Taproot puts its own stamp on 'Joseph'

How does one stage a grand Andrew Lloyd Webber musical spectacle in a 226-seat theater?

According to Taproot Theatre's director Scott Nolte, very, very carefully.

The mid-size theater had tried once before to stage the musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," announcing it as part of its 1998 season. "We thought we had cleared the rights," recalled Nolte, "but they had to retract them because of a national tour." He regretted having to inform the theater's subscribers of the substitution, but the notion to produce the show "was always kind of there in the background."

The second original musical by Webber and Tim Rice has become a staple of the touring circuit, usually featuring a celebrity headliner in the starring part of Joseph, based on the story in the Bible's book of Genesis. Donny Osmond often revives the role, and last year's tour stop at the Paramount starred Patrick Cassidy (brother of '70s heartthrobs David and Sean).

With such popular exposure and pedigree, Nolte had to ask himself, "Why would anyone want to or need to see this again?"

The biblical tale of Jacob's son, and great-grandson of the patriarch Abraham, who ultimately led the Israelites into Egypt, may seem like an odd candidate for a rock opera. The "coat of many colors" is a gift to Joseph from Jacob that sparks jealousy from his brothers, who sell him into Egyptian slavery. Through his prophesying dreams, Joseph rises to become an adviser to Pharaoh, forgiving his brothers and offering them a home.

In Webber and Rice's hands, Joseph's dreams of foretelling are reshaped into a modern theme of the value of pursuing one's dreams.

Governing Nolte's directorial choices was the small size of Taproot's theater. Lord Lloyd-Webber's company, the Really Useful Group, permits little latitude in modifying the text, which is entirely sung.

The musical is not especially long, but it is large. Its amalgam of genres includes disco, country and western, calypso and an Elvis-style rock 'n' roll number, all confected with glitter, flash and plenty of razzle-dazzle.

That presents Nolte with some challenge, given that his actors can be less than six feet from the front row. "We can't blow our audience out the back of the theater with electric guitars," he explained. "We need to own it for our space in a way that emphasizes the story, the beauty of the music, and really works for the intimacy of our theater."

His solution was to set the show in a 1940s Moroccan night club, with a four-musician band wearing white tuxedos and fezzes. Nolte calls it "Joseph Unplugged."

While the quieter staging may seem like a significant departure, it's actually in keeping with the original version in 1968, when it was presented at London's Colet Court school as a 15-minute pop cantata sung by a children's choir. It was only after the 1970 success of "Jesus Christ Superstar" that "Joseph" received greater attention.

Nolte has put some additional spin on the musical by casting African American actors in the three main roles. Yet he contends that this was something of a happy accident, growing organically out of his desire to work with Faith Russell, who plays the Narrator.

Once Russell was on board, Nolte said, "It did open my mind. I started thinking about what would happen if Joseph was also African American." The casting of Brian Denmar Jones helped the pieces fall into place, as well as Ekello Harrid Jr. in the role of Pharaoh.

The casting gives the production more contour, Nolte contends, particularly with Russell's reinterpretation of the Narrator as a chanteuse in the manner of Josephine Baker. He also acknowledges a different emotional resonance for an American audience when a black Joseph is cast into a slave's shackles.

"It's not like watching Donny Osmond," he admits.