Andrew Silk reviews Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Bristol Hippodrome
It’s hard to believe that it’s over 50 years since musicals royalty, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, wrote the score and music for what remains one of the most loved musical classics of all time. It’s been performed in 86 countries and has starred such famous faces as 70s heartthrobs Donny Osmond and David Cassidy as well as more recently the likes of Alexandra Burke, Sheridan Smith and in this touring production, none other than Jason Donovan.
I am of course talking about Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat which has landed at the Hippodrome in Bristol on its latest stop on its UK tour that will see it visit venues across the country through to the end of October this year.
The show is based on the character Joseph from the Bible’s book of Genesis, who is a dreamer, his father’s favourite and one of twelve sons.
His father gifts him his multi-coloured coat, but his brothers, who are jealous of the gift and his status first try to kill him and then sell him into slavery, before, through his dreams he rises.
Prepare for your eyes and ears to get a sensory overload as the show hits you smack bang in the face from the off. The music is loud, the lighting is extravagant, the ensemble is huge and the stage set is, well… a little corny to say the least at times. There is sometimes so much action going on that you don’t know where to look, but somehow it all fits together and ends up being a performance worthy of a few hours of your time.
Joseph is played by the young Jac Yarrow who has a good voice and is excellent throughout, it’s hard to believe that he only started his stage career in 2019 in this very role, whilst the narrator, in this production was Linzi Hateley who holds the whole thing together, but the real stars are the ensemble, and a harder working ensemble you would be pressed to find. They dance and they sing their hearts out in what are physically demanding scenes, ably aided by a talented bunch of children who are charming and a little cheeky too.
The star of the show, of course, is Jason Donovan who plays a slightly “camped up” Pharaoh, crossing ancient Egypt with Las Vegas in an Elvis styly – it shouldn’t work but again, if you suspend your disbelief, it does.
It’s great family entertainment, exactly the audience it was intended for, after all it started life as a school play and how many of us have made a cameo appearance in a production at sometime in our past? And it gets the crowd on their feet.
You’ll leave with your ears ringing and a smile on your face, perhaps even humming a few bars of Any Dream Will Do, now that’s not such a bad thing in these difficult times that we currently all live in!
So, if you want to be thrilled and thoroughly entertained get your tickets now. The show plays at the Hippodrome in Bristol until the 10 September and then goes on to visit Milton Keynes, Southend, Belfast, Bradford and finally Edinburgh. To find out more and book your tickets visit the shows website by following this link.
