Elvis, Rainbows, and Cowboys -- Oh My!

I love musicals. I love how they combine acting, singing, and dancing into one product. I love how all the technical elements (lights, sound, set…) come together to create a magical, mesmerizing experience that forces you into the moment, as if nothing else outside of the theater exists – as if you’re not even in the theater anymore at all. I love all kinds of musicals – happy ones and sad ones and thoughtful ones and fun, campy ones. I love them all.

Needless to say, when Fulbright informed us that our monthly excursion this month was to go see a musical, I was pretty excited. Even better, it was a musical I had never seen before – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – and it would be performed in Hungarian (with English subtitles, thank goodness).

After my less-than-stellar experience at the Opera recently, I was a little hesitant, but still eager to see the show. As we Fulbrighters sat down, giving ourselves away as Americans by being loud and chatty, there was a buzz of excitement in the sold-out theater as the lights dimmed and the curtain went up.

I knew nothing about the show before going to see it, except that it’s by Andrew Lloyd Weber, whom I associate with the depressive hopelessness of Phantom of the Opera and the absurdity of Cats. For the first twenty minutes of the show, I was confused. But as the show progressed, I slowly went from thinking “What the heck am I watching?” to “THIS IS SOOOOO GREAT!”

If you’ve never seen Joseph before, it’s just about the campiest musical around, and while it is based on a biblical story, it’s a lighthearted show that breaks into a French ballad, an Elvis-themed number, a Western dance, and incorporates musical styles from several decades. The costumes looked like someone stuck a rainbow in a blender, and the lights matched. It was like someone was playing a musical improv game and used all the prompt cards instead of just one. There was a lot going on, but somehow it worked.

The team at the Madach Theatre did a spectacular job, too. The actors were all so high-energy that it was impossible not to be affected by their infectious smiles. By the end, the whole theater was bouncing a long and clapping to the beat. Speaking of the beat, the musicians delivered a flawless performance. The set, costumes, and lights worked together really well, complementing each other and enhancing the performance. There were one or two glitches with the lights, but I think only someone who knew what to look for would have noticed. Everyone left the theater smiling and happy.

But wait! There’s more! Fulbright not only got us tickets to see the show, but they also arranged for us to take a tour of the theater. The day after the performance, we all gathered at the theater again, entered through the stage door (thinking “Look at us, we get to use the special door”) and were introduced to the technical director, who gave us a thorough tour of the building. We started in the costume storage area, where we were allowed to try on some of the costume pieces (mmm, sweaty). Then, we moved to the main stage, where they showed us how the risers and fly systems worked. After that, we moved backstage, to the set piece storage area, and then saw the two smaller spaces – a black box and a studio -- that are used for rehearsals as well as more intimate performance pieces. We even passed the star of the show in the theater, and our Hungarian colleagues got weak in the knees.

At the end of the tour, I casually mentioned that I used to do some lighting design in college, and the technical director smiled and graciously went and found the head of lighting and had him give me a private mini-tour of the lighting control room. When the guy showed me the light board, I think I must have drooled a little bit, because he said “Yeah… it’s pretty nice, right?” I had the urge to press some buttons, but I resisted. Barely.

What an enjoyable outing! I was very impressed with how much the folks at Madach are able to do with a (comparatively) small space. According to the technical director, they may be small, but they like to stay on top of new technology and trends – and it showed in their production. This production was like night and day compared to the disastrous opera-which-will-not-be-named that I saw at the Erkel theater. The best part is, they have a bunch of exciting shows coming up, and I’ll definitely be going to see more of them!

Group photo on stage, complete with star curtain! (Photo credit: Thomas J. Tobin)