The Stage

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Published Friday 23 April 2004 at 15:35 by Gerald Berkowitz

The casting of Ian Watkins, better known to many as ‘H’ from the pop group Steps, occasions a return look at Bill Kenwright’s production of the first Webber-Rice creation and the reassurance that it is still an audience-pleasing entertainment.

Unsurprisingly, Watkins has a fine voice and an amiable rapport with the audience, also displaying a light comic touch when appropriate and the ability to draw the emotion from the show’s more dramatic songs. Vivienne Carlyle continues as narrator and has grown in the role, bringing it real charm and warmth, along with diction that is considerably clearer than it was a year ago. As Pharaoh, Simon Bailey doesn’t even attempt much of an Elvis impersonation but his own style of Vegas rock works almost as well and James Head gives a solid presence to both Jacob and Potipher.

Bill Kenwright’s production, with design by Sean Cavanagh, is still colourful and flashy without overpowering the basically modest material, the only suggestions of excess coming in the addition of extra choruses or dance numbers to some of the songs, amplification that occasionally flirts with pain threshold levels - and a full 15 minutes of post-curtain encores.

Playing in the theatre that housed Cats for two decades, Joseph looks set to replace it as the show of choice for children and first-time theatregoers, while the truly witty pastiche songs and directorial surprises from the inflatable sheep and singing sphinx to the helmet for the triumphant Joseph that cocks a snook at the Phantom’s mask keep the show fresh and enjoyable even for those who have seen earlier incarnations.