Starting life as an amateur short musical back in the seventies, Joseph has gone from strength to strength and is now one of the most performed musicals in the world. The story follows Jacob’s favourite son, Joseph, whose 11 brother’s become envious after Joseph is gifted a multicoloured coat from his father. Joseph is ambushed and then sold by his brothers to be a slave, and through a series of fortunate turns becomes a prince, and get’s reunited with his family again.
The infamous score has remained largely unchanged over the years, with this production making minor amendments. There were slight adjustments in the tempo and additions to make the tracks longer. This allowed the show to really shine with the addition of lots of big dance numbers. We thoroughly enjoyed the addition of a tap dance scene with Joseph’s brothers and the choreography to “Go, Go, Go Joseph” which was full of energy. The show excelled best in scenes featuring the entire cast.
There were a few bizarre character choices that we really didn’t enjoy. In this performance, the narrator (cast as a woman in her thirties) performs the role of Jacob, Joseph’s Dad, traditionally cast as a man in his seventies. In the song Joseph’s Coat, the song alternates between Jacob and the narrator at points, which the same narrator attempts to cover both roles by pulling up and down a fake beard. This comes across very cheap and amateur. You’d be mistaken for thinking the actor playing Jacob was off sick, but this is intentional. This removes the authenticity of the character, and in a final scene reuniting Jacob with his favourite son, renders it devoid of emotion.
This odd characterisation continues throughout the show, with Potiphar being performed by a young child. Whilst the child performs the role well, it seems quite perverse having a child married to a woman in her thirties, and the child then sending Joseph to prison for cheating with his wife. Children also performed the roles of the baker, the butler and a couple of Joseph’s brothers. We felt Joseph having a few younger brothers worked reasonably well, but don’t understand the logic behind aging them by giving them fake beards? We’ve been to Joseph on numerous occasions, so were able to differentiate between characters, but I can’t help but think anyone seeing the show for the first time would be quite confused.
We thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Adam Filipe portraying Joseph. His rendition of close every door to me was one of the best we’ve seen, a true vocal powerhouse. The children ensemble were outstanding, starting off the show on a high. Christina Bianco performed the role of the narrator brilliantly, with excellent vocals and brilliant storytelling.
The showstopper was Donny Osmond playing Pharaoh – one of the best known original Joseph’s. The performance played on this quite well with Donny making numerous references to his past portrayal. Over thirty years since his original debut he still has excellent charisma and stage presence, and was very popular with a certain demographic in the crowd!
The staging was basic but effective in portraying the story. The backdrop which opened and closed for allowing characters to enter worked well. We did feel on the whole the set was quite minimalistic and left the stage feeling empty at times. In Act 2 especially, a lack of staircase left the blocking feeling quite chaotic and didn’t give the gravitas Joseph or Pharoah deserved, instead opting to stand in the middle of the stage on a small box. The camel and sheep puppets were a nice touch, the sheep being on skateboards gave us a good laugh!
The costumes were well designed and fitted the theme of the show well. The costumes in Act 2 were strong, and we particularly liked the golden costumes in the Pharaoh scenes. We liked that Pharaoh donned a golden kilt, a very apt touch for a tour starting in Scotland!
Overall we had a great time at Joseph, and no matter what artistic direction it takes, the show itself is a “walking work of art”. We weren’t the biggest fans of this new artistic direction, but would still recommend seeing it.
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