Well the start of a new year has been an interesting one to say the least. Trying to get things figured out at work, trying to get school started up again, helping my best friend with wedding plans, and trying to make time for me (and not to go insane), has been crazy. However, it's been super fun. Not nearly as much stress in the last couple of months, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel with work stuff so that a HUGE plus. However, I have not gotten to hang out with friends, or do stuff myself, as much as I like so far.
However, there is one thing that I got to do that totally have made my month, and also has driven me crazy since I did it.
I got the privilege so see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat live at the Tennessee Theatre about two weeks ago!
I wasn't planning on going at all because of work, but because of the work craziness, my shifts got switched and my family had other plans so I was left to either go have fun or stay in my house by myself. I decided to go to the play by myself. Something that seems totally unlikely anyone would do unless you are a loner, but I did it and it was the best play I have ever seen!
The play is based off the story of Joseph in the Bible. He is one of twelves brothers, and was destined by God is do bigger and better things than to work on a farm. However, I do not recall any actual reference to God anywhere in the play. So, it's not a story about faith.... but it is a story from the Bible..... which I am not sure how they made it work so well, but they did. Anyways, off topic! His brothers are jealous because Jacob, their father, favors him above all the others. He shows that by giving him a coat of many colors (It was scarlet and black and ochre and peach...) and his brothers get jealous, sell him into slavery, and tell their father that he was killed....
Now that I am seeing this written out... it's disturbing that this is actually a really good, hilarious musical but it sounds like a horror story..... ANYWAYS
So it Joseph's story on how he went from favorite son, to slave, to ending up being a the equivalency of a prince in Egypt.
The reason why this play still drives me nuts is because of the music. It was so incredibly catchy that I have bought the whole soundtrack, its been out repeat in my car for two weeks and I still can not stop the songs from playing in the background in my head! The songs in this play were not at all what I thought they were going to be. When you watch a musical you hear the first song and you kinda know what you are getting yourself into musically for the rest of the show. Not with this one. The first song is your typical show-tune ballad, it sets up what the play is about, then the next song you are introduced to all of sons and song reminds sounds like you have been thrown into a West Side Story version of the Bible... Then there is never again any sort of consistency with the music. Not at all a bad thing! It totally works for the play. You have someone who sings in the style of Elvis, and the you have a Calypso-esk song, you have country, you have disco, you have a little bit of rock and roll, and there is a small through back to the 20s. There is even a song that the sons sing (without Joseph) where they are all singing with French accents and singing a song that reminds me a lot of the style the Gogol Bordello (if you don't know who they is you a missing out). Its one of those things that everyone will find something they will like.
The sets where very simple but beautifully done. There was so many set changes in this play that they had to do to show his travels from home to Egypt that they did not stay in one place for more than a few minutes. It was so seamlessly done that until you look back and think about it you don't really notice how many times that set was changed. They where colorful, they were artistic, they were a character all their own. They gave the stage the depth of a pharaoh sitting on the thrown and us looking up at him, but also gave the scene of a sad kitchen with the brothers mourning what they have done to Joseph. The costumes where the same way. They were bright and colorful when needed to be and dark and dreary the same way. There was not one thing to make me question why they did that.
Then of course the cast. You can not have a show without a cast. The cast of this play was just Fabulous! They were funny, they were excited to be there, and they really seemed to love what they were doing. This play had the most freedom when it came to the story because they interacted a lot with the audience. Like the Pharaoh came down after telling about his dream and picked a girl out of the audience and gave her the "call me" sign. One member of the cast, who played one of the brothers, was the lead singer of the song "Those Caanan Days" stood in from of the rest of the brothers while they were holding out a long note and started to get them to sing faster, slower, high and lower, and the audience cheered. Then he did the same thing to the audience making them us clap louder, softer, and he praised us for being able to follow directions. They had a lot of fun getting audience participation as much as they did singing on the stage. I will say I was highly impressed because this is the type of play where there is little to no talking. It is all singing all the time and all dancing all the time. There is no break for them to take until they get to the intermission! They don't even get a break then because they have to change clothes and sets. They did everything from making me want to cry before they were going to arrest Benjamin, and actually making me cry from laughing so hard.
The play had so mush laughter, and sarcasm, in it that you can not help but to love it! They take you, without you knowing it at the time, on this crazy emotional roller coaster ride. It's kinda like the sets, you don't know how many times your emotions changed until you think about. You are never is one place mentally or emotion for too long with this play.
I would have to say that I hope that they come back for another play here soon. That way I can take my mom with me and show her how great it really was.
Let's face it you can read how great it was all you want but you will never really know until you go yourself.
