Dreaming In
Technicolor
he splashy promotionals for
Joseph And The Amazing Tech-
nicolor Dreamcoat quote the Book of
Genesis. In the show, a lip-quiver-
ing pharaoh sports 1950s sideburns,
and his right-hand man, a shepherd-turned-
fortune teller, flaunts bright disco glitter.
Where are we?
Like a dream, Andrew Lloyd Webber's ver-
sion of Joseph blurs time lines between the
ancient and modern. Bible meets Broad-
way. Egypt bows to Elvis. Suddenly, litur-
gy is neon-lit.
Revisionist history tells a story of Jacob and his dysfunc-
tional family just as it really wasn't — choreographed by An-
thony van Laast and set to a musical score that's French
chanson, calypso, country-western and, of course, a little bit
of rock"n' roll.
Star of the show Donny Osmond describes Joseph as part
serious, part comedy.
'We're not doing Shakespeare," he says. "But the overall
message is important — going after what you believe in."
This man of pop and purple socks has his own tale to tell
about landing the role of Jacob's favorite son. Surprisingly,
it has little to do with relating, on a personal level, to growing
up in a big family. It has more to do with fluke and circum-
stance.
Donny was riding on the success of his chart-busting hit
"Soldier of Love" and cutting another album in late 1991 when
his agent alerted him to a Joseph audition in New York City.
Begrudgingly, Donny consented to go. He wrapped up the
day's recording gig in Los Angeles, caught a red-eye flight to
NYC, fell asleep on the plane and landed in the city totally un-
prepared.
"I had no idea what I was doing," he says.
Donny didn't hesitate to tell that to the show's producer.
And the producer wasn't pleased.
"He was a little bit ticked off," Donny admits.
Asked to sing something from Joseph's musical score, Don-
ny requested a CD booklet with lyrics. Highly uncouth. Things
weren't looking nearly as bright as that technicolor dream-
coat.
But when the pianist struck up a title tune, "I just threw
myself into it. I became Joseph," Donny recalls. "At the end of
the number, you could have heard a pin drop."
He was offered the job on the spot.
Go! Go! Go! Joseph lights up
1- a Motown stage with electric, eclectic pizazz.
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
10
fter record-breaking runs in Toronto, Chicago and Min-
neapolis, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream-
coat opens in Detroit on Nov. 29 at the Masonic Temple
Theatre downtown. It runs through Jan. 28.
Presented by Live Entertainment of Canada (Livent), the
production touts a cast of 34 singers and dancers, 13 truck-
loads of scenery and a 92-member choir featuring metro De-
troit students.
The show's promo literature announces that "it all began in
1967." A bit misleading. Joseph, born before the common era,
would've been long dead by the '60s.
So, from biblical times you need to flash forward a couple
millennia to the summer when Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote
a pop cantata for schoolchildren in England. Ah, now that (ac-
cording to Broadway) is when it really all began ...
c
,/