Way way back many
decades ago, well 1969 actually, Decca Records released an album by budding
young composers Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was a telling of the
biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colours. A shorter 15 minute
version had been performed the year before at a school concert in central
London. Although the recording didn’t set the world alight, it did provide the
basis to getting the show heard and performed.
Rice and Lloyd Webber continued to expand the piece adding material
prior to a major re-launch in 1972 where it’s journey in professional theatre
really began. Director Frank Dunlop
developed a production which went to the Edinburgh Festival and came into
London via the Young Vic before Joseph
finally dazzled the West End for the first time at the Albery (now Noel Coward)
Theatre in February 1973. It was at that stage the second half of an evening
which was preceded by a piece called Jacob’s
Journey written by Steptoe & Son
creators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, featuring songs by Rice and Lloyd
Webber. Joseph sporadically came back to the West End over the years playing
successful seasons for a number of producers. It wasn’t until a major re-boot
under Lloyd Webber’s own Really Useful production company in 1991 that Joseph was established as a bona fide
classic. This was largely due to the casting of Jason Donovan (then at the
height of his pop career) in the lead role which caused scenes of mobbing
around the stage door of the London Palladium.
Donovan scored a number one hit
single with “Any Dream Will Do”, finally
making the song a pop hit some twenty plus years after it was written. This version of the show was replicated all
over the world and used as the basis for a 1999 TV movie with Donny
Osmond. Joseph’s reputation has grown until now it is one of the most
performed musicals in the world, both professionally and in the schools for
which it was originally written. It has in short become a Technicolor phenomenon.
Its 50th
anniversary sees the first brand new imagining of Joseph in the West End since the 1991 Palladium production. Michael
Harrison here takes the producers reign with a team who are tasked with giving
the show a make-over for a new generation, not to mention thousands of older
fans who are flocking to the Palladium to see the magic being brought to life. Director
Laurence Connor (the man responsible for breathing new life into Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera
and Les Miserables) takes a pop up
book approach to the show, a series of lavish set pieces which serve each song.
There are times when
you might be forgiven for thinking the title of the show is Sheridan and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat, as it is clear that Sheridan
Smith has been promised a star vehicle.
She sweeps in and out of each song becoming Jacob, Potiphar’s wife, a very Scouse jailer... Whilst her singing and dancing are adequate,
it is her comedic presence that defines this production. She has charisma in spades and this is a
great strength, and indeed the fleshing out of the Narrator’s role is by and
large a good thing, it does come at a price, which I’ll come to shortly.
The return of Jason
Donovan to the Palladium stage as Pharaoh has to be a coup for the
producer. As we all know Pharaoh has
very little stage time, so it does come
as a surprise to see that the 2007 additional song for Pharaoh “King Of Your
Heart” has been dropped this time. It
means that “Song of the King” has to be a show stopping moment, and it is! Jason is without doubt the campest Pharaoh I
have ever seen, and of course he cannot put a foot wrong with the sold out
audience. He swaggers, he gyrates, he
curls his lip... Its all there as the
volume is ramped up. Its good to have him back.
In the middle of
these star turns is the true star performance of the night. Jac Yarrow makes his professional debut as
the titular character Joseph. Clearly his voice is the best of the three, and
his rendition of “Close Every Door” shows just how powerful that can be given
the opportunity. He is acting his socks
off to make Joseph a three dimensional character, but as the focus is so much
on Sheridan’s antics the focus seems misplaced every now and then.
A major feature of this
production is integrating the children into the piece. The kids become Potiphar, the Butler and
Baker and the lead on “Benjamin Calypo” to name four. It is a lovely touch to have them integral to
the story, and with kids having the X Factor so young these days, perhaps this
is the way all future productions will go, utilising the younger talent that
Joseph inevitably attracts.
The ensemble work hard
to support the changes for the 50th anniversary production and are
given a chance to shine during the extended dance numbers that have been
incorporated into the show. Joseph’s Dreams
has a jazz tap section the Gumbie Cat would be proud of, Those Caanan Days is now Those Can Can Days
and there is always an opportunity for a bit of a hoe down during “One More Angel”.
The one aspect of the show
that is a resounding hit are Morgan Large’s vistas. He makes the most of the large Palladium
stage, filling it with stars, a sun
filled desert and finally the splendour of ancient Egypt, all gleaming gold. I
particularly liked the camel bike and the huge statues of Egyptian gods playing
along to Pharaoh’s song. Egypt gets a touch of Las Vegas galmour. His costumes
are fun variations on well worn themes, and his Dreamcoat is “wonderful and new”. It is a visual feast at every level, supported by some nice lighting from Ben
Cracknell which enhances each mood. John Rigby leads a 14 strong orchestra and
of course they sound fabulous blasting out of the speakers, especially during the big dance numbers.
Is this the dream
production? Well, no. Despite having a
lot to enthuse about the show sometimes for me feels too Sheridan heavy. Having such an emphasis of getting laughs of
one sort of another means that we are robbed of any emotional pay off at the
end. Joseph reuniting with his father
has always been a lump in the throat moment,
but here is reduced to Sheridan donning the beard on a bike and straight
into the final “Any Dream” as if the director had missed spotting the eleventh
hour moment of the show in his desire to give us slapstick heaven. Don’t get me
wrong, it is an entertaining night out for sure. Well worth a look, but it’s not definitive.
In celebration of
Joseph’s amazing 50th anniversary,
I have compiled an mp3 album sampler of Joseph made up of cast recordings from around
the world, which I have called Joseph and
the Amazing International Dreamcoat (not all tracks are in English!) The album is also in memory of Richard
Swerrun, a fine and much missed Joseph who died earlier this year aged just 57,
so the final bonus track is a live recording of Richard singing “Any Dream Will Do”. Download the album by clicking HERE
