November 30, 2006 in Features

The coat of charms

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Before there was “Cats” … before there was “Phantom of the Opera” … there was a fun little number written for a school concert called “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

In 1967, the head of a school choir in London recruited an unknown composer named Andrew Lloyd Webber and an unknown lyricist named Tim Rice to write a 20-minute “pop cantata.”

The duo settled on the idea of telling the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors, using rock, country and pop styles. Luckily for them, a music critic was in the audience that night.

Today, expanded to nearly two hours, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is among the most enduring hits in the Lloyd Webber canon, with two smash Broadway runs and a nearly continuous touring schedule around the world.

A national touring version arrives tonight at the INB Performing Arts Center, promising the usual “Joseph” charms: a countrified rendition of “One More Angel in Heaven,” a Jamaican feel to “Benjamin’s Calypso,” and the Elvis-impersonator number, “Song of the King.”

This Troika Entertainment production stars Adam Ryan Tackett as Joseph, a role that was most famously tackled by Donny Osmond in the 1999 film version. Tackett has replaced Patrick Cassidy on this tour.

The show tells the parable of Joseph and his brothers entirely in song. It has a cheerful, unpretentious, campy appeal that stems from its roots as a kids’ show, yet it also offers lighting designers and costumers free rein to go over the top with the strobes and the flashy headpieces.

“Joseph’s” rise to theatrical fame is a show-biz parable in itself. After that London music critic wrote a favorable review in 1968, the show was expanded and reprised at St. Paul’s Cathedral. An album version was released, but didn’t exactly crack the charts.

Meanwhile, Lloyd Webber and Rice hit pay dirt with their rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar,” a massive hit on LP. The “Joseph” record was dusted off and released as if it were the follow-up to “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It stayed on the charts for three months.

Lloyd Webber and Rice spent years tinkering with the stage version, which did not emerge in its present form until the mid-1970s when a hit London production arrived. In 1982, it made it to Broadway and was an immediate sensation.

Then in 1991, the show was revamped as a flashy theatrical spectacle and had a 2 ½-year run at the London Palladium. This is the version upon which most of the ensuing versions are based.

This tour is the third to hit Spokane in 11 years. But that doesn’t even begin to explain how ubiquitous this fun-for-all-ages show has been over the years.

In our region alone, versions have been staged by the Spokane Civic Theatre, the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, the Cutter Theater in Metaline Falls, Wash., the Christian Youth Theater and the Spokane Children’s Theatre.

And that doesn’t even count the school productions. The show is performed in over 750 schools every year in the U.S. alone.

Yes, “Joseph” is still wildly popular in the same milieu in which it began: the school show.

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