Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat - the review
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizziecI went to London after getting up at godawful o clock. I was rewarded with a stroll down Regent Street, Theatreland to Trafalgar Square (covering parts of Chinatown when we got lost) and onto Strand where the theatre was located. On the way we spent legnthly amounts of time in Hamleys and Paperchase.
This afternoon I went to see Lee Mead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Adelphi. I saw the afternoon matinee which started at 3pm and finished at just gone 5 (total running time 2hrs 10mins) with an interval between Go Go Go Joseph and Pharaoh Story. Lee Mead was Joseph and Fiona Reyes was the Narrator - the usual narrator is Preeya Kaladis, but as mentioned her understudy played the part in this performance.
Despite its relatively short running time Joseph is not a cheap show to see. My ticket, for a seat with a relatively restricted view at the back and extreme right of the Royal Circle cost £45 before the £2 ticketmaster fee. For comparison, Les Mis is £50 for its most expensive Saturday matinee tickets and runs at 2 hours 50 mins. I suppose part of it is to do with demand, but Joseph dows seem rather expensive just to get into. When in, the costs can mount up for the unwary as usually high theatre prices bite – £2.10 for a 500ml bottle of water and £3.00 for a tiny tub of Häagen-Dazs in the interval. The programme, mostly full of adverts and information unhelpful to the viewer of the musical costs £3.50 and a brochure of pictures is £6.00. If you are canny and buy "The Pack" you can have a poster worth £3.00 thrown in for 50p (speaking of which, does anyone want the poster?) Unfortunately the only available soundtrack was from the Jason Donovan era, which seemed lazy and was rather disappointing. They also sold glow sticks at £1 a go, mostly to little kids, for the Joseph Megamix at the end. It seems, based on the merchandise that was being pumped out that Joseph is a mega-industry!
All this is not to say that it was not an excellent production – it was and certainly worth getting up at 5:30am for.
The Narrator was excellent, though I still think I prefer Linzi Hately who was Narrator for Jason Donovan. Fiona Reyes was wonderfully rich in tone and expressive to boot. She did a beautiful job of conveying the story. If it had not been announced before the performance I would not have known that she was the understudy. The men who played the brothers were brilliant and blended well together. They were expressive and comical when needed with seeming ease and frequently left me in awe of their dancing. They were obviously very busy, appearing in nearly every scene in one guise of another. The same goes for the female dancers who appeared to be wearing very little at some points, probably to balance out Lee’s bare chest for the audience more interested in ladies than men ;)
I enjoyed the "SFX" which were mostly used for comical effect. The singing camel and snake, multi-coloured sheep, skeletal sheep and a pyramid with dancing eyes were all used effectively to raise a smile. The moving sections of the stage were well used, but not over used to keep the story moving.
The dance numbers after One More Angel in Heaven and Those Canaan Days were well done and fitted into the story. The choreography in these were amazing. Less brilliant by far was the musical interlude by the Pharaoh. I would be unduly influenced by the fact I heartily dislike Elvis, but it felt forced – shoehorned into the middle of Stone the Crows and slowed the whole thing down. It felt like 5 wasted minutes. The shoehorned Elvis song was probably my least favourite part of the show. I actually hated it!
A close second for this and something that continually grated were the children, who were part of the "Carmel Thomas Youth Singers", who the programme tells us "are a group of lively young people who just love to sing and perform". I have no problem with their singing – they were pretty good. The major problem was their performing, which at times was just too distracting. Instead of sitting at the side and singing they made lots of useless hand gestures (not sign language – that would have been both cool and useful) and were all too frequently on and off the main stage. The general effect of this was to distract the viewer from the main story and superb skills of the other performers. They were scene stealers in the worst possible way.
The only other negative (besides the people behind us who would not stop talking!) was the Joseph Megamix and I have to admit that this one is fully down to personal preference. I have always disliked it and found the live version much too bassy for my liking. It left me with something of a headache. It was obviously a hit with the little kids but at 24 I am clearly now too old for such things!
Now for Lee Mead. He was amazing and seemed to carry the show with ease. His voice has definitely improved since ADWD and I believe his sibilance (sp) which a number of people mentioned during the competition seems to have gone – at least I didn’t notice it. He also looked very nice in a loin cloth ;) It was interesting in these scenes to notice how hard his breathing muscles, specifically his diaphragm were working as it was a joy to watch him and his performance which he made to look effortless. His Close Every Door was probably the best I have heard. I preferred his performance to that of Jason Donovan. With that last sentence I have left my 8 year old self sobbing and in denial ;)
In general this production of Joseph was different to the last – in some ways better, in others, worse. The focus was clearly on taking the songs back to their musical origins, for example: Potiphar was much more 20s, Benjamin Calypso much more Caribbean, Canaan Days more French and Poor Poor Joseph more rap like. It makes an interesting contract and, as mentioned earlier, I wish I had a recording of this version to go with that of the last.
All in all, an enjoyable day (wander round London) followed by a brilliant performance which made the trip and my extreme tiredness worthwhile. Most of the niggles that I have mentioned are just those – niggles and I would not put anyone off seeing. I’d just warn them to take a bottle of water and plenty of money!
Now I'm knackered and am going to bed. So so tired. Overtired. Sleep now (hopefully).
This afternoon I went to see Lee Mead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Adelphi. I saw the afternoon matinee which started at 3pm and finished at just gone 5 (total running time 2hrs 10mins) with an interval between Go Go Go Joseph and Pharaoh Story. Lee Mead was Joseph and Fiona Reyes was the Narrator - the usual narrator is Preeya Kaladis, but as mentioned her understudy played the part in this performance.
Despite its relatively short running time Joseph is not a cheap show to see. My ticket, for a seat with a relatively restricted view at the back and extreme right of the Royal Circle cost £45 before the £2 ticketmaster fee. For comparison, Les Mis is £50 for its most expensive Saturday matinee tickets and runs at 2 hours 50 mins. I suppose part of it is to do with demand, but Joseph dows seem rather expensive just to get into. When in, the costs can mount up for the unwary as usually high theatre prices bite – £2.10 for a 500ml bottle of water and £3.00 for a tiny tub of Häagen-Dazs in the interval. The programme, mostly full of adverts and information unhelpful to the viewer of the musical costs £3.50 and a brochure of pictures is £6.00. If you are canny and buy "The Pack" you can have a poster worth £3.00 thrown in for 50p (speaking of which, does anyone want the poster?) Unfortunately the only available soundtrack was from the Jason Donovan era, which seemed lazy and was rather disappointing. They also sold glow sticks at £1 a go, mostly to little kids, for the Joseph Megamix at the end. It seems, based on the merchandise that was being pumped out that Joseph is a mega-industry!
All this is not to say that it was not an excellent production – it was and certainly worth getting up at 5:30am for.
The Narrator was excellent, though I still think I prefer Linzi Hately who was Narrator for Jason Donovan. Fiona Reyes was wonderfully rich in tone and expressive to boot. She did a beautiful job of conveying the story. If it had not been announced before the performance I would not have known that she was the understudy. The men who played the brothers were brilliant and blended well together. They were expressive and comical when needed with seeming ease and frequently left me in awe of their dancing. They were obviously very busy, appearing in nearly every scene in one guise of another. The same goes for the female dancers who appeared to be wearing very little at some points, probably to balance out Lee’s bare chest for the audience more interested in ladies than men ;)
I enjoyed the "SFX" which were mostly used for comical effect. The singing camel and snake, multi-coloured sheep, skeletal sheep and a pyramid with dancing eyes were all used effectively to raise a smile. The moving sections of the stage were well used, but not over used to keep the story moving.
The dance numbers after One More Angel in Heaven and Those Canaan Days were well done and fitted into the story. The choreography in these were amazing. Less brilliant by far was the musical interlude by the Pharaoh. I would be unduly influenced by the fact I heartily dislike Elvis, but it felt forced – shoehorned into the middle of Stone the Crows and slowed the whole thing down. It felt like 5 wasted minutes. The shoehorned Elvis song was probably my least favourite part of the show. I actually hated it!
A close second for this and something that continually grated were the children, who were part of the "Carmel Thomas Youth Singers", who the programme tells us "are a group of lively young people who just love to sing and perform". I have no problem with their singing – they were pretty good. The major problem was their performing, which at times was just too distracting. Instead of sitting at the side and singing they made lots of useless hand gestures (not sign language – that would have been both cool and useful) and were all too frequently on and off the main stage. The general effect of this was to distract the viewer from the main story and superb skills of the other performers. They were scene stealers in the worst possible way.
The only other negative (besides the people behind us who would not stop talking!) was the Joseph Megamix and I have to admit that this one is fully down to personal preference. I have always disliked it and found the live version much too bassy for my liking. It left me with something of a headache. It was obviously a hit with the little kids but at 24 I am clearly now too old for such things!
Now for Lee Mead. He was amazing and seemed to carry the show with ease. His voice has definitely improved since ADWD and I believe his sibilance (sp) which a number of people mentioned during the competition seems to have gone – at least I didn’t notice it. He also looked very nice in a loin cloth ;) It was interesting in these scenes to notice how hard his breathing muscles, specifically his diaphragm were working as it was a joy to watch him and his performance which he made to look effortless. His Close Every Door was probably the best I have heard. I preferred his performance to that of Jason Donovan. With that last sentence I have left my 8 year old self sobbing and in denial ;)
In general this production of Joseph was different to the last – in some ways better, in others, worse. The focus was clearly on taking the songs back to their musical origins, for example: Potiphar was much more 20s, Benjamin Calypso much more Caribbean, Canaan Days more French and Poor Poor Joseph more rap like. It makes an interesting contract and, as mentioned earlier, I wish I had a recording of this version to go with that of the last.
All in all, an enjoyable day (wander round London) followed by a brilliant performance which made the trip and my extreme tiredness worthwhile. Most of the niggles that I have mentioned are just those – niggles and I would not put anyone off seeing. I’d just warn them to take a bottle of water and plenty of money!
Now I'm knackered and am going to bed. So so tired. Overtired. Sleep now (hopefully).
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Date: Sat, Nov. 17th, 2007 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sun, Nov. 18th, 2007 01:32 pm (UTC)It's interesting what you said about the "Carmel Thomas Young Singers" because the version that's being doing the British tour that we saw in Aberdeen, had the children on the stage the whole time. They were sat on steps on either side of the stage, whether they were singing or not.
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Date: Mon, Nov. 19th, 2007 02:45 pm (UTC)xxx