This past Friday night, Joni, Dawson and I, along with another family, went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle. The musical has been performed for decades. This was my first live experience of this particular account of the Biblical story of Joseph. If you have never seen it, it is a remarkable production having only a handful of spoken words. Even the narrator sings her part. I think that part of it made it an endurance test for my 11 year old.
As stated, the musical is a biography of the life of Joseph from Genesis 37-50 written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. It is very entertaining with bright colors, a variety of musical styles and frequent humor. There is an obvious deletion of any reference to God from beginning to end.
I surmise that it was intended to be both entertaining and inspiring. The theme song is "Any Dream Will Do" that you hear at the very beginning and again at the end. It is a song that chronicles the life of Joseph. My thinking is that it was designed to leave you with a sense that whatever your dream is, it will do for you what Joseph's dreams did - lead to a life of fulfillment. Yet, as entertaining as it was, it fell empty in the inspiration department for me because it left out the most important portion of Joseph's life - his relationship with God. It takes out the very foundation of the story. Joseph's dreams were God-given. His ability to interpret dreams was God-given (Genesis 41:16).
So it is for me. My life and my plans and my story falls flat without the Spirit behind it. Whatever I do or accomplish today or tomorrow or throughout life will only be meaningful and inspirational if it points away from me and toward God!
I recommend Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as a great show. But it will not change your life because is has deliberately taken out the Life Changer - God.
posted by Dale Oquist at
10:30 AM
2 Comments:
After the furor of Evangelicals with Jesus Christ Superstar, a musical written by the same tandem of Webber and Rice, they had to. And their wrath was wrongly aimed: Webber is a fairly religious person (though I cannot speak to his personal faith) and Rice was explicit in saying that their depiction was not to mock faith, but that they were rather inspired by it. He even appeared on the loudly designed, but culturally milquetoast "To Tell the Truth" in America to refute claims that the musical was sacrilege. Perception trumps reality.
Couple that with the hedonistic nature of theater behind-the-scenes, and they had no choice: include God, tick off the Christians and essentially never get any talent or financial traction with the hedonist set. Exclude God and, well, tick off the Christians for redacting God from the story.
What is the difference between "Joseph" and something like "The Prince of Egypt", where God similarly was taken out of, or largely reduced from, the story? At least these retellings are rooted in the scriptures. If anything, they should get credit for trying to maintain credibility while working with material that, on its own, would have caused major headaches with the too-cool-for-God set.
By
8rent, At
November 3, 2009 8:15 AM
A broadened perspective - nicely done.
By
Dale Oquist, At
November 3, 2009 10:34 AM
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