Press ESC or click the X to close this window

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Susan Elkin reviews)

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat continues at the London Palladium until 8 September 2019.

Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩

It’s large scale, spectacular, energetic and impressive. In other ways, however, this eagerly anticipated revival of the first real success the youthful Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber (both in the audience on press night) had is disappointing.

No show can, or should, be set in aspic. Of course new generations and different directors will reinterpret and spin it in new ways. Theatre would be very dull and a bit pointless if they didn’t. But Joseph is not a pantomime and it’s a serious mistake to turn it into one. The first rule of directing is that you have to trust the material.

Sheridan Smith as narrator has masses of stage presence and gets howls of audience appreciation simply for arriving on stage. But her constant beaming at the audience, knowing asides and the use of her native northern accent for homely, comic effect quickly become a weary irritation …

Read the rest of this review at Musical Theatre Review: https://musicaltheatrereview.com/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat-london-palladium/

Author information
Susan Elkin Susan Elkin is an education journalist, author and former secondary teacher of English. She was Education and Training Editor at The Stage from 2005 - 2016
More posts by Susan Elkin