Director Siobhan Sullivan directs this rendition at Kroc Kids in San Diego, with sixteen-year-old veteran Joseph by the name of Shaun McGraw taking the title role and doing a nice job of it with strong vocals and an amiable personality. Narrating his story is Summer Blinco adding her excellent vocals to the demanding role, backed up by her assistant narrators Sarah Kennedy, Meagan Pitcher, and McKenna Barron.

The story they narrate includes many memorable characters, none less than the king of Egypt himself, the Elvis-ish Matt Noll who goes all out in the role while Joseph expertly interprets his prophetic dreams. Sean Boyd makes for a good, upper class and uppity Potiphar who tries to exert his will over his straying wife. Not with much luck. Jessica Merghart has a great sense of humor and impressive acting and dancing abilities that we see as Potiphar’s Wife and in other cameo roles during the show.

And then there are Joseph’s brothers – a fun lot who seem to embrace their roles more and more as the show gathers steam. Ben Read leads the country-western One More Angel in Heaven as they break the news to Dad (Jacob, played by adult actor Andy Yatsko) that their brother Joseph was killed defending them all from a crazed goat (said goat being killed by mean brothers so that they could soak Joseph’s coat in goat’s blood, with dead goat appearing as an angel alongside the singing angel in One More Angel). Haley Fletcher leads the starving group of brothers in their French dirge Those Canaan Days. And after Joseph tests his brothers by blaming Benjamin for stealing a precious cup, throwing poor Benjamin over his shoulder and carrying him over to a large dog carrier (into which Benjamin sadly crawls), Fenton Pare enthusiastically comes to young Benjamin’s (Luke Babbitt) defense in the entertaining Benjamin Calypso.

The ensemble does a nice job throughout, celebrating Joseph’s presentation of his Technicolor Dreamcoat with multi-colored pompoms, giddy and fainting over the presence of Elvis in the house, going bananas in the lively Benjamin Calypso, and summing up dreamer’s story with the dynamic Joseph Megamix.

Performs December 11 - 13, 2009

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre