REVIEW: JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT @ LONDON PALLADIUM

The poster for the very first West End Joseph

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 50^th 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 50^th 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 50^th 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