by LEO E. LAURENCE,
J.D.
Copyright © 2011 by Leo E. Laurence, J.D. • All rights
reserved
With male
singer-dancers mostly bare-chested, bare feet and wearing only wrap-arounds;
but fully clothed females, “the director had to be Gay,” said Justin Chisolm,
23, after attending a preview performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim
Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Lyceum Theatre in Horton Plaza on September
23.
First performed
in London in 1973, the musical had a cast of 25 — mostly young guys – and a
youth choir of 18, backed up by a full orchestra.
It supposedly
told the story and Joseph and his jealous brothers in ancient Egypt, but the
sets and revealing costumes (on the guys anyway) were far from Egyptian. Even
the props were modern.
The singers were
entertaining, but one overweight singer who unsuccessfully tried an Elvis
impersonation didn’t work. And none of the singers — some professional – came
close to the high quality of those in the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus.
Only one singer
received a solid, spontaneous applause from the audience, Jimmy Keith Latimer,
Jr. of San Diego.
The lead singer,
Eric Kunze, stripped off his shirt in the first five minutes. But he did have a
hot body.
The San Diego
Musical Theatre will perform The
Marvelous Wonderettes January 6-22, and the
popular Rent on May 11-27.
