'Dreamcoat’ keeps it all in the family in Portland, OR and across America!

[Radio_Lady]

You still have a few more days to sashay over to the Keller Auditorium in Portland to see the 2006 touring company of 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,' a beautiful musical bauble that shines and sparkles its way into your heart. Created by the legendary Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in 1968, 'Joseph' is now performed 500 times a year by a variety of theater companies. This one comes from Broadway Across America, and it is simply outstanding.

You'll also be able to see this production on tour for most of the summer in Indianapolis, IN; Columbus, OH; Norfolk, VA; Tempe, AZ; Denver, CO; and San Diego, Los Angeles, and Costa Mesa, CA. Please check your local listings or try these links for schedules and ticket information:

http://www.broadwayacrossamerica.com

http://www.ticketliquidator.com/tix/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat-events.aspx

'Joseph' is still a delectable experience but quite different from what I remember after seeing the dark and handsome Donny Osmond in the role in Boston years ago, as well as in the PBS special which we own on VHS. Actually, I must be the only person in Portland's first night audience who saw the late Jack Cassidy, the father of the lead actor, Patrick Cassidy, on stage in 1963. That was in "She Loves Me" with Barbara Cook and Daniel Massey. I have to try very hard not to feel about as old as the Sphinx!

I must admit that my first thought on glimpsing Patrick Cassidy was, "Wow! I wish your Dad could see you now, Patrick. I'm sure your mother, the actress and singer Shirley Jones, is just so proud of you! You’re a beautiful light confection, delicious, sensuous, and so attractive -- and just forty-four years old. Sigh!"

Then came my second thought. "Funny, you don’t LOOK Jewish! Don’t get me wrong, you’re gorgeous -- but you're a Gentile if I've ever seen one! And what's with all the blonde women? I don't remember any of those when I was in Israel and Egypt!"

But nevermind. After accepting the pale complexions of many of the actors, I just got right into the spirit of the musical play. The costuming is just dandy for the summer -- even the guys get to wear short skirts. The dreamcoat is more of a coat-dress -- didn't I have one like that in the 1950s? The re-imagined sets are compacted for travel, and the entire lighting direction was exceptionally well done -- complete with razzle-dazzle strobe and neon lights, and lots of cool smoke effects. The music is just as wonderful as I remembered it from the London cast recording, with everyone in excellent voice. The orchestra did peppy renderings of the different thematic music. Amy Adams was absent for the first night, and there were other replacements as well. However, I can't imagine the leads being any better than the cast they assembled at the premiere on Tuesday evening.

OK. I still have sutures in my right hand from surgery on Monday. I'll demure to this interesting background article put together by Joseph Gallivan of the Portland Tribune newspaper. I spoke with him today and he gave me the go-ahead to post his article from Tuesday. I just love that British-English accent, don't you? And I'm going to hear it LIVE next month when we go gallavanting to London, England.

"Go-go-go, Joe!"

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‘Dreamcoat’ keeps it all in the family
Patrick Cassidy plays Joseph, with the help of some close relatives
By JOSEPH GALLIVAN
Issue date: Tue, Apr 4, 2006
The Portland Tribune

We love dreamers, but what about dream interpreters?

Portland gets the chance to find out when Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s ripped-from-the-Bible musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” rolls into town for a week at the Keller Auditorium.

With the help of “American Idol” runner-up Amy Adams as the Narrator, the story skips right along. Even Bible-phobes will get it.

Jacob has 12 sons, but his clear favorite is Joseph, hence the fancy “schmatta”. Joseph is an annoying brat who brags of having dreams that show he will be a great man, while his siblings will be losers. They gang up on him, sell him into slavery and lie to the patriarch that he died, having daubed goat’s blood on the coat — there’s no “CSI: Canaan” franchise.

Once in Egypt, he ends up as the top dream interpreter to the Elvis-like Pharaoh, saving the economy in the process. Hailed like Alan Greenspan, Joseph finds stardom sits well on his shoulders. It’s a classic American Cinderella tale, by way of English pantomime (silly pop song knock-offs, men in dresses), which clearly influenced Webber and Rice. It all ends in a happy family reunion.

Joseph, he of the rainbow-hued parka, is played by Patrick Cassidy, the son of musical stars Shirley Jones (“The Partridge Family”) and Jack Cassidy, and brother of former heartthrobs David and Shaun.

Los Angeles-based Cassidy, 44, has on the road with him his sons, ages 10 and 7, and wife Melissa Hurley, who sings the role of Potiphar’s spouse. “She plays a seductress and Joseph is supposed to fend her off, which is tough for me because I like it,” he says cheerily.

The production uses a nonprofessional children’s choir in each city it visits, and the Cassidy kids drop into the mix for a few shows. Asked if his two are professionals, he quips, “I hope not! I’m trying not to make them think of it as a career.”

Cassidy is enjoying his trip through the Northwest, mainly because he doesn’t need a humidifier for his vocal cords. “When it’s dry like in Utah, I sound a lot more like Michael Bolton on a bad day.”

The show started life as a 15-minute piece for a children’s choir. Today it still depends on the innocent tones of the children’s choir for its charms, but it has expanded into a sing-along comedy that blends many musical styles.

“One More Angel in Heaven,” where the sons report Joseph’s fake death to their father, is done as a cowboy tune; Pharaoh rocks like Elvis; “Those Canaan Days” is part “If I Were a Rich Man,” part French folk. When the brothers rally to save little brother Benjamin from theft charges, they sing a calypso. The final number is a megamix that Cassidy says often gets the balcony dwellers dancing.

“The core of the story is forgiveness and believing in your dream,” Cassidy says. “Outside of that it’s played for laughs.”

7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, April 4-8; also 2 p.m. Saturday, April 8; 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 9, Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St., 503-241-1802, www.portlandopera.org/broadway $20 to $65; also available through Ticketmaster (503-790-2787), subject to service charges.

Link: http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=34630

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