Product: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 2.0
A strange mix of weird, bad and good
I love this musical, and like so many others, was happy to see it on video. But I was disappointed with many aspects of this production. I think Donny Osmond was OK, but I've seen better Josephs in local productions. He mugged too much and looked really bizarre in his wig. Maria Friedman can act, but her voice seemed much too weak for the Narrator role (anyone who's heard the original Broadway cast with Laurie Beechman knows what I mean.)The Joan Collins scene with Potiphar IS too risque for a family audience (Joan & her "girls" take off Donny's clothes & the whole thing looks briefly like it's going to turn into an orgy; I would be uncomfortable having my 5 & 7 year olds seeing it, and no, they DO NOT watch MTV!), and it wasn't necessary for it to be so. The entire Potiphar scene was misconceived. On the other hand. several of the other performances are excellent (the brothers, Pharoah), and the scenes with the children are genuinely moving. The whole thing just doesn't work as a coherent whole.