Oscar ordered this Jamaican hat last December after being cast as Judah. He puts it on, steps between Joseph and Benjamin and says "oh no! Not he. How you can accuse him is a mystery. Save him. Take me. Benjamin is straighter dan de tall palm tree."
There was a ton of choreography going on in this scene with different moves for Oscar, the brothers, the mainstage dancers, and the Egyptianettes. The narrators tried to learn some dance moves and join in, but it seemed no matter what we did we only got in the way. In the end we just jammed with the music, joined the Conga line when it started (where we still got in the way a bit), and handed out leis to audience members. On one night one of my leis got caught in my wireless mic, and it took me awhile to get it out while still trying to keep up with the Conga. Fortunately I did it before I had to get back on stage.
Oscar was the perfect fit for this role. He really had fun with it. It was the perfect outlet for his goofy personality.
"I hear the voice of the yellow bird singing in the trees 'this is quite absurd!'"
Oscar also ordered a Big Bird toy just for this scene. Joseph chucked it out into the audience each show yet it always got returned each night. And every few days during tech week and performances, Oscar would purchase bananas for "sure as bananas need the sun we are the criminal guilty ones." Joseph would take a bite each night too, so one night Oscar played a little joke on him and bought a plantain. Poor Bryan had to keep a straight face after eating it and not spit it out.
The Conga line starts and a big dancing party breaks out! Some of the kids came down for it, and even the camel got to join the party.
We return to the stage as the dancing music ends and sing "each of the brothers fell to his knees.""Show him some mercy oh mighty one please. He would not do this. He must have been framed. Jail us and beat us. We should be blamed."
In some performances those lines are sung before Benjamin Calypso, but I think it's so much better done afterwards. First the silliness, then the sincerity. We also slowed it down considerably, and the brothers' harmonies sounded beautiful. It was always a very tender moment. I'm glad I didn't have to sing immediately after because it always made me get a bit choked up.
"And Joseph knew by this his brothers now were honest men. The time had come at last to reunite them all again."
"Can't you recognize my face? Is it hard to see that Joseph whom you thought was dead, your brother, it's me!"
"Joseph, Joseph. Is it really you?"
Family hug!
Now everybody celebrates!
And Oscar and I finally got our moment on stage together. I'd told him he should kiss me during the celebration scene since I thought it'd be funny to have a brother flirting with a narrator. He kept forgetting throughout rehearsals, and then when he finally did it he full on dipped me and swung me around. Since it made Chari laugh out loud, we kept it up. It made a few audience members gasp. One was Patty's granddaughter, but she calmed down quickly when her grandpa told her we were married.
Joseph is reunited with his damaged, blood stained coat, which has somehow returned to perfect condition after over 20 years.
"I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain to see for certain what I thought I knew."
"May I return to the beginning. The light is dimming and the dream is too."
"The world and I we are still waiting, still hesitating, any dream will do."
The children run up onstage for the "Any Dream will Do" reprise.
And the show ends with the full cast (even the camel) singing "Give me my colored coat. My amazing colored coat!"
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