Garrettsville – Just in case you haven’t perused the Book of Genesis lately–Chapters 37 through 47–you might want to attend the Curtains Up Theatre production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” It’ll give you a whole new perspective on this segment of the Old Testament and some catchy tunes to help remember the story…and the characters( Like, for instance the names of the twelve tribes of Israel : Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Napthali, etc.) and a whole lot of colors (Red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and so on and so on…plenty more). Steve Hart, an Australian robber and horse thief, once toasted “a short life and a merry one,” well, this is a short musical and a merry one, plenty of energetic dancing and singing, a plot that one can follow, a good pit orchestra–not too loud, not too soft–entertaining costumes…what’s not to like?What started out as a sort of Sunday School exercise for illustrating different musical genres (Think : western, Elvis, calypso, French, etc) became a lively, upbeat (even with the principal character in prison part of the time) show that’s great for kids and adults alike, both as audience and as performers. The youthful cast–only one old geezer (Sorry, Jeff) as Jacob–is full of energy and really gets into the choreography as well as the singing. The narrator, Emily Osmeloski, sparkles through her presentation and Ryan Scott as Joseph manages to convey not only the reason that his brothers tried to commit fratricide but also how a person may change and grow and dream of amazing things…any dream will do.Friday and Saturday, July 15 & 16, 7:00 p.m., James A. Garfield’s Iva Walker Auditorium. Don’t miss it
