After a storming run in the early 90s when everyone’s favourite floppy-haired Aussie soapstar was playing the rainbow-coated wonder, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat finally closed its magical doors in 1994 and the West End mourned the passing of one of its brightest lights… ok, well maybe it spared a fleeting moment in its glamorous whirlwind of press nights and parties to notice the posters had changed.
Anyway, the point is that Joseph is a classic musical and its return to London’s Theatreland is more than just a welcome treat. With all the attention and hype of the star-seeking TV show, there’s been triple-fold pressure on the producers the cast, not to mention the nation’s curly-haired favourite, Lee Mead, to make it even more spectacular than ever before. If we’re honest, we were totally swept up in the hype and excitement of it all at the pink lastminute.com palace, especially after Becky interviewed Lee.
So was all the hype worthwhile? Is Joseph the Musical the dazzling whirl of showbiz we were expecting?
For those who don’t know the story, it’s a light-hearted adaptation of the biblical story of Joseph: favourite son of Jacob, seer of dreams, wearer of multi-coloured clothing and flasher of dazzlingly white smiles. (Or is that just something Lee brought to the role? Dental hygiene probably wasn’t so hot in biblical times.) It’s a high energy, extremely child-friendly, non-stop musical – after all, why waste time talking when you could be belting out another brilliant song?
For anyone who grew up in the Donovan/Schofield days when Saturday morning TV was teeming with singing hoards of brightly dressed children, this will all be old news. So, what’s Lee like? He’s AMAZING – I hate to use capitals, but he really is. He has a Disney-like stage presence with those big eyes, bright white smile and that curly bonce. His singing is clear and powerful and he does a great job of the cartoon-like physical comedy that goes on while the other characters are singing. It’s easy to see that he’s not exactly a newbie to the stage because his performance is lovable and professional without a rough edge in sight.
Lee's brilliant Joseph is accompanied by the pint-sized Preeya Kalidas in the role of the narrator. She’s got a smashing set of pipes on her – they may have had to put her on heels the size of circus-stilts so that people in the stalls can see her, but she’s charming and she brings her own brand of sass and sauciness to the show (very mild – don’t worry, parents).
Having never seen the show before (only snippets on Blue Peter when I was a tiddler) the thing that took me most by surprise was the hilarious mix of genres and cultural references that they manage to squeeze into the songs. There’s Country and Western, Jazz, Blues, Gallic accordion ballads (my favourite), a bit of hip hop, Arabian flourishes… you name it they’ve squished it in. So while the characters sing their way through the story in Ancient Egypt, you find characters like Pharaoh Elvis – a genius hybrid of the Pharaoh King and… well The King.
The mixture of styles and the incredible energy in the music is matched by the crazy set and costume design. There are times (for example, when the giant Sphinx’s head turns into a slot machine spouting oversized corn on the cobs) that you have to wonder what would happen if you let production designer, Mark Thompson’s imagination loose in the real world.
There is one drawback to Joseph and that’s the terrible face-ache you get from grinning so much. Seriously, this show should come with a health warning. You might think it won’t happen to you, but everyone turns into a big, goofy kid in that theatre for the entire two hours. But then, a totally slick performance of an amazing musical with buckets of imagination and a phenomenally talented cast doesn’t come round very often – so if you want to see it anytime before 2011, you’ll need to book soon.
Buy tickets for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Sara Sha'ath
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