Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Desperately Seeking Spectacle

Without sparkle, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will tank every time.   Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s juggernaut of camp is so joyous and so dorky that anything less than unabashed zeal from the production team can make the experience painfully cringy.  It’s that kind of show.  An uber simple bible story presented as a pageant of weirdly different pop stylings -- there’s a bluegrass number, and then the Pharoah of Egypt comes out in Elvis drag, what could be next?  Calypso!  Of course!  Joseph is show choir.  On coke.  And my point is:  you can’t half-ass a literal mega musical whose sole reason for existing is to be an Adult Show Choir on Coke.  (Speaking of, I assume Webber must have been nostrils deep in snow when he wrote Joseph.  Or maybe that was just when he wrote Cats.  And Starlight Express.  And Bad Cinderella.  And birthday cards to his mom.)

I have been burned by lukewarm Josephs before and I feared the usual.  Would this be a go, go,  Joseph or another hell no, Joseph? 

I walked into the Raven Performing Arts Theater in downtown Healdsburg and quickly realized that the Raven Players maybe didn’t have the resources to provide the expected razzle dazzle.  Okay.  So I did what any theater nerd would do staring down the barrel of a lengthy popera on a very beige set -- I took edibles and prepared to ride the wave.

Turns out, Space Gems and an underfunded production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are a great pairing!  Once the Emerald Cup-winning hash gummies from Eureka had kicked in, I found their easy-going euphoria thoroughly conducive to blanket acceptance of technical deficits and unfeigned appreciation for the Raven Players’ hustle.  No props?  No problem.  My disbelief?   Consider it suspended.  Wait a second, are those nuns?  Never mind. My brain was on longevity treatment and my mental Mr. Burns was bringing loooooove!  And I found the spectacle I was so desperately seeking.    I found the sparkle.   It was the people!   Les Pfutzenreuter led a great sounding orchestra.  Bridget Codoni’s charmingly accomplishable choreography was executed by a delightfully sincere cast who sang their faces off.  Michael Pickard and company ate One More Angel in Heaven and I was living for Stacy Rutz giving heart and E Major realness as the Narrator.

The Raven Performing Arts Theater is a rad converted movie theater amidst a wide selection of Healdsbougie restaurants, it is date night city over there, theater is dying and let’s all plan lovely evenings of food and culture for the ones we love. 

Raven Players, thanks for the razzle dazzle.  I see you.