Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Theatre Royal Nottingham Review

Reviewed by Anthony & Tammy Wildblood

Last night we were tasked with going to review this performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. This performance was to celebrate the 125th year anniversary of the Nottingham Operatic Society. As we live in Derbyshire, we set out early as we know traffic in and around Nottingham can be quite bad at 5/6 pm and we wanted to get there early so we could enjoy the theatre surroundings and the atmosphere of going to the theatre. We arrived at 6pm and parked in the Q Park on Talbot Street, which cost us £5 as we brought the parking at the box office in the Royal Concert Hall, it’s quite simple as up, take your ticket to the box office, once the show is finished, go back to car and leave right away, no queuing at the payment meters to get out, and it’s even better because it’s only a 3 minute walk to the theatre. There are other car parks around the area, so you can do your homework if you want to park somewhere else, and if you wanted to you, could get the tram into the theatre as the stop literally outside. We are unable to comment on the prices on as we didn’t use it.

Once we collected our tickets, we made our way into the bar that is situated in between the Theatre and Concert Hall and you could tell the bar did nice food as there was a fair amount of people ordering and the food was presented beautifully, we didn’t buy any food as we had eaten before we left but from looking at the prices on the menu it wasn’t too bad, if you wanted to make an evening of it. We did however buy two pints of coke which did cost us £5.20 which for theatre price, we thought was about average.

My only issue with the theatre at this point was as soon as 7.05pm approached, I would have thought they would have opened the doors to the stalls so people could start to take their seats, because the foyer was filling up as it’s not the biggest foyer to hold the amount of people attending the shows. That was my only concern through my entire stay at the theatre because as soon as you enter the doors to take your seat you just go WOW as this is just a lovely theatre.

Lights down, 7.30pm, show started. We were a little confused to begin with as we wondered why on Earth are the cast were just walking on stage waving and smiling at the audience, I found it a little weird but after a while we understood what was happening and knew that this was going to be a performance with a twist. The Narrator (Louise Grantham) had a massive part to play in the whole performance and she played it very well considering the amount of singing she had to do. Our only criticism of the role of the narrator would be more speaking and less singing, not because she cannot sing, because she can, but more speaking in the role would have gave Louise a rest as in some parts as she was struggling to keep the tempo of her singing all way through the performance. Other than that, she was great throughout and you could tell she just loved being on stage!

Joseph (Mark Coffey-Bainbridge) WOW… what a performance! A true professional!! It looks like he has been on stage for years and a true natural, his voice was quality and he could sing, he could act, he owned the stage, we just couldn’t fault his performance. Mark is destined for big things in our eyes and would go and see him perform again and again, sensational!!

All the brothers and wives who helped make the performance a success all played their own part, some brothers were better than others, some you had trouble hearing but this was due to some background noise. Some you couldn’t hear due to tone of voice but that will just come down to experience, so shout up as you are all great actors!! Some of the wives really stood out and were so energetic in their persona.

Jacob was funny and had his own style of acting and singing which worked for him and us.

Act one came and went in seconds, well it felt like that so we must of enjoyed the show but our only concern for the whole of act one was the ending scene, there was way too much smoke on stage so you couldn’t see the actors and even they looked like they didn’t have a clue what was going on, someone was little bit trigger happy on the button for that scene and it was such a shame as when the smoke cleared, everybody was on stage and it looked amazing!

Act two and suddenly the king had entered the building and not left it for once. This was a masterstroke on the director’s part because it was funny and witty. The pharaoh, being king played by Elvis was quality, and to be fair to him he pulled it off and gave a good account of a great performance.

My only concern for the whole of scene two was the bit where they were acting the French part as I didn’t understand it or get why it was in there to begin with, apart from those only two issues within the play, we thoroughly enjoyed the play and we would go back and see another performance by the Nottingham Operatic Society as we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Go and see this show, you won’t be disappointed at all.

Rating: 4/5

Tickets cost from £13 to £24 (booking fees may apply).

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham from 30 October to 3 November 2018, for more information or to book tickets visit www.trch.co.uk or call the box office on 0115 989 5555.

Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall, Theatre Square, Nottingham, NG1 5ND