Joesph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat follows the journey of Joseph, he is one of 12 brothers and his father’s favourite, he is given a coat of many colours by his father and causes his brothers to plot against him. They sell him into slavery and tell their father that he has died. The musical follows Joseph from slavery to his rise as the Pharaoh's right-hand man.

This is a musical close to my heart as it was the first I worked wardrobe for on the late Bill Kenwright tour so I had high hopes for the production. The show opened with a riot of colour with the whole company on stage including a children’s choir,  the children sounded great but unfortunately could only be heard during the show when they moved to the front of the stage where a boundary mic had been placed. In an unusual move,THEATS had two narrators, Jenine Grover and Rachel Fletcher, they both have amazing voices and whilst I was sceptical about the split role it did work and both worked together to guide the audience through the story.

Joseph was played well by Daniel Fortune whose voice brought the character to life, I have heard Daniel sing on many occasions and forgetten how strong a voice he has, Close Every Door, whilst one of slower numbers is one of my favourites and Daniel did it justice. Martin Grover played both Jacob and Potiphar and did both with aplomb. The brothers worked really well together and were a cohesive unit on stage, they also had some beautiful harmonies. I was aware that some of the brothers had only joined the cast a few weeks before opening night but you would not know this from their performances. Finlay Arissol has a lovely voice and I would have liked to have seen him do a whole song not just part of the megamix. The stand-out brother for me was Alfie Pringle, as well as Judah, he played a young butler alongside Phil Mills as Baker and they sounded great together, Alfie then sang the lead for Benjamin Calypso and smashed it, I look forward to seeing Alfie in future productions.

The dancers were choreographed by Daryl Handy and they did her proud, the choreography was appropriate to each song, I have to mention Imogen Burns who was a shining light on the stage and a joy to watch.

The band was led by Barbara Hockey and sounded full and well-rounded, if I have any criticism, it would be that on a couple of occasions, the mixing of the band was imbalanced meaning that I was not able to hear the singing over some of the instruments, I am however aware that this is not something that the band themselves can control.

I was impressed that the lighting kept up with all the colours in Any Dream Will Do, it would have been nice to have a spotlight, as for some songs with many cast onstage it was not always obvious who was the lead, also when the cast were on the steps they were lit from above which created strange shadows on their faces. There were many costume changes for the company and it meant there was always colour on the stage although one of my favourite ones was Potiphar’s black and white ensemble and Joseph’s coat.
The set was basic with decking to create another level with a pyramid behind and hieroglyphics on the front but with so much going on in the show it did not need to be overly complicated. The camel was a highlight for all of the audience and I like to see a large well-made prop that includes a bit of clever engineering. Joseph was all done under the watchful eye of Mark Walker and I have to say well done to THEATS for an entertaining night that I enjoyed and I know the audience loved as they had a standing ovation.

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