Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat At Liverpool Empire Review

Reviewed by Kathryn Harrison

Last night I had the absolute pleasure of taking my nine year old daughter **** (editor’s note – name removed) to The Liverpool Empire Theatre to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Despite many of the songs being familiar neither of us had watched the show before so we were very excited!

The show is opened by Linzi Hateley as The Narrator. Linzi was superb, her performance and comedic timing had both of us gripped by the story, entertained and laughing out loud. The role of narrator moves the story along and engages directly with the audience, not only did Linzi do this brilliantly she also tailored her performance to the local audience. Her scouse accent was met with rapturous applause and laughter.

In the title role of Joseph was Jac Yarrow. Jac made his professional debut as Joseph at The London Palladium and received numerous awards though 2019 and 2020. Its easy to see why. He completely embodied the role of Joseph and his singing voice was powerful and moving. As our first introduction to Joseph I feel we couldn’t have asked for better!

Act One featured many popular songs that I recognised performed by multiple members of the company. These songs were accompanied by a spectacular display of dance and colour. There was so much to see on stage that we just didn’t know where to look! I really enjoyed the visual aspect of this show, it really was a technicolour dream. I also thought the use of colour, or lack of colour, depending upon the scene was very powerful. At the end of the show the whole cast returned to the stage and performed a medley of all the songs in the show. This had the whole audience up on their feet dancing and clapping along.

During the interval you could feel the excited tension building in the theatre as the audience prepared for the onstage arrival of the one and only Jason Donovan. Jason was playing the part of Pharaoh and brought a sense of hilarity and mischief to the role. He was certainly very popular with the audience! At this point I must also mention the outstanding child performers in the cast. For actors of such a young age their confidence and ability was amazing to see, they all performed brilliantly particularly when singing or adding to the comedy of the performance.

I hadn’t realised before seeing this show just how funny the production was. The whole cast were wonderful and professional but also absolutely hilarious. As an audience member you felt like you were part of the show with cast members addressing us directly and including us in the jokes.

This show was an absolute feast for the eyes and ears, I would 100% recommend it to anyone who has the chance to go and see it. It was wonderful to see people of all ages enjoying the performance including many children. I still fondly remember many of the musicals I saw as a child and  I know the memory of this performance will stay with my daughter in the same way. Both myself and my daughter left the theatre feeling joyful and uplifted in that way that only live theatre can do.

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £13 plus £3.65 booking fee.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is at the Liverpool Empire from Monday 6th June until Saturday 11th June 2022, for more information or to book tickets visit https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamcoat/liverpool-empire/ or call the box office on 020 7206 1174
Liverpool Empire Theatre, 1 Lime St, Liverpool L1 1JE, UK