‘Joseph’ and the amazing staging

Young Chang

No, you’re not experiencing deja-vu. Productions of “Joseph and the

Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” have been repeating at local theaters.

And no, you weren’t wrong to think the show just closed. The Newport

Beach Theater Company’s production ended last weekend. Now through

Sunday, Vanguard University will finish its run of the acclaimed Andrew

Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical.

The fourth “Joseph” production to be presented in Newport Mesa in

recent years -- besides the staging at the Newport Beach Theater Company,

the Orange County Performing Arts Center brought it to town in the mid

‘90s and the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse staged it last March -- local

theater leaders say the show has enough room for creativity to be staged

and staged and staged.

It’s been done Vegas-style, hippie chic, Elizabethan, acrobatic and

conventionally, in the original biblical style with characters in robes

and sandals.

“It’s been done so often, [directors] try to come up with a different

slant,” said Susan Berkompas, artistic producing director for Vanguard’s

show. “There’s a million different ways you can do ‘Joseph’ because it’s

so timeless.”

The university’s run of “Joseph” will be done traditionally, with less

alternative stylings to the story.

“We really wanted to take this show and bring it back to its roots,”

Berkompas said.

The Bible story-based musical is about a boy named Joseph who is his

father’s favorite son. He gets to wear a rainbow-colored coat while his

older brothers wear sheepskin. Joseph has a dream that his brothers’

wheat stacks will bow to his wheat stack. The brothers, unhappy with the

idea that they may bow to their kin, set out to destroy him. They sell

Joseph to an Egyptian property owner named Potifer and lie to their

father, Jacob, telling him that the boy has been killed by a wild animal.

Eventually, Joseph gets in the Pharaoh’s good graces. By the time

Joseph’s brothers see him again (and don’t realize it’s him), he has been

appointed the Minister of Agriculture. All ends happily, but Joseph has a

little fun first.

“It’s for all the family,” said Damien Lorton, artistic director of

the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, which staged “Joseph” last year in a ‘70s

retro, acid-rock way. “There’s nothing graphic in the show and it’s just

very entertaining. It’s one of those shows you leave feeling good.”

For Lorton’s production, the men wore short ‘70s vests and the women

wore gogo-type outfits. The usually Elvis-like Pharaoh was presented like

Ziggy Stardust and Potifer resembled Elton John.

“The show already has a concert feel to it but we really played with

it and brought in disco balls and smoke and steam,” Lorton said.

Berkompas added that the story is simple enough to play with and vary,

but the music spans so many genres -- country, reggae, rock -- that the

show really ends up feeling like the pop rock opera it’s categorized as.

“I don’t think it really has any scenes that drag in it so it’s really

fast and it’s really exciting,” said Linda Safran, president of the

Newport Beach Theater Company. “And it doesn’t last very long so there’s

no room for anything that’s not absolutely as good as it could be.”

FYI

* What: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”

* When: 2 and 8 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Sunday

* Where: Vanguard University’s Lyceum Theater, 55 Fair Drive, Costa

Mesa

* Cost: $15.30

* Call: (714) 668-6145