Rating: 
Summary: Joseph....WoW!
Review: I received my DVD last Friday and my daughters and I have watched it over and over...we've even turned on the subtitles so that we can sing all of the words. There is not a single thing I would change about this production. I read other reviews that had problems with the sound quality. We've had no problems so far. I loved Donny Osmond & Maria Friedman. They both did a great job. It's been wonderful to sit (& dance) with my girls...sure beats watching Pokemon! While the Biblical order is a little off, you'll find enough of it there that if you know the story you can fill in the rest for the kids. Overall a great musical and a great story. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: My brother did the Joesph musical in the Black Hills playhouse in South Dakota and I was suprised how a cheap playhouse did the same as a number 3 topseller video. Congrats to my brother for an excellent play and congrats to Donny for a great video.I watched this and I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: What was that!
Review: I was excited about this movie coming out... I had read all the updates on the reallyuseful web site which is the official page and when it came on tv I was really happy... notice the word WAS really happy. The movie started out ok, interesting school asembly concept, then it went WHOOP down hill! The narrator didn't do justice to her role and the children cheering were unbeleiveably annoying. It seemed more like a music video than anything else. I was also dissappointed by the brothers who were a bit too gay to my liking. I was expecting somewhat straighter brothers, no offense to anyone who is gay but it was not what I had in mind. The movie did have some good parts though like Donny's "Close Every Door To Me" but then a very unentertaining Pharoah brought it down again w/ his terrible impression backed up with not what I would call the 'best' choreography. I love this show but I just cant find anything... "amazing" about this video.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved the play, you will love the video
Review: We loved the stage play of "Joseph" starring Donny Osmond and were very interested to see how the video would compare. We were very pleased to find that the video was true to the original production while adding some interesting details. Donny Osmond's voice sounds wonderful and he is great in this role. The other performers are all very talented, as well. This is a video that the entire family can watch and enjoy together. One word of caution though....you will be humming the songs from this for days!
Rating: 
Summary: Great kids' entertainment , lacks magic of stage production
Review: I just watched this video (alone) because I couldn't wait until the rest of the family was ready--I really love musical comedies. However, I was somewhat disappointed in the production which has really splashy stage sets but a little less personality than the production I saw on stage last year at the Papermill Theater--which was absolutely fabulous (which is why I was so eager to see this video). However, it's such a treat to have the play available on video that I don't want to sound too negative--it's a wonderful show for children, and parents will enjoy it on quite another level, given its "hit parade" of musical styles from Country-western, to casbah-French. The sets are magnificent and the music is catchy--though Donnie Osmond is not my favorite musical comedy star--he was acceptable, if not inspiring. The narrator's role I thought was very ably filled by Maria Friedman, who was unfamiliar to me. All in all it's a very enjoyable video, with very little to deter purchasing it for children--the one sort of "suggestive" scene with Joan Collins could pass TV censors without blinking an eye, and was not really worth much dramatic import--so it could have been done differently--but shouldn't offend anyone other than fanatic prudes who find even the word "bed" to be too suggestive for small children (who are unlikely to understand what is being referred to anyway).
Rating:
Summary: You and Your Dreamcoat, Ahead of Your Time!
Review: The film approach to this musical was a smart move-- the "we'll tape a performance" approach is kinda cheesy. The sets were great, especially the desert scene, and the costumes were imaginative. The songs were very nice; they go from a catchy jingle-type advertisement for "Jacob and Sons" to a Western theme ("One More Angel in Heaven"), to a somewhat 1920's approach in "Potiphar," to a 1960's Austin Powers-ish "Go Go Joseph", to the bluesy Elvis-themed "Song of the King", and to the Jamaican "Benjamin Calypso." Donny Osmond shines as Joseph: he can really sing! Richard Attenborough was very good as Jacob, who sang a few lines and was actually pretty good at it! Mrs. Potiphar (Joan Collins) was hilarious, as was Robert Torti as Pharaoh "The King." (He was my dad's favorite character; he's watched the Pharaoh's song about a million times.) The eleven brothers are really funny, too! The only character I have a minor problem with is the Narrator, played by Maria Friedman. She has great facial expressions, but her singing voice is less-than-stupendous. (Listen to some of the cast recordings, particularly the 1993 LA cast; you'll hear the difference.) PS - As for the supposedly pornographic scenes with Mrs. Potiphar, they happen so quickly and the plot moves to Joseph in jail so fast there hardly isn't any time for questions of any sort. I'm a Christian, and I've seen worse things on network television. All I can say is, Go, Go, Go, Joseph!
Rating:
Summary: DVD Music track a little disappointing
Review: I love the music from Joseph, so I was somewhat disappointed in the inconsistency of the music track on the DVD. The brothers always sounded as if they were singing in the "background"; I even sent my first DVD back and got another, thinking it was defective. I've seen three stage versions of Joseph, and, by far, Donnie Osmond is the best. I'm was glad that he was chosen for the video.
Rating:
Summary: Poor sound weakens a great show
Review: After seeing the stage production, I had great hopes for this DVD and was eagerly looking forward to Dolby Digital 5.1. It turns out that the 5.1 encoding is so poor that the only way to listen to it is analog Dolby Pro Logic. In chapter four for example, the brothers and narrator are center stage but only the narrator's voice comes out through the center channel - the brothers are "lost" in the left and right channels. This is not the case with analog decoding. Also, 5.1 levels are a good 10-15 db below where they should be and 10 db below the analog. This is the poorest 5.1 mix I have ever seen. This was so bad that I sent the first DVD back and Amazon graciously exchanged it for another. The second was just as bad. If you have a Dolby Digital, don't bother, unless you want to use the analog channel.
Rating:
Summary: Great Family Entertainment -- Loved it!
Review: I have seen numerous productions of Joseph on stage, both in local theatre and in London and I have heard many differnt versions on CD. I loved Donny Osmond as Joseph, he has the most incredible voice. The rest of the cast was equally outstanding. I have two children ages 7 and 9 and they have already watched it 4 times since we received the DVD a week ago. I wasn't sure how the show would play on a television screen, but it was wonderful. Even my husband enjoyed it -- and he is not a musical theatre fan at all. All in all a GREAT show!
Rating:
Summary: Much Better Than I Expected
Review: I love musicals but hate them on tape, so I was prepared to hate this one also. But I think this video format is far superior to just taping a staged performance. When I first viewed the tape I was disappointed with the narrator, but on second and yes third viewing I had a much more favorable opinion. The "stagey" performances that say a Sam Harris or Laurie Beecham would have turned in would have been out of place in this format. The costumes for The Mrs Potiphar girls were exactly like the ones on stage and not a problem to me. And by the way Donny Osmond was Wonderful! every word was crystal clear but yet musically beautiful. What a set of pipes and not bad to look at either.
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