In the "Corona-lockdown-world" context, and in the light of the online Youtube screening within Universal's "The Shows Must Go On" framework, it is good to have the chance to see - with a new clarity - a show that I personally have seen in various forms and places several times, since I was a kid in the 1970s.
It is not by chance that we still read The Bible after thousands of years - many of the tales in it are splendid, and "Joseph and his coat of many colours" from Genesis has a number of eternal ingredients like human frailty, forgiveness, favouritism, immodesty, cruelty, jealousy, good fortune, betrayal, rags-to-riches, and so on; as well as a remarkable Egyptian-Israelite cross-cultural aspect. The general tone of the whole affair is of forgiveness and reconciliation in the face of temptation and weakness.
So Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice were on to a good thing just because of the story, leaving aside the way they chose to process it. But opting to make their "Technicolour Dreamcoat" version into a school musical was genius, as was the brevity of the whole affair (which does not drag at all over 76 minutes in the case of the film), and the diversity of genre tunes that fill it, notably 1920s, Wild West, French ballad, 1970s disco (obviously), Elvis-style, and so on.
It's not especially subtle or innovative in its genius, yet genius it undoubtedly is.
Given the good original story and the good idea, we might then ask what this 1999 film version has to offer, and the answer would be Donny Osmond, sweet school kids and a mixed school and stage-ish setting, the late Richard Attenborough as headmaster, and Joan Collins as a starchy-looking music teacher who transforms into a vamp for the needs of the musical. Other staid-looking teachers likewise metamorphose in the context of the play - into brothers or into the marvellous characters of the story (splendidly with the great Alex Jennings as the butler and Christopher Biggins as the baker, with Ian McNiece as Potiphar and Robert Torti as Rameses). And holding it altogether is the most approachable of the teachers, who serves as the narrator, never changes out of her modern-day clothes, but nevertheless interacts with the characters at will. This is Maria Friedman in the role and she is superb in every way - how come we don't know far more about this person?
Hardly a word is spoken as we move from one great song to another, and Tim Rice's words prove witty, as does the way the players put them across. It's immensely colourful, lively and warm, hugely self-believing, touching at many points, and of course meaningful at a deeper level.
Having seen the show performed in the West End and elsewhere, I regard it as some kind of constant in my life. Given the dramatically reduced circumstances in which we watch it in April 2020 that is a poignant thing, but also perhaps a motivating one, as we long to get past this dire stage in our human existence.
It is not by chance that we still read The Bible after thousands of years - many of the tales in it are splendid, and "Joseph and his coat of many colours" from Genesis has a number of eternal ingredients like human frailty, forgiveness, favouritism, immodesty, cruelty, jealousy, good fortune, betrayal, rags-to-riches, and so on; as well as a remarkable Egyptian-Israelite cross-cultural aspect. The general tone of the whole affair is of forgiveness and reconciliation in the face of temptation and weakness.
So Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice were on to a good thing just because of the story, leaving aside the way they chose to process it. But opting to make their "Technicolour Dreamcoat" version into a school musical was genius, as was the brevity of the whole affair (which does not drag at all over 76 minutes in the case of the film), and the diversity of genre tunes that fill it, notably 1920s, Wild West, French ballad, 1970s disco (obviously), Elvis-style, and so on.
It's not especially subtle or innovative in its genius, yet genius it undoubtedly is.
Given the good original story and the good idea, we might then ask what this 1999 film version has to offer, and the answer would be Donny Osmond, sweet school kids and a mixed school and stage-ish setting, the late Richard Attenborough as headmaster, and Joan Collins as a starchy-looking music teacher who transforms into a vamp for the needs of the musical. Other staid-looking teachers likewise metamorphose in the context of the play - into brothers or into the marvellous characters of the story (splendidly with the great Alex Jennings as the butler and Christopher Biggins as the baker, with Ian McNiece as Potiphar and Robert Torti as Rameses). And holding it altogether is the most approachable of the teachers, who serves as the narrator, never changes out of her modern-day clothes, but nevertheless interacts with the characters at will. This is Maria Friedman in the role and she is superb in every way - how come we don't know far more about this person?
Hardly a word is spoken as we move from one great song to another, and Tim Rice's words prove witty, as does the way the players put them across. It's immensely colourful, lively and warm, hugely self-believing, touching at many points, and of course meaningful at a deeper level.
Having seen the show performed in the West End and elsewhere, I regard it as some kind of constant in my life. Given the dramatically reduced circumstances in which we watch it in April 2020 that is a poignant thing, but also perhaps a motivating one, as we long to get past this dire stage in our human existence.