THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060044
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
THE TRICK WITH ``Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' is to expand it, extend it - and yet keep the illusion that it is simple. The assignment is to make a great deal out of very little.
The super-big production currently at Chrysler Hall achieves this with a joyful punch that is sure to be a crowd pleaser, sending the customers out on a wave of exhilaration that rivals an old-time revival meeting in its grand-finale staging.
It's overproduced in the extreme, but after a series of cheapjack productions that have landed at Chrysler Hall in recent seasons, you won't get much criticism of a show that delivers glitz and pomp. In the words of that immortal philosopher Miss Mae West, ``too much of a good thing can be wonderful.''
Every song is sung several times. In fact, one might wonder when a ``reprise'' actually becomes just a ``repeat.''
``Joseph'' was originally a 15-minute cantata commissioned for a prestigious London school boys choir in 1968. Looking for another Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice hit after their ``Jesus Christ Superstar'' made them famous a few years later, ``Joseph'' was expanded.
The current version, which features 50 local children singing on stage with the touring cast, is directed by Steven Pimlott, who received an Olivier Award nomination for his London version.
Sam Harris, a 16-week vocal winner on ``Star Search,'' is the pumped-up tenor who plays Joseph. To his credit, he does attempt to style the ultra-simple songs rather than merely belt them in the manner of many of his predecessors. He turns Joseph into a rather vulnerable, likable fellow, in spite of all the required preening.
Joseph is the favorite son of his father, Jacob - a factor he flaunts with his coat of many colors until his 11 envious brothers sell him into slavery. In Egypt, he becomes adviser to the Pharaoh (John Ganun), who does Elvis routines and announces that ``it feels great to be the king.''
Mindy Franzese is a high-extensioned Mrs. Potiphar, who tries to put the make on little Joe. The narrator, a role first sung in New York by Cleavon Little, is classily handled by Kristine Fraelich, who manages to suggest that she is presenting the story for children.
The scene-stealers, though, are the local children, whose fresh faces delightfully reflect their joy at being on stage. Their vocal, as well as stage, cues are expertly executed - they seem at home here. Groups participating on various nights are the Hurrah Players, the Fine Arts Center of Suffolk and Lynnhaven Middle School Vocal Ensemble. They're a major part of making this show a success.
The pop-opera score, in its ultra-simple way, goes from soft rock to calypso to country and western with the influences of Jacques Brel and Carl Orff sprinkled about. The sets range from a pyramid to the gates of Graceland. The incongruities are delightful.
Children will love it and may not even notice that the daddies are watching Pharaoh's handmaidens gyrate around in what look like pasties. The big corn harvest that ends the famine is delivered via a huge Vegas-like slot machine.
Just to make sure that you didn't miss anything, the cast, in effect, does the whole show over again in what may be the longest curtain call known to modern theater, a self-proclaimed ``Joseph Megamix'' that is designed to cheer on standing ovations.
It's a big show. by CNB