Joseph & His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

It was great to see Hull MTC back in the venue they had played in for a number of years, Middleton, Hull University was the perfect setting for a perfect production of Joseph & his Dreamcoat, the stage setting was just right and with the use of some excellent projections it made just the right atmosphere for a very enjoyable evening.

This production had done a double casting of both the Joseph and Narrator’s parts, they also used two narrators instead of the usual one which gave other members the use of the stage in order for them to shine, and they did just that.

On the evening I watched it was Martyn Payne who was in the shoes of Joseph and he was perfect, he looked good, acted good and sang even better, he had the entire audience in the palm of his hands and when he sang Close Every Door you could hear a pin drop, I understand from others who watched a different performance that Joseph Bough, also playing Joseph, that he was equally as good.

The role of the Narrator is a mammoth one, they are on stage almost the entire show which means their voice has to be in tiptop condition to be able to sing through the whole production. Zoe Mitchell and Hannah Wilson had no fears in any aspects of their performances, their voices certainly were in tiptop condition and delivered their respective numbers with ease, both taking on the various songs and verses throughout the show. Again, I was told their counterparts of Roselyn Shallcross and Rebecca Todd both performed equally as well when it was their turn to tread the boards.

This production had a massive cast, I counted over fifty adults on stage which combined with the thirty children in the chorus could have resulted in a logistical nightmare to get so many on and off the stage, but this was not the case here. The stage never looked crowded and I never saw the queues of cast members waiting to exit the stage which sometimes does happen in productions, they were all able to move with ease.

The role of Jacob, Joseph’s father may not be a big part but it is a very important one and Steve Aylmer made it his own, he looked the part and delivered the role with style.

As we know Joseph has eleven brothers as we all know and here each one of them had a very different character, I have seen this show where all the brothers appear to be a clone of the previous one but not here, they all had different moves in various songs and each was able to deliver in their unique style.

When his brothers decide to get rid of Joseph they didn’t was to actually kill him but wanted to give the appearance that he had been killed so they set about him, stripped him of his coat his father had given him and returned home to tell Jacob his son had been attacked and killed, showing him the blood stained coat. They sing One More Angel in Heaven which was hilarious, joining them in this number was Katie Porter who not only sang her part in the song she also acted it out with various facial expressions which only added to the hilarity.

Joseph meets Potiphar and of course Mrs Potiphar, his wife who tries to seduce him. Mike Barber was good in this role and Rachel Stockton was superb, portraying the archetypal cougar of the time, she was perfect.

When Joseph is thrown into prison, he meets a baker and a butler who both tell him their dreams, hoping they are both good omens. Natasha Hadland played the role of the baker and was able to portray this really well and Christian Brodie portrayed the butler on the evening I was there, again a really reliable performance.

When Joseph had told the baker and the butler about their respective dreams the news was taken to Pharoah about this person who could translate the dreams, namely Joseph.

Pharoah, played by Alex Dickenson certainly lived up to the vision we all have of this character. Alex portrayed the hip swaying, lip curling, gyrating Elvis character to a tee and had the audience in hysterics, so much so he had to come back and give an encore much to the delight of everyone.

I mentioned there were around thirty children in this production who formed the children’s chorus, and it was obvious they had all been coached superbly to deliver the goods. Hull MTC had been working very closely with three local schools, namely Anlaby Primary, Hallgate Primary and St. Nicholas Primary Schools, each of them taking on various performances. This was also the first full scale production for Hull MTC Juniors who as well as being part of the choir some of them also took on some of the principal roles too. Full credit must be given to these youngsters for the dedication and commitment they had all given to which hopefully will not be there last production with this society, or any other for that matter.

The production team of Andy Collinson as Director/Producer, Roselyn Shallcross as Co-Producer, Rebecca Barques as MD, Aimee Trewhitt as Choreographer and Lewis Scott as Rehearsal Pianist must be congratulated for having the vision of the final product and seeing the whole production through.

I must also mention the members of the orchestra, who played excellently throughout the entire show.

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