Stage review: Spokane Valley Summer Theatre surprises with ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’

It’s fun seeing live theater even if I know every beat of a show, but still, I sometimes think it would be an interesting experience to go in completely, or at least mostly, unfamiliar.

I had that experience with Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Without seeing previous productions, or the Donny Osmond-led film adaptation, I walked into the theater expecting to see a mostly serious musical.

The story does involve 11 brothers selling another brother into slavery, after all.

But even after reading summaries of the show, I didn’t anticipate just how over the top, in a good way, “Joseph” is. It’s campy, it’s fun, it’s a true spectacle.

“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical is a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph.

The show opens with the Narrator (Andrea Olsen) introducing her class of students to the story of Joseph (Landon Toth). Joseph shares some inspiration through song before the Narrator introduces Jacob (Dan Griffith), Joseph’s father, and his 11 other sons: Reuben (Sam Schneider), Simeon (Drew Olsen), Levi (Dakota Moses), Judah (Gatieh Nacario), Dan (Grant Measures), Naphtali (Abe McKinney), Gad (Aidan Headley), Asher (Ayden Gilbreath), Issachar (Jared Kraft, who also plays the butler), Zebulun (Josh White) and Benjamin (Benjamin Milonas).

Jacob fawns over Joseph and gives him a multicolored coat to show his favoritism. Joseph is excited by the gift, while his brothers stew in their jealousy. They’re also jealous because of Joseph’s dreams, which seem to imply that he will one day rule over them all.

To stop this dream from becoming reality, the brothers try to kill Joseph by throwing him in a pit. They then change their minds and decide to sell him to some Ishmaelites.

To hide Joseph’s sudden disappearance, his brothers and their wives tell Jacob that Joseph has been killed, showing Joseph’s coat, which is now torn to pieces and covered in goat’s blood. A devastated Jacob soon leaves before his sons and their wives celebrate.

Joseph is taken to Egypt, where he is bought by the wealthy Potiphar (Schneider). Through a lot of hard work, Joseph is promoted and eventually runs the household, where the Marilyn Monroe-inspired Mrs. Potiphar (a great role for Sophia Dompier) makes advances toward Joseph, which he declines.

Potiphar sees them together, though, and gets the wrong idea, deciding to throw Joseph in prison. But that’s not the last we see of Joseph.

I’ve been a fan of Olsen since seeing her in SVST’s “Always, Patsy Cline” in 2017, so it was no surprise that she made the role of the Narrator, onstage nearly the whole show, look easy. Along with maintaining her vocal chops through the sung-through show, she added moments of humor throughout, like when she carried a margarita glass during one song or ate cotton candy after another.

Toth, as Joseph, was also onstage nearly the whole show. From the first few notes of his first song “Any Dream Will Do,” I knew the role was in good hands. He’s confident as the much-beloved Joseph but also able to express the sense of betrayal Joseph felt after his brothers sent him away.

The students/children’s chorus were played by Kensington Dean, Harper Drake, Alexandria Germeaux, Hannah Gigstead, Maisee LaPlante, Amelia LaPlante, Declan Leavitt, Amelie Miller, Lennox Miller, Asher Milonas, Axl Olsen, Mia Sims and Sophia Winings.

The group added a lot of vibrancy to the show and made good use of the whole theater, as did the ensemble of brothers and their wives, played by Vanessa Cole (who was also so fun to watch as the Tina Turner-inspired Pharaoh), Jocelyn Caughlan, Dompier, Amanda Guariscoa, Chloe Kelly, Adeline Kraft, Dahlia Kothare, Nicole Ostlie, Sydney Petersen, Alex Read and Megan Sok.

Two of the funniest moments of the show were “Those Canaan Days,” during which the brothers sang about missing the good ol’ days, and “Benjamin Calypso,” led by Nacario in a Carmen Miranda/Chiquita Banana-inspired costume.

The stage could have easily looked crowded with such a large cast, but between director Collin J. Pittmann’s blocking and the varied choreography by Angela Rose Pierson, the groups moved smoothly across the stage.

The costumes, by Esther Iverson, helped differentiate one brother or wife from another. Speaking of costumes, Linay Robison’s dreamcoats were just as fantastical as I hoped they’d be.

Technical director and scenic designer David Baker’s set was simple in color but complex in design with its varying levels. Keep your eyes out for two atypical vehicles used during the show.

As I mentioned, I entered the theater quite unprepared for what I was going to see, but also unprepared for what I was going to hear. There are so many genres in this show, from country western to calypso to rock ‘n’ roll, it was tough to remember them all, so playing them all must have been a challenge.

Handling that challenge with ease was music director Christian Skok (piano/conductor), Isabella Mesenbrink (keyboard 1), Deborah Rambo Sinn (keyboard 2), Rob Peterson (bass), Tim Zilar (guitar), Jennifer Brummett (horn), Craig Catlett (woodwind 1), Jill Cathey (woodwind 2), Bryan Swenland (percussion 1) and Taylor Belote (percussion set).

“Joseph” was stage managed by Braeden Rowland, who also created the fun projections used in the show. The projections were controlled by Elsie Hess.

Whether you’ve seen it before or this is your first time experiencing the technicolor “Joseph,” Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production is a campy classic worth “go, go, go”-ing to. The production runs through Aug. 17.