Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

This was a remarkable achievement by all at Spotlight Youth to bring this musical to the stage in these difficult times. The organisation was very different to the normal practice in that the members were put into age-group bubbles for rehearsals and performances in strictly controlled conditions. This resulted in three separate productions of the musical with each having its own director/choreographer. Each group had the same Joseph played by Ben Walker and the same Pharaoh played by Callum Steed. I must compliment these two performers, not only for their excellent singing, acting and dancing but, for the way they worked with three different groups of children on stage. They hadn’t worked with two of the groups in many of the rehearsals because of covid regulations. Each group presented two performances.

Michele Windsor directed and choreographed this group of experienced and mature young people. The choreography was slick and its execution was polished. There was confident singing and acting from the two Narrators, Jess Cavill and Charlotte Gough. They both had strong voices with very clear diction. They harmonised well together and acted and danced with confidence. There were lots of impressive performances throughout as the actors kept appearing in different guises. Matthew Windsor demonstrated his fine voice in One More Angel in Heaven, Liam Wilkes gave a lively performance in Benjamin Calypso and Keiron Banner provided a show stopping performance of Those Canaan Days.

The middle age group was directed and choreographed by Liz Kelly and once again the two narrators got the evening off to a flying start. This time they were played by Charlotte Farmer and Becky Cartwright. They gave convincing performances in their roles and told the story clearly. They also produced some harmony singing which was very pleasing on the ear with good dancing and acting throughout. As with the senior group the actors kept appearing in different roles to keep the action flowing. Once again there were good renderings of the iconic songs from Luke Morgan (One More Angel in Heaven), Zach Andrews (Benjamin Calypso) and Ben Coleman (Those Canaan Days).

The junior group was directed and choreographed by David Anderson and Jackie Anderson. Most of these children had never been on stage before or used a radio microphone. Instead of individual children playing specific roles the song lines were shared by different children. This worked very well and gave the children plenty of opportunities to show their talents. It certainly demonstrated that there is plenty to look forward to in Spotlight Youth Productions for the foreseeable future. They sang heartily and made a good sound and, more importantly, looked as though they were enjoying themselves.

The set was simple but well used with some effective lighting and the sound in both volume and balance was just right. The costumes by Deb Cavill and her team were well thought out and suited the production perfectly. Musical Director, Ian Windsor, accompanied each performance from the piano and complemented the performers sympathetically and supported the singers throughout the evening.

Congratulations to everyone involved and thank you for bringing live theatre back with such polished and entertaining performances. Well done!

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