| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bucks County Playhouse brings back Andrew Lloyd
Webber and Tim Rice's popular musical.
The story of how Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat began is well-known: How Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who had been classmates, teamed up to write a 15-minute musical pastiche for a grammar school in a suburb of London; how the initial offering was so well-received, the two continued to add songs, changing styles as they did so. When finished, the piece ran about 90 minutes (with intermission) and included a cowboy number, a calypso song, a spoof of a French ballad, pure rock and more.
Since the original presentation in 1968, the show has been revived in many ways--sometimes with biblical majesty, and often with children on the stage, as if listening to a reading. But occasionally it has been presented as a wild take-off on musical offerings, with scenes inspired by Peter Pan, Wild, Wild West or West Side Story, for example.
Bucks County Playhouse has been staging the show for the past five years and it has become one of the theater's big favorites, and with good reason: Director/choreographer Stephen Casey has created a high-level, pulsating version of the story that pays full attention to the Old Testament tale, and incorporates all the fun of a carnival or a birthday celebration, but never forgets that the ancient story had a moral to tell as well. This year's revival has been tweaked to add new excitement and a few new laughs, plus, of course, it has been re-cast.
Playing the title role this year is Brian Ogilvie, seen earlier this summer as Percy in The Scarlet Pimpernel and Chip in On the Town. He is dynamite in the part, handling the score with ease and, as importantly, allowing the audience to like him, even when the script makes him seem a bit arrogant.
The role of the Narrator is being shared by Jill Palena and Amy Lynn Zanetto. I saw the latter on opening night and was impressed. Grey Fortuna repeats his roles as Jacob (Joseph's father) and Potiphar, both with zest. The versatile Tara Bruno has a delicious time slithering through the scene as Mrs. Potiphar.
Joseph remains one of the Playhouse's real achievements. And one of my personal favorites.