For Westminster’s final musical of the 2022-23 school year, the theater department is putting on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, originally written by Tim Rice. Performances began Thursday the 27th, and tonight is the final night to go see this musical directed by Allen Schwamb. Though this musical was a short turnaround from the last musical, Ranked, in late February, these performers are excited and ready to participate in such a fun show. 

At a Christian school, most students and people in the community are familiar with the story of Joseph in the Bible. For those who may not remember, Joseph, the main character and favorite child, is given an amazing, multicolored coat by his father. Once his brothers see this, they become jealous enough to convince their father Joseph is dead, then sell him into slavery in Egypt, where he eventually interprets dreams about a famine and becomes second in charge to Pharoah.

“The musical is basically a more embellished version of the Bible story to make it more exciting on stage—all of the bright colors and music make it seem almost like a Biblical LSD trip,” said Jonah Zell, senior actor. Zell plays three different characters—Pharoah, Jacob, and Potiphar—and for his last acting role in the Westminster theater department, he was given ample creative freedom with each of these characters. 

“I was basically told I could do whatever I wanted with Pharaoh, and no one has stopped me so far, so I’m having fun with it,” said Zell.

Many seniors are ready for it to be over because of the intense amount of work and preparation pushed into such a short time frame right as class ends for them, but they are proud of the results of their efforts so far. Underclassmen who have been in shows with these seniors are sad to see them go, but they are also excited to perform again themselves. For junior Jack Nelson, though, this is his first official Westminster theater show. 

“It’s super exciting to be acting in a show after being backstage so many times before and being in smaller productions. I’m a little nervous, but at the same time I feel good about how I’ve practiced and I think I’m ready for this,” said Nelson.

Other actors in this performance are impressed with Jack’s progress in such a short period of time. 

“One thing I’ve been super impressed with in this show is Nelson’s progress,” said Zell. “Even though we’ve crammed an 8 week process into 4 weeks and it’s his first time acting, he’s doing really, really well.”

Nelson was also given some creative freedom in his role, and he, like Zell, is having fun putting his own personal spin on his characters.

“I play one of Joseph’s brothers, Simeon, and the brothers are just this crazy horde of emotions with ridiculous amounts of personality—they get angry, devastated, happy, starved—and I get to figure out how my character feels and display those emotions which is really cool,” said Nelson.

Overall, this show is an emotion-packed performance, sung all the way through with vivid colors and characters. Whether it’s these actors’ first show or last, performances this weekend are sure to be passionate and worth the watch.