A Review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
By Kaitlyn Randolph and Riley Mitlehner
On October 24th, Sunset Choir presented a one-night performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was a sudden shift from the usual concerts that feature slow songs and antique choir uniforms. This performance was reminiscent of the choir’s annual variety show at the end of each school year, except for two key differences: First, it was one cohesive musical instead of a combination of skits. Second, the entire choir sang together for the majority of the show. There are four choir periods at Sunset, who all learned the same songs and choreography for the show. Prior to the production, it had never been fully rehearsed with all four periods at once — they didn’t even make it to the halfway point during practices. One choir student said, “It was clear from the start that the production value wasn’t going to be the best, so we all just decided to let go and have fun with it.” Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was an entertaining show and garnered a lot of audience support due to its energy and comedic nature.
Ben Gibson as Joseph
The show is loosely based on a story from the book of Genesis, featuring the biblical figure Joseph. In the show, Joseph receives an amazing technicolor dreamcoat (hence the name) and devines through prophetic dreams that he will be the most successful of his eleven brothers. They become jealous of him and sell him into slavery, where he is imprisoned by an Egyptian noble. However, during his time locked up, he discovers he can interpret other people’s dreams. Joseph eventually becomes the Pharaoh’s right hand man and helps to prepare Egypt for a widespread famine he had predicted.
The musical is set in Canaan and Egypt, and there are a few references to Israel throughout the songs. Israel is currently involved in a major conflict with Palestine, which did not go unaddressed. When introducing the show to the audience, choir director Christopher Rust said, “The show is silly and funny, we didn’t do the show to disrespect or dishonor or ignore the heartbreak that’s going on. In some ways we do this show in spite of all that’s going on with the hope of us being entertained for a moment, and then we can go back into the real world and be the peaceful, kind, peace-loving people we aim to be.” This statement was met with applause from the audience.
During this introduction, Rust also finished up some last-minute housekeeping — he turned around and instructed all of the performers on how to use their confetti poppers. Rust also gave some disclaimers about the show, asking the audience to ignore that somehow, there are cowboys and French people in the Middle East BCE. It set expectations for the mood of the show onward — informal and comical. At first, these strange choices appeared to be due to the choir’s lack of costuming and the stubbornness of the student performers who wanted to have fun. However, after researching the musical — they were accurately depicting the actual songs.
One More Angel in Heaven (the cowboy hoedown) side by side
The main structure of the show featured a diverse array of soloists taking center stage with the choir doing background supporting vocals. Despite it being a traditional musical, almost all characters were played by different people throughout the songs instead of a fixed cast. Joseph, played by various tenors, was distinguished by whoever was currently wearing the long (and amazing technicolor) dreamcoat. The narrator role was widely shared, most often played by altos and sopranos due to the lack of female characters in the musical itself.
A fan favorite character was the Pharaoh, who was oddly (and without a doubt purposefully) similar to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. He showed up for one scene rocking sideburns, sunglasses, the iconic hair, and a full white jumpsuit. During this scene, in which some of the choir portray fangirls screaming over Joseph (at that moment played by Sunset Choir’s Dylan Baker), a group of girls decided to go off script and join the original admiring crowd. They piled at his feet, tugged on his coat, and completely surprised both Joseph and the audience. While no one could tell that it wasn’t originally part of the plan, it was clear that this choice was made because the performers were having fun and doing what they wanted.
The Pharaoh (Elvis) side by side — portrayed by Sunset’s Liam Cuff
Overall, the show was extremely casual and wildly entertaining. Soloist Chasie Brosemann, who played a French narrator along with Isaac Hoffman, learned to play the accordion just for the role and really committed to the French accent. Singing proudly from the back, the choir wore cartoonish handlebar mustaches — well, half of them did. The other half lost their mustaches in the chaos of the cowboy hoedown and held their pointer fingers against their upper lips to imitate them instead. Other humorous moments included when multiple soloists forgot their lines and hummed instead, and when members of the choir held up signs with clear modern-day references (like a Twitter hashtag of #FREEBEN) during pivotal scenes. Another moment that stood out was when a soloist accidentally skipped a section of her song, and Rust stopped the entire production to tell her where they were. The soloist’s reaction looked a little something like this:
She then went on to quickly rectify her mistake. Despite these mishaps, the general consensus of the audience was that it was the best choir performance Sunset had put on in recent years. The unique concept combined with the energy of the students and comedic scenes from the musical itself made it a memorable production in Sunset Choir’s repertoire.
