When I was in year 11, I performed in my first musical. My high school put on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I really wanted to be Joseph. I had been watching the Donny Osmond version, and my dad had a copy of the music, so I had been learning the songs. I didn’t get it however, and was given the role of Simeon. To this day, I can still remember Those Canaan Days, and can bust out the French accent at a moment’s notice.
I then got the opportunity to play as part of the orchestra when Limelight Theatre in Wanneroo performed it in 2011 – my last musical before going off to be a minister. It was a hugely fun experience, and I have strong memories of many of the orchestra members I played with.
With this experience, and having performed musicals at Stirling Theatre before, I was looking forward to Stirling Theatre’s latest production – only to be slightly disappointed that they were using backing tracks and not a live band.
Pit Reviews Perth exists to put a focus on the music in Musical Theatre reviews, after having personally been subject to many reviews where the band gets a cursory mention, if at all. And so I think it is right to criticise when there is a possibility of using musicians, and then choosing to use a backing track. There are always issues when using backing tracks for musicals – the odd waiting for the track to start, or trying to time the held notes. These of course can still occur with a live band, however a band can be flexible and adjust for the performers – a backing track cannot. I found that particularly in the first act, there seemed to be a strong feeling that the cast were sitting just behind the beat, which made it hard for the energy of the show to come through.
In terms of the backing tracks themselves, they seemed to be of high quality. Right on Cue Services record backing tracks with professional musicians, so there’s no dodgy sound pack that can really affect the timbre of the performance, and that really helped. However, it seemed that the audience were slightly confused as to whether to clap after the Overture – should we clap that the backing track worked? Yes, we need it for setting up the scene, but not having live musicians to show our appreciation to kicked the show off in a very artificial way.
There also seemed to be a couple of issues – particularly with the dance heavy tracks. There are moments in the show that there is a strong percussion beat for the actors to dance to – but there was a distinct lack of drums. I don’t know whether this was an issue with the tracks, or with the EQ that was put on at the mixing desk, or a technical capability of the speakers at Stirling, however the lack of bass in particular really sucked the energy from these sections, and made it harder for the actors to hit their cues.
There were a couple of microphone issues – a couple of dead spots on the stage where microphones seemed to cut out. I only noticed in a couple of songs at the beginning, so it may have been a simple fix. With a large number of cast in microphones, there were times when the ensemble singing made it hard to hear the lead, and some microphones seemed to have gain set too high as it was picking up noisy costumes when offstage.
But enough about the backing track – let’s talk about this production.
There have been a number of choices made through this production – some of which worked, and some which didn’t.
There was a choice to have three narrators share a role originally intended for one. Now it is a big role, and choosing to split it up gives singers the ability to save their voices and make it more sustainable. However, what it meant was that there was times where three people were singing one line, instead of just one, which made balancing and intonation start to become an issue. Individually, the narrators shone, with Natalie Jackson having a slightly more classical voice, Jessica Huysing a younger Music Theatre style voice, and Maree Scott (doubling as Music Director) splitting the middle. In this way, the balance worked nicely, and they also had an excellent chemistry – however I’m not convinced that this decision to split into three was overly necessary.
There was a choice regarding the brothers. It seems to be a common thread from community theatres to call out “We need more men” – and in this production they needed more men. Joseph is a show where the brothers act as leads and ensemble, with some taking on roles outside their brothers. For example, Greg Hopson plays a brother as well as the Pharoah. Pharaoh is a role that can work as a stand alone if you’ve got an excellent Elvis Impersonator – but Greg made this combination work well, and his smooth voice really brought out the Elvis tones, particularly in Stone the Crows. Samuel Farr doubled as a brother and the spot character Potiphar – an excellent choice and his comedic timing worked well to bring out the character in this minor spot. Michael Hewson and Thomas La Cava played the standard doublings of the Butler and Baker admirably.
However, the choice is then when the brothers are needing to fulfil other roles – what happens for costume changes? For the most part it worked well – however there was one major oversight. In The Brothers Came To Egypt, there is a line “We are 11 brothers” – but there was only 10 on stage.
I also took issue with the choice of the solos. There are three solos taken by the brothers. The “Benjamin Calypso” was sung masterfully by Johan Anwar, whose extensive vocal talents were showcased as he transformed into the required Harry Belafonte-style calypso singer required. Similarly, Kieran Smith oozed French chanson, playfully balancing the nostalgia of the good times with the sorrow of the current times. And Jebedias Smit performed an excited, western cowboy duping Jacob that Joseph had died.
My problem came in that it was Jebedias who was also playing the role of Benjamin. Benjamin is the youngest of the sons of Jacob, and is also the second son to Rachel – Joseph’s mother. As such, biblically, Benjamin had a special place in Jacob’s heart. This is why Joseph chose to put the cup in Benjamin’s bag, knowing that it would tell him whether his brothers had really changed. So for Benjamin to be deceiving Jacob by telling him his brother had died – it’s not quite right. Jebedias should have been playing the role of Judah – the oldest, and whose role it would have been to tell Jacob the news. This would then allow for one of the smaller brothers to play the role of Benjamin, and have us believe that he is young due to his size.
There is a lot of choreography in this show, and congratulations to choreographer Brooke Bufton for putting it all together. There were lots of great moments, with four featured dancers of Ainsley Whiteman, Tamar Boyajian, Sarah Robinson (who also starred as Mrs Potiphar), and Tahlia Verna really making scenes pop. However there were a number of messy moves from less confident cast members which did distract from some scenes. Given a live band, some of the faster choreography could have been slowed slightly to allow for greater accuracy.
Finally, Calen Pupazzoni stars as Joseph throughout the show. Calen has this almost puppy-like innocence that suits the role really well. In some of the more serious scenes, such as Close Every Door, he strikes the fine balance of doubt in his current situation, and fierce resolution that his dreams will come true. He delivered a strong vocal performance throughout the show, and was an excellent choice for the role.
The set was minimalistic – a set of stairs at the back of the stage, leading to a video wall. At times, the video wall really added to the scene, other times it distracted. Video projection has the ability to turn a minimal set into many different scenes – but using it to project images that may be related to the scene but not actually a background make it seem a bit too PowerPoint and not music theatre.
Overall, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a kitsch, over the top musical, with something for everyone. The whole cast performs the story well, and captures the imagination. It’s a fun show, with lots of good musical numbers.
There was no band. But there was a cast. They performed well.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat runs until Saturday May 9 at Stirling Theatre, 25 Morris Place, Innaloo. Very limited tickets are still available at Trybooking.
Ben Clapton 