Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Comes to Two Harbors

For one night only, the Jubilation Youth Choir visited Two Harbors on their Tour 2024 to present Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The Jubilation Youth Choir hails from St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Bloom­ington. Founded 47 years ago, the choir has gone on tour for 37 of those years. Each year, new youth take on different roles in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Previous tours have taken Jubilation to over 40 different states, Canada, and parts of Europe. This year, the tour will circle Lake Superior.

Written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice, Joseph is a sung-through musical, mean­ing that all narration is sung, instead of having some spoken parts, as in other musicals. The show begins with a narrator introducing Jo­seph (played by Carson Weiler). Joseph then sings “Any Dream Will Do”, introducing him­self as the central character and as a dreamer — both someone with big hopes for the future and someone with actual prophetic dreams. The narrator next introduces Joseph’s father, Jacob (Jakob Lamont), and Joseph’s 11 other brothers (“Jacob & Sons”). Because Joseph is the favor­ite son, Jacob gives him a coat of many colors (“Joseph’s Coat”). Joseph’s brothers watch with jealousy as Joseph, the second-to-youngest, is favored over them.

Not helping matters any is the fact that Jo­seph’s recent dreams (“Joseph’s Dreams”) sug­gest that one day he will rule over his brothers. Angry now, his brothers throw him into a pit and sell him to some passing Ishmaelites (Sage Hayes and Ella Lindstrom). The Narrator, Jo­seph’s Brothers, the Chorus, and the Ishmael­ites all sing about how powerless Joseph is to stop them (“Poor, Poor Joseph”). To hide the fact that they sold their brother, Joseph’s broth­ers rip his multicolored coat to shreds and cov­er it in goat’s blood before showing the coat to Jacob (“One More Angel in Heaven”). Devas­tated, Jacob leaves as the brothers celebrate get­ting rid of Joseph.

Meanwhile, Joseph is in Egypt, where he is sold as a slave to the wealthy Potiphar (Elliott Clark). Joseph works hard and is promoted in Potiphar’s household, but his success comes crashing down when he catches the eye of Mrs. Potiphar (Greta Karow). When he refuses Mrs. Potiphar’s advances, she has him framed, and Potiphar throws Joseph in jail (“Potiphar”).

In jail, Joseph despairs of ever regaining his freedom, singing the song “Close Every Door”. Still, in the song he notes that “Children of Is­rael/Are never alone”. Soon, Joseph is joined by two other prisoners, a butler (Carter Klein) and a baker (Evan Keith). Both the butler and the baker have had dreams they wish Joseph to interpret. He does so, informing the butler that he will be restored to his former position, and informing the baker that he is to be executed (“Go, Go Joseph”).

The second act opens with the narrator re­vealing that Pharoah (Ian Klein) has had dreams no one can interpret (“Pharaoh’s Story”). One girl in the palace (Sage Hayes) remembers how Joseph interpreted the butler’s dream, and con­vinces Pharaoh to free Joseph and have him interpret his dreams (“Poor, Poor Pharaoh”). Pharaoh tells his dreams to Joseph (“Song of the King”), and Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams, telling him that they mean Egypt will experience seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine (“Pharaoh’s Dreams Explained”). Glad for an interpretation, and impressed with Joseph’s skill, Pharaoh frees him and puts him as second-in-command and in charge of famine preparations (“Stone the Crows”).

Seven years pass, and back home Joseph’s family is starving as the prediction of the fam­ine comes true. The brothers regret what they did to Joseph and wish they had handled their jealousy differently (“Those Canaan Days”). Upon hearing Egypt has food, the brothers trav­el there, hoping to prevent their family’s starva­tion (“Brothers Come to Egypt”). The brothers beg Joseph for food, bowing down to him, not knowing who he is. Joseph gives them sacks of grain, but puts a goblet in his youngest broth­er’s, Benjamin’s (Will Gamble) sack. When the brothers leave, Joseph stops them, accusing them of theft (“Who’s the Thief?”). When the goblet is found in Benjamin’s sack, Joseph or­ders him arrested, but the brothers beg for one of them to be arrested instead (“Benjamin Ca­lypso”).

Joseph recognizes his brothers’ mercy in wanting Benjamin to go free at the cost of their freedom, and realizes they have changed and are no longer the selfish jealous brothers they once were. Joseph reveals that he is their broth­er (“Joseph All the Time”) and sends for his fa­ther Jacob (“Jacob in Egypt”). The song “Any Dream Will Do” is sung again, and Jacob once again gives Joseph a multicolored coat.

The production ended with the full cast sing­ing a medley of hymns as a hat was passed around for donations; no admission was charged. Finally, the graduating high school seniors in the choir, who had taken part in di­recting the production as well as singing and acting, introduced themselves.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream­coat ended with a standing ovation, showing how much the audience members loved the up­beat music, good singing, and colorful produc­tion.