BWW Reviews: JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT at The Kennedy Center

Need some laughter in your life during this sometimes hectic season? Love the classic holiday shows, but want something different that will have the entire family grinning together? Or just love a show that embraces its roots but isn't afraid to grow tall and, dare I say, flash a little...color?? Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, running through January 4 at The Kennedy Center's Opera House, might be just the cup of cheer you need. As a bonus, you'll be enjoying what happens when a talented creative team successfully reimagines a show that is over forty years old, and gives it back to audiences wrapped in the "present."

Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's Joseph, was first written and performed in the amateur theater world in the late 1960s, then seen on London's West End and Broadway in the early '90s, and in a film version starring Donny Osmond in 1999. It tells the biblical story of Joseph, the dreamer, Jacob's youngest and favorite son, who has a particular talent for interpreting others' dreams as well. This gift is a lucky break for him, because his jealous brothers, all eleven of them, don't take kindly to the favor showed him by their father, and resolve to cast Joseph out of the family. Their resentment reaches a fevered pitch when Jacob gifts his son with a coat that might be described as an homage to the jumbo 64-color Crayola set, created by some very talented children. Representing all the wonder, color and creativity of dreams and our inner lives, the coat is the final straw, and Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt, and tell the bereft Jacob, that Joseph has died fighting off a crazed...goat (the scene wherein the brothers tell the tall tale to their father is a comedic highlight, by the way). In a not-unexpected twist, Joseph goes on to realize his own dreams of making a difference in the world, and all involved, including the audience, learn a moral lesson, and get a happy ending.

Advice time: before you enter the Opera House, resolve to just relax and have fun. You'll laugh, hear some great songs performed by a talented cast, and experience a very clever production that genuinely wants you to have a good time. For those who have fond memories of a long-ago production, or those, like me, who know of the show but had yet to see it on stage, or even those who are unfamiliar with Joseph, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by just how enjoyable this show is. There are elements in the music and staging that evoke the show's original Godspell, Pippin and Jesus Christ Superstar era of musical theater, and that's just fine. Like Joseph's coat's rainbow design, the show is made up of a multitude of musical genres, which somehow works. Want some pop styling? It's there. Country/folk? Yep. Fifties rock? You got it. French cabaret? No problem. Seventies rock & disco? Check. Don't worry about why it works, just enjoy the tongue-in-cheek humor of it all.

No matter the show, I always tell people to pay attention to what's happening on stage before the house lights dim, and not to rush out the door before the curtain falls. You might just be amazed at the carefully designed visual and audio elements that begin early-on to subtly draw you into the story and release you gradually. Here, before the lights go down, you watch the '60s and '70s-infused dream projections begin on a large screen covering the stage, and catch the first glimpses of the dreamer, Joseph, in a large, colorful bed. As the projected images become more elaborate, and despite the bustle of the assembling audience, you start to pay attention, and children especially, will likely be intrigued and start to settle down. At the close, the exuberant musical encore sends you out with a smile.

This is the kind of production I particularly love; one that celebrates its entire cast, especially the ensemble. In fact, one of the most enthusiastic audience reactions I've experienced in 2014, happened in Act II of Joseph, care of the comedically, vocally and dance-gifted "band of brothers," all eleven of them, as they hilariously bemoan their poor decision-making when they cast out their brother lo those many years ago, in the song "Those Canaan Days." From the slapstick stage work, to the intricate choreography and the cohesion of this group of actors, the scene steals the show.

Tony Award winner (In the Heights), Andy Blankenbuehler (whose name on a production team should make you sit up and take notice), deserves so much credit for his inventive choreography that allowed each performer to make his/her own impact. No lock-step here, and the real success in particular, is that each of the eleven brothers, had distinguishable personalities even as they act almost as one character.

Joseph, in all his muscular glory, is played by Ace Young, and he can definitely sing. My confusion (echoed by my teenage theater companion), was why he seems to have affected a somewhat squeaky, childish style to his vocal performance. Having heard him sing in the Broadway revival of Hair, I'm fairly certain this is not his normal voice tone, and especially in contrast to the mature tone his costar, and real-life wife (and fellow American Idol veteran), Diana DeGarmo offers, I found it a bit distracting. I was not unhappy that, despite the show's title, Joseph is not the performing focus in the production. In fact, it is DeGarmo's narrator that has the major singing responsibilities in the show, and she handles the role in great voice, and with a liberal dose of charisma and humor. The cast makes a largely successful effort to enunciate the lyrics of the almost entirely sung show, which I found impressive. However, there are a couple of numbers that could use a bit less kitsch (note: Elvis has not actually left the building) and a little more clear singing. Overall though, it works.

Also praise-worthy is Broadway veteran and Tony-nominated (The Scottsboro Boys) scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, who has created a versatile, multimedia set, that skillfully avoids an explosion of overdone splash, to which the show would have a tendency to lean.

So, in the end, there is nothing subtle about Joseph's coat, or this show...and I couldn't be happier about it. My nearly sixteen-year-old friend looked at me at intermission and said, with a big smile, "I'm REALLY enjoying this." That about says it all.

(Ace Young as Joseph; Diana DeGarmo as the Narrator)

For more information, and tickets to the DC run, go to http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=TPTSC

For the show's official website, go to http://www.josephthemusical.com

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