For The La Mirada Theater, their 2022-2023 season has been one of their most impressive. Over the past year, they have collaborated with high caliber names and produced some of the most dazzling productions that Southern California has to offer. As their found would quickly share, they make each show from “the ground up,” which makes all of them even more impressive. While their conclusion, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, may not strike the average attendee as great theater, one thing is very clear. Even during one of their smaller shows (so small that it even has a megamix conclusion), they manage to give the audience a wonderful time as they take an early Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice work and give it a grandiose spectacle that is sure to entertain every audience member.
Back in the late 1960s, Webber and Rice conceived the show as a work for youth theater to produce. With that in mind, it’s easier to overlook how simple it feels to the duo’s later, more complex works. The lyrics are often sillier and nonsensical, even having characters from the Old Testament molded into hoe-down cowboys and The King himself Elvis Presley. It’s the wink and a nod that makes the collage of styles all the more forgivable. In fact, it’s the show’s greatest gift. The sense of earnestness, where it’s more about the performance, allows the show to be a thrilling and indulgent ride through the bible. Where else can one experience a religious story with Calypso and a trippy 60s act break?
La Mirada’s work can be found in the efforts to make the story compensate. There’s an excellent use of costumes, where even the titular coat lives up to its many colored lore. A narrator walks through as this out of place comic relief and a choir of children punctuates scenes with curiosity. It’s a show that encapsulates the nature of theater as a place to experiment, where dramatic beats turn into gut-busting laughs from the audience. Rarely has a man crying uncontrollably about his son’s potential death been such a great recurring gag. While few of the actors necessarily stand out, they all have their moments to shine, even using songs like “Those Canaan Days” to reflect the impressiveness of holding notes. Everyone is in on the joke and the unity makes the whole thing come across as endearing. It’s clearly theater. Everyone will end the story dancing, so why not have fun?
In theory, it’s a show with not a lot of a point to it. Joseph is a compelling character in so much as he knows how to complement his surroundings. He’s able to sincerely look at the absurdity and find ways to survive. He is the wink to the audience, letting them know that somewhere in this story that everything will be fine. Because he manages to balance the few moments of darkness with the lighthearted skeleton, the show becomes a curious outing for families. It’s a bit dated, but not in any way that isolates. Webber and Rice always knew that the best way to keep an audience’s attention was to make it fun, and is this show ever fun. Every song is crafted to be as catchy as possible. The props have this cleverness that makes even the small scenes feel enriching. It’s a self-aware show through and through, but it ultimately respects the audience enough to not make it a problem.
Because of how early in their career this show came, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat isn’t always the most flawless show. Some of the lyrics could be better written. With that said, there is something whimsical about its nostalgic view of musical yesteryear, where it’s somehow radical but also familiar. It’s a show that those willing to give in to its cheesy core will appreciate and sing every song on the drive home. It’s immediately memorable and the secular view of the bible allows for it to never feel preachy. Even the fact that the production manages to work in a backdrop that works as a color-changing pallet, the entire stage is engrossed in this charade. The audience sees the colors and imagines so many more. There’s hope for something more limitless, and the cast and crew really deliver on that potential.
As a conclusion to La Mirada’s excellent season of theater, it’s a goofy celebration that the whole family can enjoy. It may not reach the sublime heights of something like The King and I, but the show itself was never trying to. It’s designed to be a fun afternoon out, to watch something a bit off-kilter and have a few laughs. When judged through this lens, it’s actually a very good show that is made better by a staging that always feels surprising. There’s never a moment where the story drags, and the abrupt sight gags and set changes all create innovation that keeps eyes on the action. It’s the type of thing that this theater’s been very good at. Given where things are likely to go in the season ahead, one can hope that they can match the levels that this one did. Even their smaller shows had so much undeniable charm that makes you want to come back for more.
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