["Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"] continues to impress with its charm, wit and inventive staging. It not only popularizes a portion of the Old Testament, but on another level operates as show business parody, kidding such personalities as Gene Autry and Elvis Presley. It's no knockout, but certainly a pleasing and buoyant entertainment….

But because of its short length, "Joseph" appears doomed to be the victim of debilitating grafts. In this instance, the evening's first half yields an all-new and supposedly related work called "Jacob's Journey," which is intended to foreshadow the "Dreamcoat" saga. It's not of the same quality, being essentially a mini-musical with vaude overtones…. Nor is the Webber-Rice score up to their standard. The piece, in short, has none of "Joseph"'s evident virtues and makes the doublebill a schizoid affair….

Maybe "Joseph" should be left to its own devices, and booked on an...