If you like songs about coats and sheaves of corn, this one’s for you. Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s kaleidoscopic pop musical, is back at Manchester Opera House.
The show was first conceived in 1967 as a 20-minute cantanta for a small crowd at Colet Court School. Rice lifted the plot from “The Wonder Book of Bible Stories”, a collection of tales from the Old Testament spoofed to amuse children. In the intervening 58 years it has become a global powerhouse.
The show features a huge cast of talented kids, many of whom are making their professional stage debut on this tour. Big names include X Factor winner Joe McElderry and American actress and impressionist Christina Bianco.
Adam Filipe stars as Joseph, son of Jacob and number-one-boy of 12 brothers — all of whom hate him. At the beginning, Jacob gifts Joseph a certain multicoloured coat and seals his status as his favourite. In response the brothers, played by an entourage of actors aged between 10 and 35, sabotage Joseph and sell him to slavers in Egypt.
After a spell as a slave and a stint in prison, Joseph eventually lands in the court of the Pharaoh – played by McElderry – to whom he becomes a trusted advisor. But hard times force his brothers to come to Egypt in search of food, where their paths will cross with Joseph’s once more.
There are dozens of quirky touches to this production: sheep on skateboards, moustachioed children pedalling around on rickshaw camels, Persian silks hanging from a star-bedazzled washing line. When the curtains first peel back they reveal the sun: massive yet minimalist, a big orange plate rolling freely along the back wall of the stage, changing colour to match the mood of the scene. Upstage are sloping dunes which Joseph kicks off, leaps from and slides down. It is a fun, vibrant and kinetic piece of work.
Filipe does everything right as Joseph, but Bianco steals the show in multiple roles. She oozes ironic motherly charm and moves freely between personas: after ticking off the nasally dance-teacher-ish Narrator and doddering patriarch Jacob, she leaps headfirst into a high camp interlude as Mrs Potiphar, leading a troupe of dancers in red dresses as she tries to seduce Joseph by wrapping him in a tiger-skin rug.
The production is like a mixed grill of modern dance: breakbeat, Irish dance, 00s Disney Channel, Go-go, Charleston and one recurring move that can only be described as Gangnam Style Revival — all scored by a 20th century anthology of Honky-tonk blues, 80s synths, French pop and Calypso.
But Joseph is equally as effective in the empty spaces. There is a stirring, pin-drop silence between the stinging violin and Joseph’s mournful vocal in “Close Every Door to Me”. Through the cell bars behind him, the children look frightening — faces darkened and swirling in fog. But at the end of their silence comes a cathartic eruption of harmonies, piano swells and crashing drums.
Joe McElderry shows up in the second act as “Egypt with a capital E”, the Pharaoh himself, wearing an Elvis Presley cape and doing the Vegas shtick with glee. The biggest shock of the night is the depth and gravel in McElderry’s voice. The South Shields pop star has acquired a much wider range with age. Yet he has great control: he can still wrestle the baritone right back up to the high notes X Factor fans will remember him for. But the Pharaoh role is inherently limited, and McElderry doesn’t have anything to do after his showpiece.
The show finishes on a hyperactive medley of the catchiest songs from its enjoyably deranged jukebox. Watching Joseph is like being in the back of a car while someone hogs the aux cable and changes the song every 30 seconds. The fluctuations in tone and genre are wild and messy. The frenetic nature of the storytelling, being completely sung-through, makes it sort of baffling to a newcomer.
I also noticed all my favourite bits were the bits when he didn’t even have the coat on. All the best colours came out in the dizzying convergence of accomplished stage performers and talented youngsters bursting with potential. What it lacked in story it made up for as a showcase for some fine songs, nascent talent and a great deal of heart. And corn.
Joseph is showing at Manchester Opera House until Sunday 9th March, for tickets click here.
Main image credit: Tristram Kenton
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