseph."

The first collaboration between composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, "JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT" began as a 15-minute pop cantata written for a London boys school in 1968. While more songs (and the seemingly endless refrains) were added by the time the sung-through musical made its Broadway bow in 1982, the story remains as slight as it began: a retelling of the Biblical story of Joseph, 12th and favorite son of Jacob, who is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.

Just a hair's breadth behind "LES MISERABLES," "JOSEPH...DREAMCOAT" is Utah's No. 2 favorite musical and a trusted mainstay of not only civic and community theater groups and high school drama classes but also church youth organizations and children's theater troupes in the state.

The Empress Theatre, a community theater in the rural Utah town of Magna, produces nine crowd-pleasing musicals each year, making "JOSEPH...DREAMCOAT" a perfect choice for its undemanding patrons. The key to the limited success of this production is the selection of Brighton Sloan as director and the casting the show's two lead players, Johnny Hebda as Joseph and Ashley North as Narrator.

Sloan shows a genuine knack for storytelling, nicely advancing the action forward, and working with the large cast of 37. The ensemble players are boisterous and clearly enjoying their efforts. Where they fall short is creating vivid characters. They are a bland and uninteresting lot, and the show is robbed of a portion of its emotional draw.

North has a pleasing voice and a pleasant stage presence. As Narrator, she's the primary storyteller, and she has the audience engaged from the get-go. The vocals of the very appealing Hebda, a veteran of larger stages, are powerful and full of expression. His Joseph commands the stage. Both performers clearly relish their roles and take great pride in their respective casting.

It's a pity the two are undone by the piss poor sound system at the Empress. The audience gets an indication of the strength of the solos from North and Hebda, but the sound design is not adequate to give their individual vocal prowess heft, and there's no balance when they are singing with the ensemble.

The costumes-credited to the Four Seasons Theatre Company in Logan, Utah, and Cylie Janiece-are a strong element, but do not add enough to make this "JOSEPH...DREAMCOAT" more than a disjointed endeavor.

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