The name Andrew Lloyd Webber does not bring to mind light comic romps as much as it does overblown musicals with operatic pretensions.
But back in 1968, as an exercise for a prep school, he and lyricist Tim Rice devised a frothy entertainment from an Old Testament yarn, built of tongue-in-cheek songs in anachronistic pop styles.
The show is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and it did eventually get inflated with spectacle and star power on Broadway. But the Maltz Jupiter Theatre gets the scale just right — a bit of glitz and flash, offset by winking, puckish charm.
Much of the credit for achieving that balancing act goes to director-choreographer Mark Martino, tapped by artistic director Andrew Kato for the assignment.
“Yeah, he told me he felt like my history here demonstrates that my particular wheelhouse — what I love to do — is to take a large show, with a lot of production value, a lot of sets and a lot of costumes — like ‘La Cage aux Folles’ or ‘Crazy for You,’ you know? — and dive inside of it and find where its heart lives,” says Martino.
He was familiar with the show, having appeared in it during his days as a performer, some 15 or so years ago. “For me, the joy of it is finding the fun of the show. It’s written for children and we are encouraged to tell the story in the most amusing, delightful, colorful way you can. At the same time, you deliver a very honest sentiment, I hope.”
Having succeeded with The Sound of Music and its von Trapp brood of youngsters last year, Kato made the inclusion of kids from the community — more than 240, in rotating teams of 30 each night — part of the mandate for Joseph.
“I will tell you I was taken aback, like ‘Oh, my Lord, what do I do?’ But what looked to me at first like a logistical nightmare, actually turned out to inform every element of the show for me,” explains Martino. “So I said to my set designer Dan Kuchar, we need something that A) reflects that reality, that we have many, many, many children involved in this show, and B) provides me a place where they can be a part of the action without taking it over.”
Kuchar sets the show, at least initially, in a contemporary American elementary school, where the Narrator (Jodie Langel) is a teacher who introduces her young charges to the story of dream interpreter Joseph and his envious 11 brothers. A kids’ chorus is employed — either to increase the charm quotient or to sell more tickets to their families and neighbors — but Martino was able to keep the pint-sized rabble contained, relegating them to upstage choir pews, often out of sight behind a scrim. W.C. Fields would understand and approve.
The story is conveyed entirely through song, in a giddy series of stylistic knockoffs. Like a tongue-in-cheek country-western ballad, a faux-melancholy French chanson, a carefree calypso ditty and a vintage rock-and-roll song for the hip-swiveling pharoah. Clearly the young Lloyd Webber never met a musical parody he didn’t like.
Then Martino extends the fun, following up many of the songs with an explosion of dance. “The show asks you to dance in a variety of styles,” he notes. “And we made a conscious decision to hire extremely good dancers. So we have our sort of faux-Fosse noir number, a cowboy hoedown, a ‘60s number, all those things are built into the show.”
And he has strong singing voices, like Langel, who is again impressive following her Maltz debut in 2009 in the title role of Evita. As Joseph, John Pinto Jr. has a wide-eyed innocent look and plenty of lung power, as he demonstrates on his big plaintive ballad, Close Every Door. Ryan Williams earns laughs as the regal, rockabilly pharoah and the ensemble of Joseph’s siblings handles its musical numbers capably, taking turns in the lead vocal spotlight.
The production design is all first-class, particularly Jose M. Rivera’s parade of breakaway costumes, which emphasizes the Las Vegas side of the Bible. Also contributing to the show’s flash is Paul Black’s rock concert lighting. Both designers get to show off one final time in the post-curtain call “mega mix,” a reprise of the score on fast-forward, very reminiscent of Mamma Mia!
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday, Dec. 18. Tickets: $43-$60. Call: (561) 575-2223.