Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, New Theatre, Oxford

Late last year we went to see War Horse at the theatre in Oxford and agreed that while it was beautifully staged and technically executed it was hardly an uplifting tale. We both came out feeling a little flat. That is not a description that could be applied after seeing Joseph.

50th Anniversary

This was my third time seeing the show and, curiously, I remember the first better than the second which is surprising given that it must have been 50 years ago.

Joseph was originally a short piece for schools and remains very child friendly which is why the theatre was full of school parties and how I saw it first on a school trip to the same theatre from junior school.

What was notable about that performance was that the lyricist, Tim Rice, took a staring role as the Pharaoh. The second visit was to London where the star was a now disgraced former children’s and breakfast television presenter.

Padding

As I said Joseph was written for children so is actually very short. This means there is a lot of padding in order to stretch it out to a couple of hours and make it an acceptable length that they can charge a decent amount for. Even including a “mega mix” compilation at the end it still struggles to reach the two hour mark even with interval.

However, in our case, the show got in unintentional 15 minute extension when at start of second half, just at the conclusion of the first song, security men came onto the stage and ushered the performers off. The curtains came down and we were informed that there had been “technical difficulties”. After 15 minutes, just as the school children were getting increasingly restless, it restarted from where it left off.

Uplifting

The show may be short but it is just one brilliant song after another. All are done in different styles and equally singalongable. From the Elvis themed to the mournful French pastiche to the big hits. This production was very well staged too.

There’s some great lyrics to go with the ear worm tunes too including this from the Pharaoh/Elvis song:

No-one had rights or a
Vote but the king
In fact you might say
He was fairly right-wing

I find that slightly ironic given the politics of Lord Lloyd Webber at least.

The best song for me is Potiphar which rises and builds before falling back down and building again. Watch it here:

Needless to say we left this show feeling uplifted and singing!