Sunday, March 28, 2010
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Pittsburgh City Paper: "When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice created Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, they were 20 and 24 years old, respectively. It was 1968, and Webber and Rice were nobodies. What began as a quaint 15-minute concert piece for a small English school has evolved into one of the most-produced musicals in history."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I never knew the history of "Joseph" before, and now that I do the whole show makes much more sense. This reviewer captured the show pretty much dead-on. It's silly, kind of cute, and shallow, with "obnoxiously catchy" songs. It's a good show to do if you want to give kids a chance to perform musically and tell a very minimal story. My high school did "Joseph" my freshman year because our performance date got moved up several weeks, and this is a good show to put together with limited time.
This was the first show I ever worked tech on and it was very much a pageant. With bright colors, large purple rolling platforms, and an army suited brothers. The show was definitely interesting. While this article mentions only one female, many times casts have more with additional narrators or women playing some of the brothers when men become hard to find. All in all it is a cute show with very catchy lyrics.
This was the first musical that I got to stage manage. It was so much fun to work on and I really think that while the show has been criticized for being "fluff", it is a good story told in a way that is accessible to all audiences.
It also provided many technical challenges that were fun to deal with. The multiple locations, multiple genres, and (of course), the children. While the kids were fun and good to be around, having high school kids take care or younger kids was not a good mix. However, in the end, it turned out well and was a really good experience!
Post a Comment