TECHNICOLOR TURNCOAT

It’s like one of the Great Plagues of Egypt:   Every so often, some producer decides to dust off another production of this old Andrew Lloyd Webber chestnut, and cast some past-his-sell-by date TV star in the role of Joseph, the hot young Biblical fellow whose dreams and visions earn him fame and favor with Pharaoh. With music by Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat isn’t the worst work in the world – though it does suffer from being the overdone product of a thousand senior year high school productions.

For director Andy Blankenbuehler’s creaky staging of the musical, we are given former American Idol stars Ace Young (in the role of the eponymous Joseph) and  Diana DeGarmo (The Narrator), both of whom  also happen to be husband and wife. In truth, it’s a pleasure to hear some of the famous old show tunes the production boasts – really, anyone who has a larynx can sing songs such as “Any Dream Will Do” and make it tuneful – but it’s awkward when you are watching a show and you realize that you’ve seen productions of it at gay bar karaoke nights with ten times the passion and vigor than this fusty production renders.

Alas, this bus-and-truck edition of the show suffers from being so mechanical and lacking in underlying depth, it almost feels like a tech rehearsal in which the cast has been told to reign in any “acting” and just speed through the dialogue and songs to get through the piece as fast as possible.

For those who don’t know the story, Joseph is sold into slavery by his several brothers, but winds up in the household of the Pharaoh after he correctly predicts seven years of famine. Most of the tale is recounted by The Narrator, and DeGarmo abets the karaoke-like atmosphere by brandishing a handheld microphone throughout the show. Her voice frankly lacks the chops and resonance for theatrical work: She strains at high notes, which tend to vanish into the ether of a hyena-like yip, and she seems capable of only a couple of expressions: The photogenic smile and the duck-lipped pout.

As for Young’s turn as the role of Joseph, he doesn’t quite possess the stage heft necessary to command attention. His voice, amplified to the point of almost being bionic, sounds like thin ice, cracking and lacking in forceful breath control. Other performers in the role have possessed charisma that keeps your attention. For some reason, Young simply doesn’t catch it. Even when he’s dancing humpy and shirtless, our eyes wander to a flipping chorus dancer or an actor rubbing his belly as character expression. Young just can’t capture the focus, particularly since his default expression is a leering, smiling rictus that is reminiscent of the lockjaw grin of one who has perished from arsenic.

Most of the show’s weaknesses, though, rely on Blankenbuehler’s rather sad staging, which seems weirdly stuck in the amber of the 1980s. Really, you have never seen so many instances of Jazz Hands since a production of Pippin from that decade.  And the musical numbers are generally so over-miked that Rice’s already Easy-Bake lyrics are often lost in the fizz and the thump. Truly, even with the generous energy from a hard-working chorus, the show suffers from a curiously glum despair. For one thing, scenic designer Beowulf Borutt’s set is just plain cheap looking; at one point curtains descend from the ceiling, causing Pharaoh’s court to resemble the backdrop of a spelling bee in Paducah. As characters don cheap shrouds onto which are projected video images of fish or birds, it’s like a scene from the movie Soylent Green before the old guy gets eaten.

Ultimately, it’s hard to see how any production of Joseph can get things so wrong, but this edition just clunks along as an act of indifferent commerce rather than theater.

photos by Daniel A. Swalec

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
produced by the Independent Presenters Network
reviewed at Hollywood Pantages

National Tour continues until April, 2015 May 10, 2016
for cities and tickets, visit Joseph on Tour