The Kennedy Center ends its 2014 Broadway year with the little pop rock opera Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring the husband and wife team of Diana DeGarmo as the narrator & former American Idol contestant Ace Young.
I have a weird history with this show; I originally saw it in Las Vegas with Rick Springfield and was profoundly disappointed when it turned out to be a Springfield concert. Not that I don’t love me some Springfield, but I thought I was getting a musical. After the Springfield debacle, I’ve always had a strange desire to see this show.
Not knowing anything about it, I walked in expecting a Rock Opera along the lines of a Jesus Christ Superstar. Joseph is based on the bible fable of Joseph and his 11 brothers and a magical coat of many different colors. The story felt pretty dense and obtuse to me, I’ll freely admit that I didn’t understand most of what I was watching and kept thinking that if I was a bible thumper; I’d understand and have more appreciation for the story.
Tony Award Winner Andy Blankenbuehler takes on the Directing and Choreographing duties. He does a yeoman’s job with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s score. The music and lyrics were ambitious but lacked any kind of cohesion. One minute we have a soaring over the top Broadway opening like “Any Dream Will Do” and then it’ll segue into a weird old school fable like “Go Go Joseph” or a terrible country western tune like “One More Angel,” or a Calypso number like “Benjamin Calypso”. Every time I thought I had a handle on the tone of the music it’d radically shift to something else and not in an elegant way.
Diana DeGarmo does most of the heavy musical lifting in this show and does a solid job as the narrator although at times her voice wasn’t suited for the quieter moments where she had to set the scene. It was too soft and understated. There are not enough moments where she gets to showcase the soulful power of her voice. She does an amazing job on the Jacob and Son’s medley and I really enjoyed her in Potiphar. Ace Young does a nice job as Joseph, but surprisingly I didn’t feel like the show gave him much to do. This production really is about the Narrator, Joseph is just sort of there for most of the show. He does a nice job in the role, but seems to blend into the background most of the time.
My primary issue with the show is that it didn’t meet my expectations of how I originally envisioned it. Which admittedly is more my fault than the show. The first half of the show was really hard to sit through, it starts off painfully slow and drags along until the intermission.
Business picks up in the 2nd act when Joseph heads to the Las Vegas style Egypt and meets the Elvis like Pharaoh (Ryan Williams) who changes Joseph’s life by making him 2nd in command. This entire 2nd act was fun, lively, mostly upbeat and the rousing closing number left a smile on my face. I wished the entire show had this kind of spirit, spunk, and energy
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is currently running at The Kennedy Center December 16, 2014 – January 4, 2015. For more information visit www.kennedy-center.org.