(The cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.)
By Jerome Langston
“It’s really been a dream come true honestly. Getting to work on this show has been a long-time goal. And getting to dive into it these past couple of weeks has been a real joy,” says director/choreographer, Billy Bustamante, who is in Norfolk for a few weeks to direct and choreograph Virginia Stage Company’s exciting new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It’s quite late in the afternoon at Norfolk’s historic Wells Theatre, but there is still work to be done later today, on the upcoming show, which starts previews in just a few days. Billy and I are joined by longtime VSC costume designer, Jeni Schaefer, whom I’m happy to meet in person for the very first time. The two have collaborated on prior shows for the company. Audiences should remember Billy’s work directing The Hobbit for season 44. Now we’re in season 47, and this classic musical is the second to last production of the current season. “It’s been fast and furious. Nothing like putting up a show where every song is a full production number,” the director adds, with a slight chuckle.
But it’s all coming along splendidly…though mounting a show of this scale within the timeframe given, is no small feat. Billy has been chasing the opportunity to direct his own version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, for decades now. “Working at VSC the first time on Matilda with Tom and Jeni… Jeni and I formed a quick bond over our shared love for Joseph, and we’ve both been chasing the opportunity to do it,” says the NYC based director. They approached Tom Quaintance, VSC’s producing Artistic Director, about doing the show. It’s not unfair to say that he had reservations. Jeni recalls a prior interaction years ago, where her dream of working on this show was shared with the company’s then new Artistic Director.
“When Tom first started here at VSC in 2016, he met with me and my costume shop manager, and said ‘what is on your bucket list to design?’ And I of course said Joseph…and he went ‘I don’t like that show…,” says Jeni. We laugh, of course. Jeni says it was a non-starter till Billy arrived and brought the dream back. “His vision of it is what really sparked Tom’s interest in it. Taking it somewhere that no one else has done,” adds Jeni.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a sung-through musical, featuring the now classic music of the great Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by his longtime partner, Tim Rice. The story is based on Joseph, from the Bible’s book of Genesis. The show is beloved by many but disliked by a fair amount of folks as well… as a bit of a cultural phenomenon, it has been mounted countless times over the years. Following various productions in the seventies, the two-act musical finally hit Broadway at the Royale Theatre, running from January of 1982, till September of 1983. The Broadway production received six Tony Award nominations — but didn’t manage a win. Since then, there have been numerous revivals and tours over the many years that have followed. Songs performed in the show, including “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door,” have become show tune classics. Broadway actor Aaron Alcaraz makes his VSC debut portraying Joseph. Alcaraz previously worked with Billy on Here Lies Love, the inventive Imelda Marcos disco-pop musical that ran on Broadway in 2023. Billy was the assistant director for that Broadway show.
“Joseph for me is one of our oldest human stories. And I think it has endured the test of time, and so many retellings because the core lesson that it can teach is so valuable,” says Billy, a bit later in our chat. He believes that the core lesson was lost in many of the widely known versions of the show, to prioritize “entertainment value, glitz, glamour, spectacle…” which he understands. He hopes to share with Norfolk audiences, through his take on this classic, the core lesson “that we may all feel at any given moment that there is something within us, that makes us feel like we don’t belong. The story of Joseph is a reminder that that thing that makes you feel different… may be the thing that lets you change the world one day.” Recognizing the humanity in someone who appears different from us, is a valuable lesson, Billy believes — especially for this current moment in society.
The cast of seventeen actors make up “a dream team” of collaborators, says Billy. They saw hundreds of people for this show, including their time casting for some of the roles in NYC. Regarding the casting of Aaron as Joseph, “he brings a really beautiful sense of genuine grounding and truth to Joseph…which is rare, in my opinion” raves the director. Jeni was excited by Billy’s vision… but she told him early on that she’s always dreamed of having a full stage version of the coat, at the end of the show.
“And so that really started this magical conversation about what does that look like? And how do we engage community,” says Jeni Schaefer. Eventually the idea for the coat, made with tumblers like a quilt, emerged… and the community, from early in the season, shared their dreams on those tumblers, as did the cast. And those thoughts and artwork are now part of the actual coat that will be seen onstage. “It’s been a really beautiful journey and reading people’s dreams…” she adds. This is the third collaboration between Jeni, VSC’s resident costume designer, and Billy as director and/or choreographer. Billy is excited for audiences to experience their shared visual aesthetics for this production. Towards the end of our chat, he says “She’s pulled from each of our actors’ senses of individuality to find a version of their characters that really straddles contemporary and biblical times, straddles like the characters that we know and the people playing them… so I think this all points to a version of the show that audiences will have never seen before…”
WANT TO GO?
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Through March 29
Presented by Virginia Stage Company
Wells Theatre