Joseph not so Amazing but worth seeing

Starlight Theatre in Kansas City is sponsoring “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat this week. Rather than a touring show from Broadway, it is an Independent Presenters Network production, co-sponsored by some 40+ theaters, including Kansas City’s Starlight.

The show stars Diana DeGarmo as the narrator and Ace Young as Joseph — both names that didn’t mean anything to Betsy and me. Reading their bios we saw that both were American Idol contestants in different seasons that met later on Broadway in a production of Hair (DeGarmo was the first Idol alum to make it to Broadway) and somewhat recently got married.

DeGarmo does have a good, powerful voice, round and powerful in its center range, and expressive but less powerful in its upper range. I liked the way she didn’t try to sing everything in smooth line, but gave spoken-type inflection and expression to some sections of the musical text.

Young’s voice is nasally resonant and not so round. There were places in the lyrics where it sounded like he had a heavy accent of some type that wasn’t so easy to understand what he was singing. Betsy said it sometimes seemed that his primary reason for getting the role was his ability to look good while standing  akimbo shirtless.

Which is not to downplay the performance he gave, but to contrast it With DeGarmo. His performance seemed to sink into the traditional role, so he didn’t stand out from other performers, unless it was in his shirtlessness. DeGarmo used her musical expression to strike her own imprint on the role of narrator.  She played the role, and she exceeded the traditional role.

I really enjoyed Reuben singing the song for One More Angel (Western) and Simeon in Those Canaan Days (French). Judah in the Benjamin Calypso was the least compelling novelty song. For singing I felt the brothers actually outdid the quality of Young as Joseph.

Both the actors for Jacob and Pharaoh drew appreciative applause from the audience.

The other main thing was the “curtain call” was really a final number — the Joseph Megamix, which was a great performance number, and stalled the usual flood of people leaving early. People didn’t start leaving early until they got to the final curtain bows.

The one scene that disappointed me was the seduction scene by Potiphar’s wife. The final discovery by Potiphar occurred after a sequence where I didn’t feel that Joseph was trying to escape hard enough. One could easily be uncertain whether he had acquiesed, the way the scene got played.  And while the show takes creative license with the writing of scripture, that is one point that has to stay crystal clear for the story to work.

Overall I would encourage people to go see the show, Just don’t expect to be the best performance of Joseph that you have seen.