“This production is fast, with energy at two hundred watts from beginning to end… but as a piece of theatre, a show, a story, it didn’t mesh.”
Suzanne Mackay
3 Stars
Capitol Theatre
Currently to 16 April 2023
This production is fast, with energy at two hundred watts from beginning to end. There’s no doubt of the talent of the performers and the set is stunning and beautifully simple, but as a musical or piece of theatre, it falls short.
From curtain up, to curtain down, the theatre buzzed with energy. From the Vaudeville inspired Potiphar’s Song, the Oklahoma cowboy themed One More Angel in Heaven, then the French Tango styled Those Canaan Days, Trinidad Mardi Gra of Benjamin Calypso, Elvis inspired Song of the King, 70s disco of Go Go Go Joseph, the stage is louder and more colourful than the titled Dreamcoat.
Each individual song works on it’s own, the choreography is watchable and the performances of a high standard but the mash-up of styles left no room for character development or a story to emerge. I am very familiar with the themes and plot but even I had difficulty understanding what was going on. Euan Fistrovic Doidge’s Joseph was competently performed but with all the energy flying around, was very hard to get a handle on who he was so although he sang beautifully through Close Every Door, we hadn’t been allowed to get to know him enough for the song to really land in our hearts. Paulini as the Narrator performed with confidence, her voice strong and she held the stage well but the constant movement and hand gestures distracted from the theatricality and her character stood apart from the action yet the eye kept being drawn to her when it should have been elsewhere. Trevor Ashley has bona fide musical theatre credentials and it shows in his Elvis-as-Pharaoh performance, and on his own stands out to the point where everybody else on stage disappears, a testament to his charisma but make it hard to see the relationship with Joseph and it’s consequences. There’s nothing at stake when there’s nothing to lose.
The children’s chorus were cute and full of so much sugar-rush energy I almost expected them to spiral right off stage. The adult chorus, particularly the dancers, really carried the scenes, their performance gave the show the theatricality it so sorely needed and some much needed light and shade.
This is not to say the show wasn’t fun and easy to watch, it was; but as a piece of theatre, a show, a story, it didn’t mesh. As a delightful series of songs, covering a range of different genres it had the makings of a great concert version of the songs from Joseph but for it to be a piece of theatre, I needed something to temper the sugar rush.
Suzanne Mackay, Theatre Now
