The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical is back on stage at the London Palladium for the summer of 2019. The crowds were there: Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is advertised as the event of this summer.
Joseph is a musical well loved by the English because it began its life as an end-of-year show in schools and includes a dozen children in the choirs.
The musical quickly became a phenomenon in England and in the United States was released in film in 1999.
The story
The musical is based on Joseph's life as told in the Old Testament.
We follow the life of Joseph, the favorite child of Jacob and his eleven brothers. Jacob gives Joseph a multicolored coat and his jealous brothers decide to get rid of him. They sell him as a slave. But Joseph has a special power: he can interpret dreams. Thanks to this power, Joseph climbs the ranks and becomes the pharaoh's right hand.
A funny subject that shouldn't work, and yet ...
Our opinion
The stage at the Palladium is illuminated and we do not allow a second of inactivity. The show is awe-inspiring even though it looks more like a full-scale “pantomime” -type Christmas show than a thoughtful musical.
The show is fully sung and we recognize a certain amount of fun in the music that mixes styles.
We go from rock & roll Elvis Presley to a ballad full of hope through a parody of French song. We can't help but dance in our seats. However, the music is linked without transition and sometimes becomes redundant.
The choreographies are fantastic, mixing dance and acrobatics.
The sets are grandiose: the pharaoh's throne and its statues are in gold, dominated by a parodyed sign of “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas”. The sets are well thought out to give a lot of opportunities to impressive choreographies.
Joseph Donovan, who played the title role on screen in 1991, is now the pharaoh, a role he assumes with confidence and charisma.
Sheridan Smith as a narrator is indestructible. Almost constantly on stage, she participates in all the choreographies with crazy dynamism. She alternates the role of narrator with other supporting roles while commenting on her performance and making jokes to the audience. It's a real performance but it is difficult to reinvent itself and sometimes becomes a bit long.
Most notable is Jac Yarrow, barely graduating from Arts Educational London, who plays the role of Joseph. We don't take our eyes off him. His voice is wonderful and he is full of energy on stage. He manages to sell us emotionally songs with rather ridiculous lyrics. He is the star of this show!
