By Connor Gard
On Feb. 25-27, Wheat Ridge High School ran the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
It was an amazing collaboration between the choir and drama departments, with a strong backstage crew keeping the musical in running order.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a fun and entertaining journey, following the Biblical Joseph, played by junior Iain Sares, through a funkified Egypt, after his army of siblings sell him off to the Ishmaelites, all because their father Jacob, played by junior Dillion Thompson, gave him a dreamcoat.
Joseph, has other unfortunate events befall him after being sold into slavery, and ends up in prison where he meets a butler and a baker, played by senior Isabelle Olson and sophomore Peter Krausa respectively. The two explain their odd dreams and ask what they could mean. Joseph, having the ability to explain the meaning behind dreams, does just that. Word gets out about his ability, and the Pharaoh, also played by Peter Krausa, has Joseph come to him at once to explain his odd dream, and in doing so, saves Egypt from a large scale food shortage. Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt in search of food, and in classic family fashion, Joseph plants a golden cup on the youngest brother and frames him for a crime, to see if they had learned their lesson after what they had done to him. All of these things, of course, were done in merry song.
While the musical itself was a great success and wonderfully done, I feel as though it doesn’t do the greatest job in reaching out to the entirety of the school, as it is based off of a biblical tale, as not everyone follows Christianity within our school. Nevertheless, it puts through a powerful message that even if things look grim, or are currently going wrong, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and things will get better. Overall, the performance was powerful, and with a high school budget, the costumes were pretty good quality. I feel as though Peter stole the show with his Elvis impression for the Pharaoh section of the musical. Brian Cook did an excellent job directing the entire way through, providing a wonderful experience the entire way through.
