Daily News Tribune: Technicolor Dreamcoat Dazzles

If the North Shore Music Theatre may have done "Joseph and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat" a few years back, but it wasn't this "Joseph and
the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," that's for sure.

If it had been, the performance would have been far more memorable.
Under Jayme McDaniel's direction and choreography, the musical becomes
far more irreverent, energized, campy and funny and even dares to stick
a toe in social and political satire.

At one point in the second act, Pharaoh cum Las Vegas Elvis (Gary Lynch,
who elicited giggles from the audience at his first Elvis-inflected
utterances) tells Joseph (Anthony Fedorov, an "American Idol" finalist
in season four, if you're counting as they go by), "This is how we do it
on Egyptian Idol."

The audience again responded to the inside joke with peals of laughter.
And for those wondering, yes Fedorov can really sing. He renders the
Andrew Lloyd Webber score with feeling, hitting all the notes, without
becoming too melodramatic and operatic, which is always a temptation and
a danger with Lloyd Webber songs.

As a bonus, Fedorov looks good bare-chested and Rachel Rak, as the
seductress Mrs. Potiphar, has the legs to break down any man's willpower
- if you like that kind of thing.


The large ensemble cast - including Joseph's brothers and a host of
wives - gives the production the punch behind this high-energy show. The
choreography ensures very few down times and usually keeps at least
someone, if not the entire ensemble, moving at all times.

Backing up the choreography is costuming that reinforces the camp and
comedy: Outfits range from orange body suits covered with glittery nets
and Pharaoh's attendants in golden, dog-head headdresses to costumes of
fringe vests, colored wigs and hot pink, orange, blue and about any
other color that comes to mind in a recreation of 1968 psychedelia.

The only times this high-voltage production short circuits is when the
fun and frolic runs into more contemplative songs such as, "Close Every
Door," which Joseph sings from a dungeon. Hard to make that upbeat.

Other than a couple of rough emotional shifts, the production careens
along joyously amid great dancing, singing, all that color and numbers
well worth seeing like "Those Canaan Days" and "Benjamin Calypso."