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The Review - THEATRE by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 2 August 2007

Any Dream Wil Do winner Lee Mead as Joseph

The old coat's stil amazing

JOSEPH AND HIS AMAZING COLOUR DREAMCOAT
Adelphi Theatre

WHEN Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice first wrote Joseph they had a school play in mind, and this production has remained true to the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the original.
Stuffed sheep turn to multicoloured stuffed sheep and then skeletal sheep as the lean Canaan days set in. Stars and moons bob on sticks.
Sold as a slave, Joseph is tied to a singing camel and followed by a papier-mâché cobra as he makes his way past the pyramids – via a mini London Eye – to Egypt.
Joseph (Lee Mead) – the golden-boy winner of BBC’s Any Dream Will Do – comes out like a L’Oreal advert, all bouncy shiny curls and American teeth with a smugness that only justifies his brothers’ later malevolent plan to throw him in a well/sell him to a couple of stuffed Ishmaelites on a singing camel.
As the self-satisfied Joe turns his siblings a sickly shade of green with his tales of how their sheaths of corn would one day bow to his, you can’t help but feel any band of brothers missing out on their father’s favour and his prized rainbow threads would seek a similar vengeance. You could say he deserved it.
But although the well-deserved winner of the role Joseph is note-perfect with a strong stage-presence, the real star is glamorous narrator Preeya Kalidas.
She comes out in six-inch heels, effortlessly bringing the scenes together with her pure, clear voice and even finds time to indulge in a frisson with the notoriously cool Elvis Pharaoh (Dean Collinson).
The rest of the cast are pure pantomime. The costumes get crazier, 1920s millionaire Potiphar’s whorish wife (Verity Bentham) is horrific and the Egyptians, in their freakish gold costumes and blue clogs are genuinely frightening.
But the musical is packed with enough genuine laughs to keep it fresh and entertaining.
From the selfless calypso to save the accused young Benjamin (Tom Gillies) to the French Revolution-style lament Those Canaan Days to the country and western tale of Joseph’s supposed demise at the hands of a goat (One More Angel in Heaven), the brothers are comical, adaptable and watchable.
Watch out for the GAY-style finale – all tight, white wife-beater vests and trousers.

Until June 2008 CNJ Booking line 0870 040 0070 or www.thecnj.co.uk

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