Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

From the initial steps in the late 1960’s to the modern full version, the path of this challenging musical has slowly evolved to what was performed in Redcliffe.  The play is based on the character of Joseph from the Bible’s Book of Genesis. His father, Jacob, gives him the multi-coloured coat as a show of affection and this pleases Joseph while it upsets his many brothers and things go badly for him from there. From slavery in Egypt to interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh, the path of redemption finally leads to his reunion with the coat of many colours. The challenge was that the whole production is via song and no spoken lines. This production mastered this very well indeed, with a great flowing show that covered the full range of emotions.

Madeleine Johns has used her great experience to the limits with a large cast plus some twelve in the children’s ensemble. Her end result was a great production with very good choreography and singing. In fact, this was great and was a reflection on musical director, vocal coach and choreographer as well. The audience was enthralled.  Benjamin Oxley was a very good Joseph with great clarity in his singing while portraying the changing life and moods of Joseph. He was fortunate too in that his backing was moderate, which was not always the case with some others. Taylah-Jay Foster and Mia Hunt were the narrators and sang the night away.

As a completely balanced production, this “Joseph” ranks very highly indeed as one of the best productions from Redcliffe Musical Theatre in recent years. It shows that dreams can come true.

William Davies