Joseph at the Palladium / U.K. Tour

How is Sheridan's voice singing this score? Loved her in Little Shop and Legally Blonde but not so much in Funny Girl....

I know..I know...so many questions..I need to liove vicariously as I'm not in until August :-(

Wicked do them with Elphaba on one and Glinda on the other.

Quite honestly, I felt it was a bit hit and miss, especially with all the random key changes. Yet she sang Phaoroh’s Story in the original key.

Oh yes I heard about that and sorry to hear that, unfortunately the understudy Lee Mead will be on.

Warning: production spoilers galore.

Joseph holds a special place in my heart. It’s not the first show I ever saw (somewhat bizarrely for a seven-year-old, that was Les Mis), but it is the first show I saw multiple times, and over the years I’ve known a lot of people who’ve been in the tour.

I’m glad I knew going in that this production wasn’t going to be “my” Joseph, as I think I would have been unbearably disappointed and automatically hated it on principle. As it is, I’m not ready to say I loved it, but I certainly had a great time and damn if I didn’t tear up a little when the overture started. There are certainly bits I could do without (a can can in Those Canaan Days, and beat boxing in Benjamin Calypso being the most memorable offenders), but there’s also a lot that I really liked. The production as a whole definitely has that sense of fun that I think is so necessary for Joseph.

It is the Sheridan show. To be fair, a lot of what she does she does very well, and if some of the clowning around wasn’t to my taste then a large chunk of the audience certainly lapped it up. It’s funny, some of the key changes for her were really jarring, and some of her material particularly in act one sounded like it had been made easier for her, but a lot of act two was done in the original keys and actually sounded pretty good. She got the last bow, and I have no issue with that - the Narrator is always the biggest role in the show anyway, and even more so here.

Jac was very very good, particularly for a West End debut, and I’m sure he’ll get better with time. Both he and Sheridan had minor lyric slips but handled them very well. He has a lovely voice and either he or the MD (or, y’know, both of them) seem to have a very good understanding of how the lyrics should scan to work both as “dialogue” and with the musical line, his delivery in general felt way more natural than many Josephs I’ve seen. I appreciate that they took the opportunity to get him in the Pharaoh makeup - it doesn’t always happen and while in the timeline at least seven years have passed, obviously that isn’t true in real time and I like that they make him look as different as possible, it makes his brothers not recognising him feel a bit more reasonable.

Jason was easily the weakest of the leads for me. Sure, he can still hit the notes, but his diction is sloppy and he seems to have no real feel for rhythm and always felt a little behind the beat. You can get away with that in Song of the King, but something like Stone the Crows just drags if you’re behind. And I did not like that he bowed after Jac for what is basically a ten minute cameo.

The set isn’t massively complex (a sandy effect floor, with various cloths, constellations and other items that fly in and out, with added plinths and statues for the Egypt scenes) but very effective. The costumes are split between “realistic” in-world costumes for eg. the brothers and more modern “real life” outfits for the kids and the the whole ensemble for things like Go Go Go Joseph when they’re not playing characters. Sheridan is in dark harem style trousers with a vest top and sparkly jacket for the whole show, with other items over the top when she’s playing a character within the story eg. a robe and beard when she’s playing Jacob. Jac and Jason are both in fairly standard Joseph/Pharaoh costumes except Jac has white trousers instead of a loincloth.

The musical arrangements seem to be entirely new, with some bits extended for added dance routines (including the aforementioned can can). Some parts are in the original keys, some parts have been lowered, even within songs. Some of these I found really jarring - for example the whole of Stone the Crows seemed to be in the right key (or close to it), then suddenly dropped down for “This could be a happy ending ...”

Overall, I actually had a really good night, and I think I’ll be back at some point, which is not what I’d have guessed this time yesterday.

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot the ensemble! They sounded great, they danced well, they deserved the massive cheers they got when curtain calls started.

Why on earth is Shezza playing Jacob??

It sounds horrific and BEYOND bad-panto.

They way I know the ending Joseph comes onstage in his chariot to greet his father Jacob while the Narrator is there, how did they handle that.

If someone can tell me how to do spoiler tags, I can let you now!

He was fine.

FAQ No. 10 here
www.theatreboard.co.uk/post/256470/thread

Many moons ago in the JD days I stood at the back. Perfectly fine but distant view if memory serves. If it’s whats on offer and what you can afford, go for it.

So my review of last night (multiple spoilers to follow).

Full house, very enthusiastic with the usual crazy first preview atmosphere. The Lord and various creatives pacing around at the back of the stalls. Laurence Connor came on at the start to say that they had yet to get through the entire show without a stop but that he hoped we would tonight! Which indeed they did. In fact overall it all looked very slick for a first preview.

I should mention that I LOVED the 1991 version and thought it was almost perfect - I therefore come into this production from a different emotional base to someone coming in new. Having said that I totally appreciate that pieces should be reinvented in revivals rather than plonking the original back on stage (though I did like it when they did that with the Lee Mead version lol).

So what's new for this production? Basically the way the kids are used. There is no big children's choir, but rather 8 kids who are fully integrated in the piece (4 teams of 8 will alternate). A bit like School of Rock they are a full part of the cast. I guess this is not unsurprising. ALW is always VERY keen to get kids into theatre, to nurture young talent and if there is a show of his to go in this direction then Joseph is the best. They play a few of the brothers, the baker and the butler (a girl) and Potiphar (actually very amusing). That aside, and Sheridan who I'll come onto later (she needs her own paragraph lol), it is pretty much the show as we know it.

So - the good:

The music and the sound - sounds incredible. It's the 1991 John Cameron orchestrations, slightly modernised but in principle very much based on the originals. There are changes to the dance sections in One More Angel and Those Canaan Days and the Megamix is slightly modernised. The overture is cut short after about 1 minute to go straight into "some folks dream...." but the full overture is used instead as the Entracte which is good. Band pretty much the same make up as 1991 and the sound design was great - the infectious score sounded wonderful.

The lighting design - colour colour colour - looked lovely.

The ensemble - very tight, wonderful acting singing and dancing, absolutely giving their all. Really looked so much better than you might see at a 1st preview.

Jac Yarrow - charming presence, lovely voice, seemed very confident, he totally nailed Close Every Door.

The less good:

The set - I was umming and ahhing about this as it's deffo not bad, it just doesn't have the spectacle I was after. I am a massive set geek and loved the huge sets of the 80s/90s mega musicals. What we had here was effective, but at times really quite simple. The opening in Canaan looks exactly like Agrabah in the opening of Aladdin. Very colourful and was a good starting point. Costumes also looked inspired by Aladdin. Including Sheridan dressed as the Genie - her costume didn't work for me. Act 1 set was fine though. Act 2 I wanted more and didn't get it. The Egypt set is very simple compared to the 1991 one. And for Song of the King a "welcome to Egypt" sign is flown down from above in that rhomboid style of a "welcome to Vegas sign" I thought it looked cheap and tacky! And overall set wise there were no 'wow' moments. Having said all that it was fine, and was obviously a lot better than a Kenwright set. But at 90 odd quid for the average seat......?! They should have had money to burn.

Jason Donovan - such a mediocre voice he just wouldn't get a job in a West End musical were it nor for his background. I have seen much better Pharaohs. He can't even really do the "thank you very much" Elvis impression particularly well. That said the largely middle aged female audience almost had a meltdown when he appeared so no doubt he can get bums on seats. King of my Heart has been cut. Which is just as well as I wasn't massively up for hearing him murder another song.

And finally, the unusual:

Sheridan Smith. She is truly at the centre of this show. She hams it up, winks and gesticulates at the audience and is very much, well, Sheridan. Dressed in that same BGT outfit, with a mobile phone in her pocket, repeatedly taken out to text and take selfies, she plays a number of characters. She dons a beard and a deep voice as Jacob, a temptress overcoat as Mrs Potiphar, a moustache that falls off for I forget what character (and why). In and out of Northern accents. A totally daft thick Scouse accent for Go Go Go Joseph (why?). She's playing for laughs and it has echoes of her Fanny Brice when Fanny is performing. Throughout she does little bits of street dancing - that you might have expected when the Lee Mead "Joseph gets an ASBO" logo was being used. And there's endless "c'mon kids, hurry up kids, sit down kids" etc etc as she takes them on this adventure.
Now, none of this portrayal is really for me. BUT, she is incredibly likeable and you kinda can't help going along with it. And it certainly didn't ruin the show for me - it was just a bit, well, weird.
But again what do I know - the audience LOVED it and she had them eating out of the palm of her hand. (Audience btw was not massively cosmopolitan and was very white, rich, middle aged. I was slightly worried I was in a sea of Brexiteers and certainly Essex and Kent must have been empty last night lol).
And on to Sheridan' voice. Dunno if she was nervous but she fluffed 4 lines in Act 1. Some keys lowered for her. Most notably "letting out a mighty roar" and "chained and bound afraid alone" were a full octave lower. BUT, you know I was actually very pleasantly surprised by her voice. Fair enough her range is not amazing but within her range her notes were clean and spot on, her voice was strong and she sang MT, very minimal riffing, if any. It does also have a nice quality. In fact as Pharaoh's Story was nearing the end, the kids were being blended in louder and louder and she didn't quite do the money notes at the end, but you know, I felt HAD she gone for it she COULD have done it. But as it was, my fave song left me underwhelmed. If I could change one thing about the show I would have Sheridan play it straighter and really try to belt out the big notes. I think she underestimates her own singing ability, compensating by playing for comedy.

Anyway, whole show went down very well - immediate standing ovation and everyone stayed standing for the entire 10 minute megamix.

So my overall impression - I had a great time. Good to see a new take on the show (even if all of it was not to my personal taste), the music performed well, is as infectious as ever and I am really looking fwd to my return visits.
But - I didn't have any goosebumps moments as I did in the 1991 version however and for me, this one comes nowhere near to challenging it as my fave ever Joseph. And my fab trio of Linzi Hateley, Lisa Peace and Jenna Lee James having nothing to worry about!

A fab addition to the West End though and I hope it will continue somewhere beyond September.