Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat At Birmingham Hippodrome Review

Reviewed by Sue Rumble

Intro
Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat first premiered in the 1970s and has gone on to become one of the world’s most widely recognised and performed musicals.
I have seen previous productions of this show, including Jason Donovan as Joseph. Jason plays Pharaoh in this show. This is a show I am happy to see again and was excited to see this new production.

Booking & getting there
Birmingham Hippodrome is centrally located in the city centre a few minutes’ walk from New Street Station. Parking is avaiIable at the Arcadian NCP, only a 2-minute walk from the theatre, which offers a post 5pm theatre rate of £7.50 for the evening. We travelled by train – New Street Station is a 5 – 10 minute walk from the theatre.

Venue & facilities
Birmingham Hippodrome is a modern theatre, which offers BSL Interpreted, Captioned and Audio Described performances. The seat row letters were clearly lit up and illuminated, making it extremely easy to locate your seats. We were lucky enough to be seated in the stalls with a perfect view of the stage and felt fully immersed within the production.

Price & Value
The price range of tickets, in my opinion, is extremely good value for money given the quality and length of performance. Prices are dependent on performance day and time and also where you decide to sit.

Plot Overview
The play opens with the Narrator (Alexandra Burke) telling a story of a young dreamer, a man named Joseph—the same Joseph whose story is told in the Book of Genesis.  Joseph was born into a family of twelve boys, all the sons of Jacob. Joseph is Jacob’s favourite son and to show everyone that he is pleased with him, Jacob gives Joseph a splendid multi-coloured coat. However, this coat, along with Joseph’s talk of dreams he has had showing he will be the ruler of his brothers, arouse the jealousy of the other eleven, who decide to get rid of him.

The story follows Joseph through bad times after his brothers sell him. He ends up in jail in Egypt, but his life turns around for him when he shows how he can interpret dreams and become a confidant of Pharaoh. Famine comes and his brothers travel from Canaan to Egypt looking for food. The story ends with the family reunited.

Review
Wow – what am amazing show. From the first song – the well known “Any Dream Will Do”, I was completely immersed in the story and the characters, wanting to sing along with the songs.

The whole cast were brilliant and seemed to be really enjoying what they were doing. Despite a technical issue, which stopped the show for 10 minutes the cast remained professional and restarted the show as if nothing had happened. Jac Yarrow who plays Joseph was brilliant – he has an amazing voice and showed all the emotions that Joseph was experiencing.

The children were brilliant , looked as if they were really enjoying themselves – some playing bigger roles doing this very well.

The show had some moments of humour and some unexpected staging and costumes (for example the end of Act 1 – “Go, Go Go Joseph” song) which made the show really enjoyable.

The sets were also extremely good – some sets quite simple but others extravagant with lots going on. The costumes were brilliant – some very colourful but when necessary dull – for example when the brothers are starving in Canaan.
The encore at the end was like a party with a megamix of the songs. Everyone was singing and dancing including the audience.

I left the theatre buzzing.

I would highly recommend this show for anybody who likes a fun, fast moving, professional musical.

Date of performance – 6th April 2022
Date of review – 7th April 2022
Running Time – 1hr 40 mins plus 20 min interval.
Rating out of 5 – 5 out of 5
Price of tickets – £25.00 to £62.00
Buy tickets – www.birminghamhippodrome.com
Tickets & information 0844 388 5010
Venue – Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Southside, Birmingham, B5 4TB
Dates showing – Tuesday 5th April 2022 to Saturday 16th April 2022 in Birmingham

Birmingham Hippodrome – Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat