ANNA — Anna High School will present its 50th musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” March 16, 17 and 18.
Performances March 16 and March 17 begin at 7 p.m. Also March 17, a matinee performance will begin at 2 p.m. All tickets are $8. To purchase a ticket, visit anna.seatyourself.biz or call 937-394-2011.
This international stage sensation tells the story of Joseph, as written in Genesis, from the Bible. Joseph was born into a family of 12 boys, all the sons of Jacob. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son, and Jacob gave Joseph a multi-colored coat.
However, this coat, along with Joseph’s talk of dreams he had, aroused the jealousy of his brothers. They decided to kill him, but before they got the chance, they met a group of Ishmaelites traveling to Egypt. They sold their brother as a slave instead.
The musical continues the story. The show was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose credits include “Phantom of the Opera,” “School of Rock,” “Cats” and “Sunset Boulevard.” With a cast, orchestra and crew of nearly 100 students, this rock and roll musical includes songs written in many genres, including a ’70s number, a hoedown, a calypso, a Parisian tune, and even Elvis makes an appearance as the pharaoh of Egypt.
Anna High School has a long and proud history of Broadway musicals. Over the last 50 years, Anna Local Schools’ musical productions have only had two leaders in the director’s chair. From 1968 to 1998, Larry Gratz served as director of musical productions. With five years of crossover experience, Gratz was succeeded by Sam Brautigam.
With this year’s production, Brautigam will mark his 25th Anna musical, including 20 years as the director.
Abundant community support for the Anna musicals has added to the success over the years. This year’s production contains both second- and third-generation musical students. Before each performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, there will be a slide show of the last 50 productions. A banner in the auditorium will commemorate each show.
Appearing in this year’s musical are Alex Rose as Joseph; Stephanie Esser, Madison Hockaday, Ashleigh Jurosic, Aleksandra Shepherd, Rachel Shoemaker and Lizzy Witer as narrators; Dominic Bolin, Luke Cantrell, Isaac Dodds, Caleb Gaier, Nicholas Nowlin, Isaiah Pleiman, Noah Rioch, Jarred Seigle, Preston Shannon, Sam Sharp and Caleb Shepherd as Joseph’s brothers; Ben Wical as Jacob; Patrick Toller as Pharaoh; Sam Sharp as Potiphar; Sami Schulze as Potiphar’s wife.
Also Isaiah Pleiman as the butler; Caleb Shepherd as the baker; Kiris Fox as a dancer; Bailey Althauser, Molly Batchelder, Emily Bertke, Alicia Brunswick, Autumn Lampert, Mackensie Littlefield, Morgan Meyer, Abigail Nowlin, Autumn Peterson, Abigail Pleiman, Sami Schulze, Morgan Shaffner and Hannah Shoemaker as featured women.
Also Lauren Barhorst, Jennifer Blackburn, Kirsten Brunswick, Tyler Carity, Lauren Elliott, Justin Esser, Ethan Freytag, Emma Freytag, Samantha Gratz, Emily Holt, Brianna Holtzapple, Cameron Klopfenstein, Wyatt Knouff, Jake Kovacs, Kelsey Line, Samantha Martin, Savanna Manger, Lindsay McEldowney, Maddie McEldowney, Liz Michael, Andrew Millhouse, Evan Poeppelman, Dylan Seigle, Lily Toller and Kierstyn Williamson in the chorus.
