For the Chinese, this is the Year of the Ox . . . and soon changing into the Year of the Tiger.
But for multitudes of Utah theatergoers, 1998 will surely go down as the Year of the Dreamcoat, kicking off with Donny Osmond's internationally acclaimed performance in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," running Jan. 12-Feb. 28 at Kingsbury Hall.
Osmond's version, produced by Toronto-based Livent Inc. and being brought to Salt Lake City by the University of Utah, belongs in the "big ticket" category - from the hefty price of the tickets ($65 tops . . . $100 for an opening-night charity bash) to the spare-no-expense costuming and scenery, including patented Flying by Foy rigging that will allow this Joseph to literally soar over the auditorium's orchestra seats.
Osmond was as surprised as anyone that he landed the role in the Livent production when producers invited him to audition for the show in New York City just a few years back.
Producer Garth H. Drabinsky said recently that someone had suggested Osmond for the role when he was considering bringing the musical - which had just been revived in London - to North America.
"I did some extensive research," he said. "I asked my secretary for her reaction to casting Donny as Joseph. And she said if she had the chance to shake Donny's hand, she would never again wash her hands."
For the audition itself, Osmond bought a tape of the score and grabbed a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York, planning to listen to the songs on the tape in order to familiarize himself with the music. But he promptly fell asleep . . . waking up just before arriving on the East Coast.
He admitted recently to a crowd of University of Utah leaders and the media that he broke all the rules during the audition. Not only did he show up only slightly shaven and basically unprepared, after blowing the first attempt at singing his tryout song, he walked to the front of the stage and apologized to the producers.
Not the way to earn a lot of brownie points in the dog-eat-dog, competitive world of show-biz. (Remember "A Chorus Line"? That was a pretty honest look at how brutal Broadway auditions can be.)
But when Osmond sat back down at the piano and sang another song - one he was more familiar with - it was enough to convince Drabinsky that Donny Osmond was, indeed, perfect for the role of Joseph.
It ended up being a choice that both critics and audiences have agreed with, both in print and at the box office. The production has had monthslong engagements in Toronto; Chicago; Minneapolis; Vancouver, British Columbia, and other major "northern tier" cities. (A second production, mounted in New York, toured other parts of the country.)
In addition to the upcoming Kingsbury Hall production (and even overlapping it in one instance) there are at least eight community/regional versions of the incredibly popular Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical definitely scheduled during the next several months. And I'm pretty sure there are a few high school and junior high productions I'll never hear about.
If Salt Lake Acting Company is on top of things (and it usually is), "Joseph" is certainly ripe for some sharply barbed parody in its next edition of "Saturday's Voyeur."
Like another Andrew Lloyd Webber megahit, "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" is based on events in the Bible. (And the two shows have been both soundly thrashed and criticized by some and lavishly praised by others.)
In the summer of 1996, one local community theater production of "Joseph" was taken to task in a letter to the editor. The writer felt the Lloyd Webber-Rice version of the beloved biblical tale trivialized and even degraded one of the Old Testament's heroic figures. There were several responses, however, all saying the writer had missed the point - that the show presents positive values in an entertaining way.
Pat Davis, artistic director of Salt Lake Community College's Grand Theatre (which will have its own overlapping production of "Joseph" during the next few weeks), commented at that time that Joseph was, indeed, an arrogant brat. So much so that his brothers were intensely hateful and jealous.
But the upshot, as recorded in the scriptures, was that Joseph eventually became humbled and was reunited with his family. Vanity vs. humility is just one of the values touched on in "Dreamcoat."
Osmond himself, whom we interviewed a couple of years ago when he was performing the role in the long-run Chicago engagement, noted that while he and his wife and children were living there, he was instructor for the gospel doctrine Sunday School class in his LDS Church ward. As luck would have it, the course of instruction was the Old Testament.
"The class members really gave me a bad time when I came to the story of Joseph," he said then.
Along the same line, Osmond's upbringing in a religious and close-knit family, plus his own personal belief in the scriptures, have undoubtedly given him quite a bit of spiritual and theological insight into the character he's playing.
Osmond has also said on previous occasions that he feels strongly about the positive lessons taught by "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" - such values as family love and unity, honesty, chastity, etc.
When Joseph spurns the seductive advances of Potiphar's wife, then is thrown into prison - and later is not only released but rises to great power in Egypt - it is a lesson in the potential rewards of being true to your own convictions. That's not a bad role model for impressionable young theatergoers.
And Livent Inc.'s spectacular production of "Joseph" has drawn hundreds of thousands of theatergoers in its extensive tour across North America. These patrons' collective reactions probably aren't much different from the thousands of Utahs who have also seen countless local productions of the show over and over again.
When the Pages Lane Theatre (now the Rodgers Memorial Theatre) presented "Joseph" a couple of years back, then-proprietor Ralph G. Rodgers Jr. noted that he had been watching his audiences . . . and that he was amazed at how well many of them knew the lyrics by heart. That prompted him to schedule some additional, late-night "sing-along" performances, all of which quickly sold out.
(Later this summer, longtime Utah Shakespearean Festival patrons may be surprised to discover that the USF's production of "Joseph" will have not one, but TWO evening performances on Saturday nights - one at 7 and another at 10. With Fred Adams directing, you can pretty well guarantee there will be an audience for this incredibly popular musical.)
Lest you think that Kingsbury Hall production will be filled only with Utahns or those from neighboring states, think again.
Many of Osmond's longtime fans will be coming to Salt Lake City from all over the world. Think of this as the theatrical equivilent of "the world is welcome here." At least 20 members of his London fan club are flying in for the occasion. This is, after all, being billed as Donny Osmond's final live performances in "Joseph" - before he videotapes the show and moves on into other projects, such as his and sister Marie's new TV show, which will be taped in Los Angeles.
And you can bet that Osmond's taping schedule will be designed to allow him as much time as possible with his family in Utah County. Unlike Joseph, who spent years away from his parents and siblings while enslaved and living in Egypt, Donny Osmond is serious about spending quality time with his wife and growing boys.
Who knows if he's still teaching gospel doctrine in his ward somewhere in the Provo-Orem area, but some Sunday, if there's an LDS Church teacher in need of a substitute who's really in tune with Genesis, Chapters 37-46 . . . .