Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog

On Sunday, Aug. 23, I took Nicholas to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Haymarket Theatre at Virginia Tech. Ginger was playing in the orchestra and her parents were in town to see the show.

I’m pretty sure this was the first community-related production I have ever been to. I have been to Broadway in New York City to see Phantom of the Opera; the Ford Theatre to see a Christmas Carol; and the Kennedy Center to see The Producers. When I was in college, I had seen severl off Broadway shows at Burruss Hall. But this was the first community theatre to which I had ever been.

Nic has been to a local performance before if I’m not mistaken, but this was his first trip with me, so it was a good father-son outing. I figured Nic would like it since he loves music and the entire production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is 100 percent music - no dialogue.

Nic LOVED it. He sat through the entire thing and even got to participate in the second act by holding up and waving a picture of an Elvis charicature when the Pharoah sang his song. He did a great job! He loved the show so much he asked if we could get the music on CD. Done and done!

I really enjoyed the show. For starters, the orchestra was amazing - and I’m not saying that because Ginger played in it. When the music first starter, I cocked my head to the site with a puzzled look on my face because I couldn’t figure out why they were using a CD to play the prologue music - it sounded studio produced and clean. But, it was completely live, so I tip my hat (pretend I’m wearing one) to both the orchestra for an outstanding performance and also to the sound engineers for doing a superb job on the sound production.

The lead actor was a 2008 Pulaski High School grad and was so much better than I expected for a local production. Ginger told me that there were some talented performers and she was absolutely right. The two narrators and Joseph had most of the singing duties and boy did they deliver. Virtually everyone who sang had a good voice.

Having seen on and off Broadway productions I can say that there is a noticeable difference in the enthusiasm you see in a professional production as opposed to a local production - of course I’m basing this on only one local production.

Sure, the singing and the choreography wasn’t on par with a Broadway show, but no one expects that level of production or talent at a local theatre - these folks volunteer their time because they love what they do, so this is just something fun for them - it’s not a career.

But they came together in a great ensemble performance to make the sold out (two nights in a row) audience laugh out loud and then in a matter of minutes bring them to tears - and there were definitely some tears.

There were wardrobe malfuctions and occasional static in the mics - even some wireless mic transmitter packs flying off of performers during dance numbers - but they all took it in stride, laughing it off and fixing the problem at the first opportunity.

The cast put everything they had into their performances and that was absolutely clear. They held nothing back. No stage fright. No slacking off because, “It’s just community theatre.” I was really impressed and they deserved the standing ovation they got in the end.

One other thing I noticed was that there was at least one cast member with some type of developmental disability, but like the others, he gave it everything he had and it made me feel good that this truly was a community production and that everyone was welcome.

I hope they know how much we, the audience, appreciate the time and energy they put into this production. I will definitely be back for next summer’s production. Who knows, maybe I might get involved at some point - I did do high school theatre ya know: Happy Daze and The Night of January 16th.

Until next summer, break a leg!