Sunday, May 31, 2009

Any Dream Will Do

Genre: Broadway Musical
Artist: Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
Album: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

This is a play that I have loved ever since I was a little boy. It is also the play I have seen more often than any other by far. The play begins with the narrator singing about dreams. "Some folks dream of the wonders they'll do" but many "hide their hopes." "We all dream a lot. Some are lucky, some are not." The narrator then tells us that this can all be explained in the story of a boy whose dream came true. That boy is Joseph. Joseph then enters the stage to sing this song. He had dreams and because of them he was sold as a slave and eventually cast into prison. His dreams seemed hopeless. And yet, in the end, his dreams really did come true.

There are times when I feel like Joseph in this song. "Far, far away, someone was weeping, but the world was sleeping." Somebody needed help, but the world was oblivious to the fact. One of my dreams is to find those people that are weeping and lift their heads and give them hope. I want to change the world for the better. I feel inspired by my dreams. I gaze at the distant horizon and see the dawn breaking. But then, frequently, I begin to lose sight of my dreams. This happens because I am either ridiculed or else I feel extremely burnt out. "The light is dimming, and the dream is too." But, like Joseph, I am still waiting. I am waiting for my dream to come true, to make a difference in the world.

This song also takes me back to my childhood. I remember first seeing it in Salt Lake City with my aunt Dee. I also remember on one trip to her apartment she presented me with my own "coat of many colors." I saw it multiple times after that, including once at Riverside. (I loved that theater, especially their production of Robin Hood). My favorite production was with Michael Damian. I saw that with my dad and Becky. I would act out scenes from Joseph at home. In the scene where he was thrown in jail, I would be behind the rocking chair wearing a towel (because that's basically all he was wearing in the play). I also drew pictures of parts of the play on the computer and wrote the accompanying lyrics (although I struggled with such words as economic). As a child, this was certainly my favorite play, only to be replaced years later by Phantom of the Opera, another Andrew Lloyd Webber masterpiece.