reviewvancouver: TUTS: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

I have to confess that after 23 years of living in this wonderful city, I had never been to a Theatre under the Stars^TM presentation. That is until last night (15/07/2010) when I turned up at the Malkin Bowl for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I didn’t really expect to see a by-the-book adaptation of the story of Jacob’s favourite son who never got along with his siblings. As it turned out, the family-friendly open-air theatre is hardly conducive to a bible class. Nonetheless, the only similarity that director Shel Piercy’s transcription has with the original book of Genesis is that the eponymous Joseph gets to wear a polychromatic coat.

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote this little piece of musical theatre even before their hit Jesus Christ Superstar and originally intended it for a school project in London. It can best be described as a secular oratorio -- almost the entire text is sung – except that it also includes costumes and scenery. The story, naturally chronicles the life of Joseph, the most famous member of Jacob’s extended family. Despised by his brothers who sell him into slavery, he, through his uncanny knack of interpreting dreams rises to a position of power in Pharaoh’s inner circle.

TUTS version of Joseph starts out the way it was initially envisioned; a bunch of school children struggling to pull together a musical play with minimum resources. They get help from a group of young squatters who inhabit the abandoned theatre where the kids are rehearsing.

The huge cast, blended from a gang of lively moppets and emerging talent almost straight out of theatre school, fill the stage with movement, song, and sparkling choreography.

Seventeen-year-old Erik Ioannidis, already a veteran of Arts Club Theatre, Vancouver Opera and previous TUTS productions, takes on the title role of Joseph who is simultaneously naive, charismatic and heroic. He sings with flexibility and feeling. His “brothers” (okay, so ten of his brothers are actually sisters for this production) are a bunch of energetic youngsters who display discipline and focus throughout the ninety-minute show and look like they’re having a good time doing it.

Other standouts are Madeleine Suddaby as Starshine, one of four narrators, Amber Shikaze as Saigon who steps forward with a ludicrous impersonation of Tina Turner singing the second act ‘Song of the King.’ And Alan Blackwell surely deserves praise for the sheer pluck of being the only boy in ‘Little Players Guild.’

It’s hard to understand why this musical has endured; the songs aren’t easily remembered. Still, it certainly looks a lot of fun to perform. If you go and see it, you’ll likely have fun too. Just don’t expect a bible lesson.