BWW Reviews: JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, New Wimbledon Theatre, April 19 2011

Like royal weddings, you just have to accept that Joseph is going to come round every now and again and, though it may be easy to smirk in the corner, it's much more fun if you join in. And the parallels don't end there - both shows have preposterously over-the-top costumes, problematic brothers, familiar tunes and an audience very happy to see all the traditions respected. If the house in which I sat is typical and the magazine stands are anything to go by, the appeal of both extravaganzas appears to be more to women than to men, but it goes all the way from toddlers to dodderers.

Sung-through these days and all the better for it, the plot - well, you know the plot, don't you - bowls along, as Joseph is rejected by his brothers, imprisoned in Egypt, reads dreams like a bibical Sigmund Freud, gets into Pharoah's good books, becomes his Number Two, saves the people from famine, saves his brothers from starvation and is finally accepted back into the bosom of his family. En route, there's Any Dream of course, and plenty of other toe-tappers, done in range of styles from a rather uncomfortable reggae pastiche through to a charming French lament. Pharoah dons his Elvis gear for Song of the King, though it's ever so slightly disappointing that it's the Vegas-Elvis look and not the er... Memphis-Elvis.

As the eponymous hero, Keith Jack sings passably, but grins rather than acts and is rather carried by his all-singing, all-dancing brothers and three handmaidens, whose costume change more often than the band's tempo. Pick of the cast is old stager Henry Metcalfe, who sings beautifully and moves with a grace not always present in his younger colleagues - no wonder, the speed they have to dash about. Lord Lloyd Webber's tunes, most of which I was hearing for the first time (and some for the fifth time too by the time the megamix curtain call was done) are rather more pleasing than I expected, but Sir Tim Rice's rhymes are still almost impossible to hear without giggling - "And now this coat / has got our goat".

It's fun though, if you don't take it too seriously - just like a royal wedding. It's a lot more fun than Evita - which is just like a referendum on the alternative vote.

They're belting out Joseph at the New Wimbledon Theatre afternoon and evening (three times on Saturday!) until April 23 and then on tour everywhere, forever.  

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