Joseph at the Palladium / U.K. Tour

Me too 😕

Probably.  It didn't help that the performing area was small (Jac and the kids were performing outside on a technicoloured platform the size of a postage stamp).

Saw this last night and really loved it! I was expecting ridiculous fun and not much more and that's what it was. Particularly loved the sets, and thought Sheridan was charming, as was Jac. I don't know if having the kids mixed with adult characters worked, it was obviously just done for more laughs. I also wasn't keen on the random 90s outfits in Go Go Joseph at the end of act one. But apart from that, a thumbs up!

Saw this tonight - never appreciated just how much the show needed a fresh look at it until this production. Breath of fresh air.

Considering the whole play revolves around the idea that the Narrator is telling the story to the gang of kids, utilising Sheridan's personality makes perfect sense. She has solid chemistry with the kids, who are all visibly having a great time. And, thinking about it, if we were to imagine how she would do Joseph this is exactly it.

I am not the type of theatre goer to usually enjoy any forth wall breaking, knowing winks etc, however given the story being told it worked rather well.

Show stop at the first scene change, where the coloured fabric backdrop had already been released from several of the stars. 5 minutes delay.

Very glad there's a production about with no ridiculous inflatable sheep, a full on Elvis impersonator or a chorus of very bored kids.

I don't think there's really any scope for this precise production to have a life beyond this summer, considering it is clearly built for a Narrator who can carry this style of production off. But they may do an Oliver on it and implant different personalities for different Narrators like we recently saw with Fagin.

Also, kudos for being, I suspect, the first production of Joseph to have a almost exactly 50:50 male:female split in the company. That's one advantage of having four of the kids be brothers!

The same thing happened when I saw it on Friday.


I'd never seen Joseph before, always avoided any ALW, but I really enjoyed it. Even when I was a kid myself I thought the children's chorus was really cheesy, but they worked really well here. I'm not normally a huge fan of fourth wall breaking either but I think Sheridan Smith managed to pull it off. ("It's me!" made me laugh every time.)

The only real problem I had with it was I couldn't understand half of what Jason Donovan was singing.

Interesting to read the programme's claim that Joseph made him a huge star. I'd have thought that was more to do with the bizarre fact that the wedding episode of Neighbours had over 20 million viewers...

Wow, that set has had some issues! Considering it's far less complicated than the pantomime sets they bring in (I assume roughly the same budget), all the talk of show stops really surprises me. No wonder the band/FoH team looked very unfussed by it last night!


Yeah, I share the same thoughts as you about the children's choir. Usually it doesn't feel like it serves any purpose - here they all had meaningful stuff to do and were fully integrated into the production.

I also entirely agree about Jason Donovan. His was the one sequence with diction issues. If I'm being kind, there might be some deliberate reason for this to a small extent. In reality, probably not..

Yes, he was offered the role of Joseph because he was 'Scott off Neighbours' and would get bums on seats.

Yes,agreed carmella1,I also had an issue with the young brothers fratricidal issue.The set-up with the young brothers is illogical and doesn’t make any sense in any case.

I think they are being maybe over cautious perhaps and stopping the show over safety grounds for the kids over anything else.... the kids are doing a lot of the set moves, and with holes in the stage etc, they can’t be too careful... the floor lift looks quite simple to us, but I’m not sure it actually is when you think about what it does... does a show stop really affect your enjoyment of a production that much? I quite like them 😂- and it’s hardly a long show, so you won’t miss your coach home 😋

I’ve seen it twice now, and Jason is much clearer now.. I guess the song starts quite low which doesn’t help.

No. That isnt the point. The show itself is actually very good. It's this production that lets it down.

LOL - certainly I don't mind show stops - quite like the drama!

Yeah that's a good point re safety - the kids won't have the experience of sets the adults do. And we don't want another Ann Crumb situation (she was eaten by the Aspects set).

I think whatever mechanism rises and lowers the middle circle of the stage must be more complicated than one assumes. They had it for the 1991 Palladium Joseph but didn't have it for the subsequent RUG tour or the Adelphi version....

CRUMBS! Poor Ann Crumb *googles Ann Crumb gets eaten by the Aspects Of Love set*.