When David Archuleta croons the opening lines of “Any Dream Will Do” during this summer’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the audience won’t be able to tell, but he’s probably nervous.
Or at least he assumes he will be.
Despite years of performing and a voice that leaves fans working through his fingers like sculptor’s clay, Archuleta said he has always been prone to anxiety that is forever leading him to second guess himself. Lucky for Archuleta fans everywhere, he’s used to doing things even when they make him nervous.
“Anything I’ve really accomplished in life has come from doing things I don’t feel comfortable doing,” Archuleta said. “I would’ve been fine if I was created as a rock in the desert, sitting still and basking in the sun. But alas, I am human, so I am expected to accomplish more in life than just sitting motionless in the desert.”
Tackling the title role this popular biblical musical may have brought Archuleta to the desert, but he’s far from sitting motionless beneath the towering Tuacahn backdrop. Rather he’ll be singing and dancing through songs that he’s had on repeat in his mind for months.
Prior to his arrival at Tuacahn, Archuleta spent the bulk of his time listening to the original and Canadian cast recordings of the production, watching the film version, and re-living some of the nostalgia he has tied up in the music of Joseph.
“Joseph was probably the third album I ever carefully listened to after Les Mis and one of the albums by the band Kansas,” Archuleta said.
Even still, he never imagined he’d be the one donning the multicolored coat and hearing phrases like “Go, go Joe” chanted in his direction.
“I think it will be fun,” Archuleta said. “The music overall is a pretty upbeat and good feeling.”
It’s that music — and the multitude of musical styles within the score — that have Set Designer Adam Koch and the entire creative team excited about this show.
“Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber are some of the best writers in the industry,” Koch said, adding that when he and his colleagues turned their creative energy to the story of Joseph a real rise to fame theme emerged.
“It’s a story of the upward mobility of Joseph,” Koch said, “and David Archuleta is the perfect embodiment of that from American Idol and his other successes.”
Don’t miss this season’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the Tuacahn Amphitheatre, playing alongside Wonderland and Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in the indoor Hafen Theatre. For tickets log onto www.tuacahn.org or call the box office at 435-652-3300.