Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

It is such a pleasure to come along to watch the BOSSY cast perform.   They are, as a group, incredibly enthusiastic and will always give their very best performance.

This, cut down youth, version of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat suited the cast perfectly.  It includes all the most popular songs but was not overlong.  This ensured that the cast’s energy was maintained at a very high level and made the performance memorable.

It is a great joy to see how many of the cast have developed and grown in stature, confidence and skills.   Jon O’Neill displayed great confidence as Joseph and his singing was particularly good.  The five Narrators, Lydia Abbotts, Maisie Freeman, Anna Jones, Rebecca McDiarmid and Maisie Threadgold-Smith, all performed well.  It was such a pity that the sound engineer was late bringing their mics up for almost every entrance.  I appreciate that this was the first performance but there really is no excuse and it must have been disconcerting for the performers.  The sound engineer also turned cast members mics off during a scene and, as a consequence, was late opening them again for the start of songs.  Given that this is a ‘sung through’ production there was really no need to turn them off as long as the character was on stage.

There appeared to be one brother missing!   I counted a number of times and could only make 10 plus Joseph.  I note that there were 11 listed in the programme so I assume that one of them was unable to appear on the night I saw the show.  Whilst I did recognise some of them it is difficult to compliment them individually as I wasn’t sure who was who!  I was, however, very impressed with their timing in their group songs.  I know that MD Andy Prideaux usually leads the band from the piano and I wasn’t aware that he was on camera for the cast to follow, so well done on some impeccable timing.    Soloists Heather Nye (Simeon) and Alfie Gardner (Judah) continue to improve every time I see them.   Oliver Harvey gave another well-defined performance as Pharaoh and having mentioned a few of the cast, I want to compliment them all on their characterisations, energy and overall performances.

The band, under the direction of Andy Prideaux was well balanced and supported the singers throughout.  The scenery was simple but very effective, with the clever use of just two small trucks through the whole production.   The costumes were excellent for every character, well co-ordinated and appropriate.  Josephs coat in the finale was beautiful and, I am sure that Mark Reed’s generous loan of this very special costume was appreciated by cast and audience alike.

Another excellent production from BOSSY, well done.

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