In less than a year, the state-of-the-art Jeanne Y. Curtis Performance Hall has provided an array of performances, lectures, and other events to the community that have enhanced the city’s arts and entertainment calendar. Following the March concert featuring New York Metropolitan Opera Tenor Matthew Polenzani, Assumption presented a concert-staged performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Curtis Hall. Over a span of three days, members of the institution’s Chorale and student actors performed lead roles before friends, family, and many members of the Worcester community.
According to The Musical Company, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which is celebrating its 50th year in 2018, is the “reimagining of the Biblical story of Joseph, his father Jacob, 11 brothers, and the coat of many colors.” The story is told entirely through song and was the first musical collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics). Since debuting in March 1968, it has been performed around the world, has earned several Tony Award nominations, and was adapted into a film featuring Donny Osmond as Joseph.
“The new performance hall is a fitting space to showcase the depth of talent at Assumption while demonstrating the institution’s commitment to the performing arts,” said guest director Richard Monroe ’85.
For nine years, the institution held its spring production at Worcester’s historic The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, but this spring opted to showcase the new hall, which officially opened in October 2017 and boasts one of the most sophisticated sound systems for a institution or university on the East Coast.
