Rosebud Theatre’s Joseph: an extravaganza of colour and music
By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor
Photo Courtesy of Morris Ertman
The show tells the biblical story of Joseph entirely through song. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote musical styles ranging from rock to country to folk, from Calypso to a Parisienne love song.
Under Bill Hamm’s musical direction, I expected these singers to perform well, but they’re even more marvelous than I imagined. The rich instrumentation is also just right – from piano, drums, trumpet, tuba, clarinet, saxophone, French horn, bass, drums, piano, accordion and mandolin.
Tim Rice’s lyrics are engaging and often laugh-aloud funny. I especially loved the tongue-in-cheek, platitude-packed song Joseph’s brothers sing to their father, pretending to mourn Joseph’s death after they sell him into slavery.
This big story has a big cast: 20 to 30 children, teens and adults. Yet, from the beginning, when Travis Friesen, playing Potiphar, and Cassia Schmidt as Narrator, lead the audience in a singalong refrain, the story also feels intimate and personal.
Daniel Fong, singing, dancing and acting the role of Joseph, overflows with talent. Schmidt as Narrator is in marvelous voice, opening a window for us to see the story through her eyes. David Snider is perfectly cast as a hilarious, mighty-yet-tortured Pharaoh. Friesen plays an intimidating yet ridiculous Potiphar. And teenaged Donovan Snider tugged on my heart-strings when, as Joseph’s youngest brother Benjamin, he is unjustly accused of stealing.
Hanne Loosen designed costumes that inspire even more tenderness and hilarity. Potiphar struts his macho glory in dangly gold earrings and shiny cowboy boots.
In prison, Joseph and his fellow prisoners wear all kinds of black and white stripes, as each holds up their own set of prison bars.
Pharaoh wears a bright aqua-and-yellow striped jacket, matched by a vest for Joseph when he becomes Pharaoh’s right-hand man.
The most important wardrobe item is, of course, Joseph’s coat. It’s sewn from 200 pieces of fabric in earth tones, sky blues and sunset stripes – the colours of the prairie and badlands around Rosebud.
Our opening night audience included everyone from seniors to older children, and the 10-year-old next to us was quiet and rapt throughout the show. I too was so immersed, intermission came when I wasn’t expecting it. But apparently, we weren’t the only ones caught up in it; more than once, the audience broke into applause after a song.
And as we walked out of the theatre, my companion said, “This show lifts you up!”
That’s how I felt too.
Tickets for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are at rosebudtheatre.com or 1-800-267-7553.