Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

With over 40 youths and children taking part in this production every single adult involved in production or helping backstage need congratulating as each cast member looked stunning and acted beautifully on stage.

The Children’s choir sounded lovely and were given instruments and some nice choreographic moves for the numbers they were in.

The stage looked fabulous with some fabulous artwork by Jennifer Coughlan. A new sound system has recently been installed at Heywood Civic and this along with the experience of the sound engineer led to no problems on sound. Props and costumes were fabulous and suited the scenes and characters.

The society had a new MD and choreographer who both did great jobs obviously engaging well with the cast. Shelley Byrne the Director was well positioned to take on this show after her success directing last years show. The cast could have benefited with a vocal warm up before starting as the opening notes are very high for the narrator and very low for Joseph but these are things you learn with experience.

I cannot mention all the cast but the Wives and Brothers all worked so hard and the solos and harmonies were fabulous. Nice strong gestures and clear diction meant the story was easy to follow for audience members who didn’t know the show

Joseph was played extremely well by Arthur Roadnight with lovely vocals and super characterisation. Lydia Gillibrand put in a lovely performance as the Narrator and I know Lydia came in late and had only had a few weeks’ rehearsals.

James Birrell was very good as Jacob and there were some nice performances from Tom Hall as Potiphar, Poppy Reeves as Mrs Potiphar and Lily Ferris was so sweet as The Baker.

For me the outstanding performance of the night was the Pharaoh played by Riccardo Atherton. With brilliant vocals, great acting and bags of stage presence he stole the show with Song of the King.

The ensemble numbers were well choreographed and with such mixed ages and abilities Angela Briggs did a fantastic job on the effectiveness of the dancing.  I loved Jacob and Sons, One More Angel in Heaven and Those Canaan Days where the vocals were brilliant.

I love watching these young performers grow in skills and seeing new faces join this lovely society who care so much about inclusion and allowing all abilities to join. Well done to everyone on a slick performance and very enjoyable  evening.

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