ROSEBUD THEATRE’S JOSEPH A PURE GEM, AUDIENCE PLEASER
There’s no shortage of raucous fun and energy in Rosebud Theatre’s production of the family musical Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which runs until Sept. 1.
Morris Ertman’s sly, witty direction of the Tim Rice/ Andrew Lloyd Webber show not only zeros in on all the humour inherent in the script, but he adds much more of his own.
When Joseph becomes a slave in the household of the wealthy Egyptian Potiphar (Travis Friesen), the man’s wife (Laura Gillespie) attempts to seduce the unsuspecting and unco-operative Joseph (Daniel Fong).
Gillespie is also the trumpet player in the onstage band and she plays the trumpet as part of the temptation scene and the dance she creates with Fong and that trumpet is hilarious and so appropriate.
Joseph’s father Jacob (Mike Thiessen) is played as a patriarch so aged that he needs a walker and Jacob even has his own little trailer which can be wheeled on and offstage.
After the brothers sell Joseph to a band of travelling Ishmaelites, brother Dan (Brent Gill) seizes the (puppet) sheep a young child has been cradling so they can spill its blood on Joseph’s coat of many colours.
All of Gill’s wonderful mugging
and use of that puppet turns what could be a gruesome moment into more hilarious fun.
Any production of Joseph/ Dreamcoat soars or stumbles through the casting of Joseph and, in Fong, Rosebud has a real gem which explains why, despite some shortcomings in the show, audiences are royally entertained.
Fong ’s Joseph is a bundle of energy and he has such an expressive face. He never allows Joseph to be saintly, making the most of the young man’s teasing as he explains to his brothers that his dreams clearly show he is superior to them and deserving to be their father’s favourite son.
Fong has such a dynamic voice you wish Rice and Lloyd Webber had written a dozen more songs for Joseph. He brings such haunting melancholy to Joseph’s prison song, Close Every Door to Me, and a genuine majesty to Joseph’s anthem, Any Dream Will Do.
Joseph/Dreamcoat is a sungthrough musical. The songs are linked by the narrator (Cassia Schmidt), who provides the exposition. Schmidt has a beautiful, clear, expressive voice but it is thin and, even with amplification, it’s often difficult to catch all those essential, clever lyrics.
Friesen is a certified scene stealer as Potiphar, whether he’s lamenting the supposed death of Joseph in the rockabilly number There’s One More Angel in Heaven or strutting about pompously to a Charleston beat.
David Snider plays the Pharaoh Ramses as a cross between an evangelical minister and an Elvis-style rocker. Try as he may, Snider can’t escape the fact the pharaoh’s Song of the King has to pay tribute to the King of Rock. In his spoof of fame and power, Snider has great fun curling up in his throne as the ruler gets more petulant, paranoid and frightened.
Ertman, Snider and Fong have great fun showing how Joseph’s fame begins to eclipse even that of the pharaoh.
With Ertman and his talented cast throwing caution and decorum to the wind, it’s difficult to understand why Deanne Bertsch’s choreography is so reserved and uninspired. Friesen’s One More Angel should have evolved into a hearty hoedown and Blair Young ’s French-tinged ballad Those Canaan Days cries out for an Apache dance spoof.
Tenaj Williams is a charismatic performer, but even he could have benefited by having the entire ensemble join in to turn Benjamin’s Calypso into a huge production number as Bertsch does with the Any Dream Will Do reprise that closes the show. That received a much-deserved standing ovation which tells Bertsch what she should have done with some of the other musical numbers.
Musical director Bill Hamm brings a zesty feel to Lloyd Webber’s score.
Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, especially in the hands of such talented artists, refuses to show its age. It turns 50 this year and it feels as fresh, inspired and inspiring as it ever did.