Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Tuacahn Center for the Arts

Set among the striking red rock natural amphitheater, Tuacahn Center for the Arts is well-known throughout the states and further for some spectacular productions. With this spectacular backdrop and considering the local patronage, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" is an obvious choice to bring to their stage.

"Joseph" first hit the Broadway stage in 1982 and has since been incredibly popular throughout the country and world, reaching its height of popularity in the '90's when Donny Osmond took the lead role, eventually leading to a motion picture release in 1999, where the cast included Osmond, Maria Friedman, Richard Attenborough, and Joan Collins.

The show is an excellent example of accessible musical theater. Taking its premise from the familiar bible story, and without denying the religious roots, it doesn't fully commit to religion either, making it delightful for anyone to watch. It is geared toward children, with the addition of a narrator to move the story along and provide a fun link between the story and the live audience. Fancifully, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, explore many different styles of music and keep the pace regular and quick. Succinctly said, this is a difficult show to not enjoy.

Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller

Leading the cast at Tuacahn was Tony award-winner Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller. With her Julliard-trained operatic background, Seegmiller is an incredible singer and easily sang through the score with ample style and ad lib of a seasoned professional. Despite this incredible talent, Seegmiller's portrayal of the narrator was lacking, in that it seemed to be the "Seegmiller show." She was so focused on stealing attention, she lacked personality and empathy, interacting little with the audience or the other characters, making her character inhuman and one-dimensional. Again though, her vocal skills are extremely outstanding and she could easily fill that canyon with her sound! James Royce Edwards as Joseph had a lyric and cool voice, though struggled to compete with the rest of the production in memorability, despite his ridiculous wig. Todd Dubail as the Pharaoh was easily the most likable and entertaining in the cast. Dubail and Seegmiller had delightful chemistry in the brief time they were on stage together, a dynamic that would have added so much if experienced between more characters and the narrator.

Criticism must be handed to director Derryl Yeager. Even at a preview night, the whole production felt too controlled and, yes, directed. When the children were on stage, their movements were all carefully choreographed, removing the idea of an extemporaneous experience of telling the story to children. This over-direction of the children and the rest of the cast gave it a very artificial feel.  The commitment to the various styles was understandable, but seemed to over-explain the jokes and therefore dilute them. The uniformity of the costumes (designed by Janet Swenson) also removed the individuality of the characters (and children) as they committed to the different styles of music, again, diluting the charm by overemphasis. Some costumes were simply bizarre such as loin-clothes cladding the prisoners and Egyptians looked like they belonged better at a "toga night" at a gay night club rather than on stage for a family-friendly show. With some serious costume "misses," there were some slam-dunks: the narrators suit for the second half was stylish and stunning, and perfect for her personality and character.

The set consisted of primarily a commanding pyramid at center stage in which images were projected. These projections were more effective when it was only a simple color change, and the animations were difficult to see with the other lighting on stage, and forgettable even when they were visible begging the question "with all this beautiful desert landscape, why hide it for a show that takes place in the desert?"

Unfortunately, Tuacahn has a reputation of excellence, but in reality, the productions come across as kind of amateurish. They seem to be more interested in "what can we do?" when they should think "what SHOULD we do?" with their productions. With a very talented cast, the directing is bizarre and inconsistent and sometimes disrespectful whether the character of Jacob is portraying some kind of offensive Jewish stereotype (not in the source material), or they are giving the clowning-about and silly augmentations to the source material to the only brother who is African-American like a minstrel show. At one point, the brothers create a trash-band for no reason at all (not even on stage . . . off to the side of the stage) that could have been interesting, if the audience wasn't asking "why?" They pack the show with odd cultural references that are not a part of the source material (one of which, donning the gangster Ishmaelites in "Duck Dynasty" gear, was actually quite clever). The final song of the first act, "Go, Go, Go Joseph!" is an adorable 1960s number, and the costumes and choreography at Tuacahn were positively delightful. However, the director felt a need to add a bunch of completely irrelevant references to "Laugh In," more than doubling the number in length with pointless vignettes that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot and were too obscure for most of the audience to appreciate even in its "randomness." Most ashamedly, was a pause in between scenes where a girl (who looked completely dead inside) walked a camel across the stage while over a loudspeaker someone quoted a Geico commercial about today being "hump" day, on a FRIDAY, nonetheless. These bizarre additions to the material were nothing short of insulting causing this reviewer to walk actually angry at the experience rather than just slightly disappointed.


This show works best when it's geared toward children, when the narrator talks to the kids and tells the story as it comes alive before their eyes. It does not work at all in the way Tuacahn presented it, in where there is a complete disconnect from the audience and turned into a "look at me, look at me, look at me!" show.