"Joseph" first production since Nancy Goodwin's death

Article Last Updated: 06/22/2007 02:17:12 AM MDT

Ask 12-year-old Chase Goodwin how he's doing since his mom's death, and he'll tell you, "Oh, about as good as I can be."

The same might be said of the theater company Nancy Goodwin founded six years ago with the goal of one day becoming an Arvada Center for the south metro area.

But then, you might be underestimating.

Performance Now is actually doing better than ever. Dozens of people have worked to make it so since Nancy Goodwin died of breast cancer May 3 at age 52.

"Not once did I think Performance Now would waver or go away," said actor Carla Kaiser Kotrc. "Nancy always surrounded herself with really passionate, dedicated artistic people. And because she is no longer with us, they are even more resolved to continue on. That's our tribute to her."

Goodwin, a Texas native who addressed everyone as "darlin'," produced 18 family musicals after founding Performance Now in 2001. Though Performance Now presents only four shows per year for quick, two- to three-week runs, it regularly fills the Lakewood Cultural Center and sports a per-performance attendance average (225) that ranks among the state's top 10.

This first show since Goodwin's death, opening tonight, is bringing the company its greatest attention to date, on stage and off.

"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" has attracted nine Performance Now newcomers, most well-established in the local theater community, in a cast of 26. There has been such an infusion of talent, board president Craig Ross quipped at Goodwin's funeral, "Now I'll never be good enough to get another role."

Goodwin's husband, Ken, her board and her actors are navigating the terrain of how best to move the company forward without leaving Nancy behind. But if the company is to continue her tradition while building on it, she'd be first to say that will take new talent, new challenges and the highest artistic standards.

"I absolutely felt the additional responsibility of directing this first show since Nancy's death. In fact, I freaked out a little bit," said Bryan Bell, who says his mentor was quick with a hug - and a stern taskmaster.

"I want this show to be as wonderful as it possibly can be," Bell said, "because if it's not, she'll come back and hurt us."

Though Performance Now has a healthy budget of $30,000 per show, this remains a grassroots community-theater company in the best sense of that term. Where company and community intermingle. Where any death is a death in the family. Where people rally. Here, in addition to all the practical matters to attend to, there was Chase.

Staci Jackson, an accomplished young actor starring as the Narrator, was attending her first rehearsal for her first Performance Now show on May 1, when it was announced to all that the company's founder had entered a hospice. Two days later, Goodwin was dead.

After the funeral, Ken dropped by rehearsal and told the cast, "By the way, I need someone to look after Chase Tuesday through Saturday nights. Can anyone help out?"

Jackson, a college student, didn't think twice. "I said, 'Yeah, I'm available,"' she said. "I didn't even give anyone else a chance to respond."

Ken was overwhelmed by this stranger's offer but a bit confused. "The joke became," he said, "Does anyone even know this woman?"

Jackson and Chase have become fast friends,

and as for the arrangement, Chase says with a wry grin, "Oh yeah, it's OK with me!" Cracked Kotrc: "Hey, if you were 12," she said, "wouldn't you want Staci taking care of you? Hello!"

What Chase really wants is what everyone else wants - for his mother's dream to continue.

"I will always remember my mom up there on stage directing everyone and giving notes," Chase said. "It makes me happy that it'll keep going because she worked so hard for it."

There could not be a better show to keep spirits high in the wake of the death than the high-energy, good-fun biblical musical "Joseph." Amid the whirlwind of activity at the Highlands Ranch dance studio where the troupe rehearses, Nancy's presence is

felt "everywhere, every day," Kotrc said.

"She used to sit in the middle of the studio in her little chair and - this is weird, but - as you are dancing, you can kind of see her there in the reflection of the dance mirror," Bell said. "A bunch of people have said it, too. It's it's like she's sitting there watching us."

If the long-range goal is to anchor an Arvada Center-like facility in the south metro area, that will require drawing the interest of a municipality or private investors. For that to happen, Ken said, the short-term goal must be "to put on the best musical theater we can," he said. "We just need to prove to others, and ourselves, that we can do this without her."

By simply going on, the newbies and the veterans mourn a woman they knew in different ways. "I am honored to be in 'Joseph' because my healing is through performing for her and feeling the joy of performance," Kotrc said.

For Jackson, it's a "huge honor," she said - all of it. Playing the Narrator. Playing with Chase. "I'm a part of something so much bigger than anything I ever could have imagined," she said through tears. "It's an honor to be accepted into Performance Now, and it's an honor to be welcomed into the Goodwin family and to be trusted to take care of Chase.

"It's just so emotional. It's amazing, and it's wonderful."

Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.

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"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"

MUSICAL | Performance Now Theatre Company | Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice | Directed by Bryan Bell | Starring Staci Jackson, Jean Paul Houlette, Kent Randall and Carla Kaiser Kotrc | THROUGH JULY 1 | At the Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway | 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday | $16-$21 | 303-987-7845 for tickets or go online at performancenow.org

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VIDEO BONUS: Here's a one-minute video John Moore shot a "Joseph" rehearsal:

Review: Performance Now's "Joseph"

*** 1/2 STARS RATING

Article from The Denver Post: 06/23/2007 10:04:43 AM MDT

Friday was one of those rare nights at the theater that clearly was fueled by a higher power -- and her name is Nancy Goodwin.

But let's not forget the horsepower on the ground -- and his name is Bryan Bell.

Opening night of Performance Now's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" was the first performance by the company Goodwin founded in 2001 since her death less than two months ago from breast cancer.

Charged with carrying on her mission is Bell, the show's director ... and choreographer ... and supporting actor ... and scenic designer. (Jeez, I got tired just typing that.) The apparently indefatigable Bell really knows this show -- a playful musical retelling of the Biblical tale about the son of Jacob who rises

to Egypt's second most-powerful man despite the machinations of 11 nefarious brothers.

This is an audience favorite no matter who takes it on, but it rarely realizes this level of accomplishment. Bell's triumph starts with a clever and confident understanding of how much fun there is to be had here, and he doesn't let a single opportunity pass. It continues with the astoundingly talented young cast of 26, not counting the additional two dozen adorable kiddies-slash-ringers. Bell's choreography is inventive, gyrating and very complex, which might have been a deathknell for a greener crew. But he's compiled a knockout group that can actually handle every step and swivel he gives them.

Keep in mind, this isn't just any musical. Bell had to find more than a dozen dudes who can dance. Not only can these dudes dance, they didn't miss a step.

And oh yeah, they sound pretty incredible too.

Then there are the leads - the sensational singing narrator Staci Jackson and affable, anything but average Joe (Jean-Paul Houlette). Young Jackson is elegance and grace and goodness personified, and Bell has wisely found new ways of taking advantage of her presence.

As if that weren't enough, Bell fills in the Lakewood Cultural Center's massive playing area with a very attractive bevy of wives who are so distractingly alluring -- well, let's just say it calls into question why these brothers might have ever given Joseph a second thought. These women help add a charged but innocent sexiness to an already sweaty affair.

Then there are support characters like the comically ferocious Carla Kaiser Kotrc, who as Mrs. Potiphar nearly sends poor Joe to a far more appealing demise than down that putrid well -- when she buries his face in her royal buxomness.

Now, a few words about Kent Randell as Elvis, I mean, the Pharaoh - an abdominally ripped Elvis/Pharaoh. You see, "Joseph" can be a very quick show, so when Randell sings the lady-swooning "Song of the King," his director gives him all the time he desires to work the crowd into a rock-concert frenzy -- and the improvistionally gifted Randell takes full advantage. Having just seen Randell play a violent teen homophobe in the Avenue's "Dog Sees God," I'm in awe -- the transformation is astonishing. I'm just assuming this guy owns any karaoke joint he ever walks into.

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the Pharaoh as an open invitation for any actor playing him to steal the show. Randell nestles the whole darn thing in his big black Elvis bouffant and, like The King, leaves the building.

But in this staging, there's plenty of booty to go around. Jim Miller's kickin' "One More Angel" country turn, Keith Hershman's Parisian "Canaan Days," Burke Walton's "Calypso" and more. Even brothers who never really get their moment to shine solo find ways of commanding your attention.

Bell's staging also has tremendous production values, from Miller's creative costumes to Sandy Calcaterra's endlessly amusing props to his own wonderful, multilevel set design. Jonathan Scott McKean's moody light design is one of the most inventive I've seen of late, and though the tracked orchestrations are an unfortunate necessity here, at least they were scored specifically for this production, and the presence of a live guitarist and percussionist mitigates them somewhat.

Full disclosure: I wasn't planning to review "Joseph." I generally don't review any show that runs for fewer than three weeks because by the time a review gets published, the show is already packing up, and that's of little use to readers who need time to plan. Instead, I acknowledged the sanctity and the significance of the occasion by writing an advance tribute piece to Goodwin and her company.

While interviewing cast members for that article, I had to stifle a scoff when it was suggested that little Performance Now already holds to the same artistic standards as the Arvada Center's in-house theater company -- the only difference being that it doesn't yet have a home of its own. Now I'll go those braggarts one better -- they already have a better theater space than the Arvada Center's -- by far. Problem is, Performance Now is one of dozens of tenants vying for time in this gem of a facility that's already booked into 2011. So the best the company can usually get are two-week slots -- not enough to warrant much media attention.

That means one down and only five more performances of "Joseph" to go. Plan accordingly. Every show will sell out.

And to think, I only attended Friday's opening as a courtesy to a very hard-working, friendly and ambitious group of people I have come to greatly admire in recent weeks. I did not expect to be blown all the way back to Canaan. Well, at least back to my keyboard for this immediate, late-night recounting of the evening. Now I'm happy for the opportunity to pass the word about a night I thought was megawatt magnificent.

By the time the supercharged "Mega Mix" began, the crowd was on its feet, clapping along as if this were a "Panic at the Disco" concert. The "Mega Mix" is the expanded curtain call designed to stretch this short evening out. But when you have dancers like these, it's a highlight.

I don't know whether to credit Goodwin, Bell or Thor, but Friday was just a lightning bolt, from the first note to the cast's final bow on a stage already strewn with flowers before the last song had even ended. That crowd was so frenzied, it's doubtful anyone left without a smile - or an elevated heart rate.

Bell and his team have done more than honor Nancy Goodwin's legacy. They have furthered it.

Go, go, go see "Joseph." -- if you can get in.

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"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"

MUSICAL | Performance Now Theatre Company | Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice | Directed by Bryan Bell | THROUGH JULY 1 | At the Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway | 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday | 2 hours |$16-$21 | 303-987-7845 for tickets or go online at performancenow.org

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Cast list

The narrator ................. Staci Jackson

Joseph ........................ Jean-Paul Houlette

Pharoah ...................... Kent Randell

Mrs. Poitiphar .............. Carla Kaiser Kotrc

Buter ......................... Mark Middlebrooks

Jacob/Potiphar ............ Kevin Walton

Brothers:

Simeon ....................... Bryan Bell

Gad ............................ James Erickson

Asher ......................... Matt Gottlieb

Reuben ....................... Keith Hershman

Zebulon ....................... Alex Levin

Levi ............................. Jim Miller

Dan ............................. Gabriel Morales

Issachar ...................... Brian Murray

Benjamin ..................... Aaron Quintana

Judah........................... Burke Walton

Napthali/Baker ............. Jake Williamson

Wives:

Casey Anderson, Mindy Bor, Lyndsay Corbett, Maddie Franke, Jessica Hindsley, Kendra Jacobs, Tiffany Lengyel, Helene Luna, Arlene Rapal and Brianna Tracy.