Joseph is a knock-out show playing to full houses – review

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It's so popular it's been performed by over 20,000 amateur and professional groups, yet this week Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat has seen a fresh, indeed invigorating production at Audlem Methodist Church, playing deservedly to full houses at every performance.

The musical has been around since 1968 and was the first success from Tim Rice and a then unknown Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the "coat of many colours" story of Joseph from the Bible, the show is completely sung non-stop for 90 wonderful minutes.

The Audlem production features live music from a band of seven, a chorus of 27 and a fine cast. They tackle with total success the amazing variety of musical genres used by Lloyd Webber, ranging from parodies of French ballads; Elvis-inspired rock and roll; western; twenties ragtime; Caribbean and even disco for Go, Go, Go Joseph. It's all handled with consummate skill with both band and chorus providing the perfect platform for fine individual performances from the cast.

Andrew Down plays Joseph and delivers a belting performance, particularly with his Close Every Door, while Barnaby Crompton is a fine Pharaoh and handles the Elvis number just as 'The King' should. All the parts are played well as the cast works as a team yet enjoys the cameo opportunities. The youngsters as The Brothers, The Brotherlets and The Adoring Girls mean this is a show that involves every age group from the very, very young to, well, we hazard to age the more senior members of this highly successful production.

A word too about the'Narrators', albeit their words are always in song. There were notable contributions from all four – Jean Gunstone, Christine Webb and the two Vals – Morrey and Warner. Musical Director Naomi Crompton kept everything in time and the show flowing at just the right pace.

A final note on the special effects and back-stage team. This really was a case of Joseph and the Amazing Technology working like a dream and showed the recent work on the Church has offered the producers the opportunity to bring ever greater sophistication to this annual production.

Coming just over a week after the Audlem Panto, it's clear there's a stunning array of talent around, both on stage and behind the scenes. Some individuals even performed or worked on both shows. Congratulations to everyone – all the Methodist Church needs now is to double the number of seats available because so many more would have loved to enjoy this heart-lifting sell-out performance.

Review by Helen Davenport

Joseph concludes its five-night run Saturday night – the performance is sold out.

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