Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s big brazen biblical extravaganza returns once again for a national tour, and this heralds yet more audiences enthusiastically clapping and singing along to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’s iconic tunes up and down the country.
The tone and calibre are everything you have come to expect from Joseph at this point: family-friendly, bubbly, bright, cheesy and still able to get a song stuck in your head for days. I must confess this was my first time seeing it on stage and the production’s ability to galvanise a crowd is something utterly lost in the recorded version. It was interesting to see just how much the style of the original school version has been retained even now: there’s a degree to which the entire enterprise feels like a school musical with an exorbitant amount of money spent on it, which arguably is part of the innate charm.
There’s little I can say that was not better conveyed by the rabid applause of the audience at the close. Joseph remains a well-practiced and -executed production that understands and heavily leans into its appeal to audiences. It has a pop-mentality through and through – from its daft jukebox musical stylings and rousing ballads, to its unwavering feel-good mentality.
As you would come to expect, we have an array of powerful singers working their pipes. Jaymi Hensley returns as Joseph and his aptitude for the role – and for belting out showstoppers – is unabashed. Giving him a serious run for his money though is Alexandra Doar as the Narrator, who is well integrated into the scenes rather than providing remote lyrical accompaniment and proves another central pillar of the show.
There is a part of me that would like to see a musical of this story with some proper Old Testament blood, retribution and misery but I think that boat sailed in the late ‘60s with the original staging, never mind in 2019 when the popularity of Joseph is long established. Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat is a knowingly silly, shallow and entertaining escapade that would challenge even the most stony-faced attendant to not be won over. ★★★★☆ Fenton Coulthurst 28th August 2019
