Joseph at the Palladium / U.K. Tour

After being half late for Present Laughter on Saturday as the rail network went into melt down because of the heat. This time I was late for Joseph at the Palladium by 28 years. Sadly never saw the original but must have listened to the cast recording a million times and gushing over Linzi Hateley angelic voice, couldn’t afford a ticket in those day, as a poor student, One production I would love to go back in history.

So Sheridan Smith, I enjoyed her and would say the narrator’s I have seen in the past have been different, she put her on spin on it, which is great. Jason Donovan done his best to camp the Pharoh up I was mixed about him, didn’t like the children playing adult roles though, last but not least Jac Yarrow who I thought was brilliant, he blew me away for a debutant, be interesting to see where he goes and hope he remains In theatre, than something like Hollyoaks etc.

As people have said the set is basic and does reflect a show that is only going to run 2 months, however this has sold very well, but cannot extend, if it doesn’t transfer to another West End theatre, it will be back at the Palladium next summer, I feel this is what will happen as Jason Donovan has been cast in Chicago in Australia. I have a feel that people want to to see Joseph at the Palladium and relive their memories, a trip down memory lane to a pyramid.

Didn’t completely blow me away, but the source material is excellent so 4 Stars.

This was enjoyable, but it's in general quite a weak and badly directed production imho. Really cheap and tacky looking. Nothing to do with the 90s version which was really wonderful. Probably most of the budget has been used to pay for the Stars' salaries and there was no much left for the set.

The ensemble are really good, but unfortunately the choreography is dreadful so they look like they are doing an aerobics class during the dance numbers.

Sheridan Smith did a great job. Her clothes were awful though. Don't understand why they decided to dress her up a sack of potatoes. She might have put on a little bit of weight, but she looks really good and healthy, they should have chosen a more flattering outfit.

It was nice to see Jason Donovan back on stage even if his singing wasn't great and has two left feet.

The Narrator playing Jacob didn't work at all! It totally loses the sentimentality of the character.

Children playing adult parts was another mistake in my view. Some of them were quite weak and sounded out of tune in their solos.

They use too many click tracks for my liking. All the children chorus seemed prerecorded.

The sound was over amplified and it was difficult to understand some of the lyrics.

They will not be totally bad to people who paid top money back in December, they have to justify overpaying. The BGT performance was enough to convince me that this was not something I would want to see. SS mugging, JD looking like he is doing an impression of a spider and singing frog. All the allocades for Jac, fine, but he looks 12 and certainly not a normal Joseph. The article by West End Wilma saying Jason was offered the part of Joseph by ALW only shows that this is a money grubbing production. I mean JD playing a young man who can sing and look good is only that. But ALW was not interested in a good production only money.

None of these choices came from Andrew Lloyd Webber, but people will always slag him off, whatever he does.

Oh good lord. Cheap and nasty...

I don’t like the way the short run seems to be accepted as an excuse for cheap production values. If I’ve spent WE prices to see it I don’t give a toss how many performances it’s running for. I care about the performance I’M seeing and I expect to get what I’M paying for. Subsidising a short run is not MY financial responsibility. 

This is one of my number 1 criteria for enjoying a show. I want to see my ticket money on that stage. If I’ve paid £20 to sit with another 99 people and watch something at the Hope Mill then my expectations are set accordingly. If I’ve paid £75.00 to watch something with another 999 people at the Palace then that’s a whole different ball game. 

Stop making punters feel like they’ve been ripped off. 

Thing is it's not CHEAP cheap, it's just cheap in comparison to the 90s version. It's much better than the Kenwright version. The West End is cheap compared to the 90s though. I wish it wasn't. But it is. 

I do agree with you though re wanting to see where your money has gone on a West End show. But cheap is the norm these days and production values are not what they were - of recent times, Waitress, 9 to 5, Come from Away, School of Rock etc etc do not have big production values. But charge the usual big prices. 

In fact the only things I can think of recently where you COULD see where your money has gone would be Follies, Company and Bat Out of Hell - all created and realised to their max. And the Cam Mac Les Mis and Miss Saigon tours. Cam Mac is a good prognostic sign. Expect Mary Poppins to be lavish. 

So for me it's annoying (seriously I was desperate for something to rival the 90s version) but it's really not so cheap it's out of line with the trend.
Furthermore had it had a class act in the Narrator and Pharaoh, I would have noticed it less. 

I’m sure that you’re intelligent enough to know that CFA is a completely different beast and not a relevant comparison, isn’t set in the sometimes opulence of ancient Egypt and has not been produced to an exceedingly high standard previously. Naughty Alece10! 😂

Personally I think from the photos that the set & costumes look great!

Not patronising; just not understanding why someone would compare two such radically different shows to try and justify one of them’s inadequacies, and trying to be nice about it.

The "cheapness" of productions has been a sad development in recent years. I suppose one could make an argument that theatre as an art form shouldn't need great production values to draw people into the drama and story telling and in this case, musical score. And that's surely been proven with some of the recent productions with scaled back sets - and minimalist props. But that's where you wonder is it necessity or greed driving all these decisions? A venue like the Palladium is huge... When they revived Cats, I never heard people complain that the sets looked cheap. And you would think they had to pull out all the stops there to make people satisfied to come out as they did those two winters in a row.

A show like Joseph, marketed to celebrate it's 50th anniversary, after teasing "Casting coming soon" with those high prices definitely gave the impression of something really big to come - a true event. As an outsider just reading all the comments, it sounds like, while a majority are positive in their reports - most of that is owing to loving the source material itself and then for the Sheridan fans - that's the added plus. For those who aren't Sheridan fans, they're surprised that she's not as awful as they were prepared for.

Its an interesting conversation though about the economics of all this. Cameron Mackintosh decided to fold the original production of Les Miz obviously for cost-saving measures - and to run up profits. Gambling that the score and story are so well known a cheaper production would still sell. I bet if ALW weren't involved, he would've done the same with The Phantom.

I think the pictures look amazing.