My Busy Theater Weekend

It's been a busy weekend here in the Barony.  The stars aligned so we had not one but TWO shows to see.  Neither of them has anything to do with the Aztecs but since there were two of them and they are virtually polar opposites I chose Aztec Calendar 2 as today's fractal cookie.  Oh--you probably want to know what we saw: it was Young Frankenstein and Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
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There's a strange balance between Young Frankenstein and "Joseph": "YF" was written at the end of Mel Brooks' long and illustrious career while "Joseph" was at the start of Andrew Lloyd Webber's career.  Both musicals are adaptions of other stories and have a lot of frankly corny material.  "Joseph" is so squeaky clean it could be put on at a High School but NO H.S. in their right minds would dare to mount "YF" even if they had the money.  "YF" was scaled back from the Broadway original (if it this production was the first and probably last National Tour) while "Joesph" has been vastly expanded (even for a regional theater.)  In the end you can see a lot of parallels.  
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First Young Frankeinstein...
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After the runaway success of The Producers on Broadway it was only a matter of time bfefore another Mel Brooks movie got the same treatment: Young Frankenstein was an obvious choice.  It was at least as well known and The Producers and had a large and devoted fan base.  The resulting show became the most expensive ticket on Broadway just as the economy was crashing--which resulted in the show closing after barely a year-and-a-half.  (That's short for a major Broadway show.)  Realizing this was no Phantom of the Opera, the backers stripped down the show a bit for the National Tour: still, the result was a worthy effort.
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Fans of the movie will find a lot to appreciate in the stage show: all the running gags and hoary old jokes are in place.  The script closely follows the movie with a few clever expansion.  (Frau Blucher's single line "he vas my boyfriend" becomes the best song in the show).  The cast is fairly small for such a large-scale show but the no-name Actors all do a first-ratekb job whether they are singing, dancing or acting.  The 3-person orchestra (all keyboards and synthesizers) produces a remarkably full sound.  The special effects were minimal but they went off without a hitch and that's a good thing.
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Young Frankenstein is a great choice for the theater virgin: the material is familiar and completely accessable.  The show's pace never legs and jokes come along as regularly as a main-line city bus.  Sophisticates who like their theater dry and serious won't enjoy this show.  Neither will those with little tolerance for raunchy humor: everybody else will have a rip-roaring good time.
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FINAL GRADE: A
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It's hard to hate Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: the show is fast-paced and clever with infinitely-accessable music.  The show is almost impossible to fatally screw up.  Running time is under two hours (including a 15 minute commercial for Performance Riverside that seemed to go on for DAYS), intermission and the tacked-on "Megamix" at the end of the show (and a short running time makes it all the better).   The good news is, Performance Riverside didn't fatally screw up the show--the bad news is they didn't go nearly as far as they could to make the show great.  So--what went right with the show and what went wrong?
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This production was based with a solid band and a workman chorus: the kids chorus was cute as can be and they never distracted from the show.  Sadly, the chorus was often over-mic'ed to the point the band could barely be heard.  Likewise, the adult "Go" Choir was a good idea but they had no amplification at all so they could barely be heard.  The sets were nicely realized if not particularly sophisticated but they served their purpose.  My main problem with the show was the leads.
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Derek Klena (who I don't remember from his brief stint on American Idol) as Joseph suffered from "Idol Syndrome" (a fatal tendancy to oversing virtually every note that came out of his mouth.  At least he was nice to look at and there's no denying his vocal ability.  Stepnanie Burkett Gerson was a bit too "cruise ship" with a plastic smile that never left her lips as the Narrator.  Still, she's got a great body and can sing and dance.  Jason Webb's Pharoah was a very weak Elvis impersonation but you have to give him credit for putting it all out in the performance.
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I've seen Joseph so many times I practically have the whole thing memorized (so it makes it easier for me to pick out the flaws) and this show has many.  Amplification issues plagued the entire second act but the cast soldiered on manfully.  In the end, the good outweighed the band and the show turned out to be a pleasant afternoon's entertainment.  This wasn't the greatest production of the show I'd ever seen but it wasn't the worst either.
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FINAL GRADE B-