Adelphi Theatre

17th March 2009

BY SOPHIE

Joseph is not one of my favourite musicals. Andrew Lloyd Webber just doesn’t really do it for me usually although I do like The Beautiful Game and Whistle Down the Wind.

But in lots of ways you’ve got to admire Lloyd Webber because he’s had so much success. The Phantom of the Opera bored me to death and the only good thing about Cats was the dancing (the words are okay but I couldn’t understand most of them) but Phantom has been going for years and Cats and Starlight Express (which has no songs and no plot that I can see but the skating is good) were in London for about 20 years before they were closed. So even though I don’t really rate Lloyd Webber’s music (Joseph is one of the best as there are probably more tunes in Joseph than in most of the rest of his musicals put together) you have to rate his ability to put on a musical people are going to love.

There still aren’t many songs in Joseph I really like but some of them are quite catchy and the way Lloyd Webber takes off French and Spanish music is very clever even though I don’t know why he does it. The thing about this performance I loved was that there were three really really great singers in the cast.

Gareth Gates is easy to look down on because he was in Pop Idol but he can actually sing. He can also write his own songs, the words AND the music and he does a much better job of it than that Wagner guy. Gareth Gates writes TUNES and his songs tell stories And Andrew Lloyd Webber proves that isn’t always easy. Gareth also has a really gorgeous voice and he sings with lots of expression and there is something quite likeable about him even though the character of Joseph is quite annoying in lots of ways, he’s really up himself and I can’t blame his brothers for wanting to throw him in a ditch and sell him as a slave, I’ve wanted to sell my sister loads of times. They shouldn’t have done it though.

And Joseph setting Benjamin up, I didn’t like that and I thought Benjamin wasn’t the best person to pick anyway. Benjamin’s so sweet and cute most people would want to protect him. Joseph should have gone for one of the big tough rough ones like Reuben and then seen if anyone wanted to protect him, that would tell you more about if the brothers were reformed or not.

One thing though, when Joseph went into the air on that rainbow at the end why did all those bits of paper come down from the ceiling? It looked quite pretty and it was funny when Gareth had bits stuck in his hair but it didn’t look like interesting paper as far as I can see, it wasn’t five pound notes or anything like that and it must be really annoying for the people who have to clear it up. Gareth did look hot in his loin cloth though but I hope he wasn’t cold.

Jenna Lee-James is the Narrator. I’ve seen her in We Will Rock You and she’s one of the best singers I’ve ever heard. She’s got a really strong voice – she could probably lose the microphone – but she can sing really softly and gently and it always sounds lovely. I was a bit surprised she was singing the Narrator as she’s so good at character and humour but she managed to find lots of both as the Narrator. And she’s got a huge vocal range, someone like Barry or Fitcrit would know better than me but I reckon she sang more than two octaves.

The Narrator was partly a teacher telling the story of Joseph to the children (why did they have to have children? The story doesn’t need them and it must be past their bedtime. I never fall for the cute factor, not in under-16s) but in the second act she was wearing the shortest dress I’ve ever seen, it was all sparkly, she looked like she was on the pull at Faces. She looked gorgeous and yes I was kind of looking to see if she had any knickers on (my boyfriend said he didn’t even think about that, what a liar) but I don’t think teachers should dress like that really, not in the classroom. She did look beautiful though.

Tbh I didn’t really like the way Jenna played the role and some of her singing was more Puccini than Lloyd Webber, she’s got quite a heavy vibrato on her at times but what an amazing performer. I’d love her to be in Grease, whichever role she wants, I’m sure she could do them all. Jenna doesn’t perform on Monday or Thursday nights but she seems to have a lot more to sing than everyone else so she probably needs the extra days off.

The other really great singer was Dean Collinson. I’ve seen him in Whistle Down the Wind and Notre dame de Paris and I’ve met him and I’ve kissed his girlfriend and he’s lovely. He was singing the Pharaoh which is the best role in the opera and the role I wanted to sing when I was in Joseph but I had to be Jacob the old guy, I mean do I look like an old guy, someone tried to sell me an under-16 ticket to something last year! But seriously I’d be happy if I was like 1 tenth as good as Stephen Tate who played Jacob (and Potiphar and Guru, I didn’t even notice that till I looked at the programme, I thought they were different singers) because he’s a really great performer and he seemed really nice as well, don’t have favourites though Jacob, it always comes back to bite you, you know where, if you don’t know where get Rachel to show you.

Anyway getting back to Dean, he does all the Elvis Presley stuff really well and I think he sang an Elvis song after he’d done the Pharaoh song which was fair enough really, he’s 1 of the best singers so 1 song isn’t enough for him but it was like all the old people were laughing at him doing Elvis and all the people like under 50 were like what, is this supposed to be funny? It was great singing though, you can’t argue with that.

The singing was a bit disappointing from everyone else, it sounded a bit rough but I think it was probably supposed to. The brothers weren’t really distinctive as characters apart from Benjamin the sweet little one (Tom Gillies), Reuben the big one (Stephen John Davies) and this really really cute one, I don’t know who he was but Jacob caught him cowboy dancing when he was supposed to be mourning Joseph. Total wanker obviously but he actually made me laugh, the rest of the time I just found their behaviour shocking, I don’t know why, there’s lots of people behaving badly in Grease after all even though no-one actually sells anyone and it’s not like I’m always well-behaved.

Oh and while I’m on the subject of Grease which I’m not really but never mind, Ray Quinn is going to come back to the show as Danny. I’m not sure how convincing he’ll be as I think he’s shorter than all the Sandys, the main one and the understudies I mean and maybe he’s a bit too sweet. But he is a really good actor with a big stage presence so he might be fine. I wonder if he’ll be able to do the bits on the balcony, he really doesn’t like heights, he fainted when he was practising the Bolero for the Dancing on Ice Final which he won! Go Ray! He might not be able to do the flying rainbow bit in Joseph but maybe he wouldn’t want to play Joseph.