Tour 2007/2008

Having first seen   ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ with Jess Conrad as Joseph and the late, and the still sadly missed, Peter Lawrence (as Jacob / Potiphar)   in the late 1970’s, I have subsequently seen many productions, both amateur and professional , as well as the original and updated Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber / Really Useful Group productions and many Bill Kenwright touring versions.

I have also had the pleasure of seeing many famous and infamous actors play the title role of ‘Joseph’ these include Mike Holoway, Richard Swerrun, James Earl Adair, David Ian, Jason Donovan, Philip Schofield and David Dixon. Many of these names will mean nothing to most people but one or two should be familiar to almost everyone. Few  ‘Josephs’ however have lived with the phenomenal build-up that  both Lee Mead, current lead in the London cast and  Craig Chalmers, heading  Bill Kenwright’s touring cast, have had to endure.

For those of us couch potatoes for whom Graham Norton’s  reality TV show “Any Dream Will Do” became an addictive part of the Saturday night ritual, we watched week in week out from the first auditions until the final week where Lee triumphed over fellow contestants Scotland’s own  Keith  Jack (runner-up) and Lewis Bradley.  Along the way we watched as Craig Chalmers, the other Scot, then a few weeks later , Chris Barton were voted out by the public and on the final say of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Why mention Craig and Chris?

As  one of the panel of judges, Bill Kenwright has made good use of his experience during the live shows and cast Craig Chalmers as his latest touring Joseph, along with , Chris Barton as his Benjamin and mainly for the Scottish leg of the tour Keith Jack as ‘The Narrator’.  As we know each of these performers have superb voices, but performing one or two numbers live once a week, all be it to a large studio audience and an even larger TV audience, is not the same as performing anything up to 10 shows a week, with all the singing, dancing, acting, costume changes and audience interaction included. These lads however just seem to thrive on this pressure.

I only managed to see ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ on its last day in Edinburgh and despite there having been a fairly major cast change recently, this was not obvious in the performance. I have in the past seen the Narrator played by a male performer and was therefore looking forward to seeing how Keith would cope with this very demanding role. His cheeky good looks and superb voice seemed just perfect for the part, and he has even seemed to stamp some of his own personality into the character. I personally could not view Keith as ‘Joseph’ material but he is for me one of the best Narrators I have seen.

Craig Chalmers however, I could see as Joseph all along, and I am pleased to say he lived up to, and possibly exceeded my expectations.  I was delighted in his total performance. The vocal quality was excellent and his director has guided him in changing one or two of the clichés normally seen in the character and developed one or two personal traits to fit Craig’s personality.  His development from the cocky young dreamer, through the slavery, imprisonment and finally his rise to a position of caring authority was a pleasure to watch.  His charming grin and great voice combine with his stage presence in developing an almost complete ‘Joseph’ package, for me however, he needs to work on his legs, I definitely would not recommend him to start wearing the kilt!

If anything Chris Barton is the clear winner out of these three ‘Reality TV’ contestants as he is not only playing Benjamin daily, but is also the official understudy for both The Narrator and Joseph, he has therefore three characters moves, songs and changes to remember. Although the part of Benjamin is not all in your face, he has more dance numbers to learn.  It was difficult at times trying to decide who to watch when.

From all the praise I have been lavishing on these three performers you might think they were the only three on stage but without the absolutely superb ‘Joseph’ cast and crew they would be nothing.  Kenwright’s tours of ‘Joseph’ always take it right back to basics, utilising the 12 brothers, Jacob, 3 handmaidens/ wives/ etc, small orchestra, stage crew and local school choirs.  This normally has the Narrator as a female, but as we know at present we are watching Keith Jack.  Saturday 20^th January 2008 sees Henry Metcalfe in the Jacob /Potiphar characters, Henry seems to have taken over from Peter in that it now seems ‘a given’  that  Kenwright’s  Jacob is Henry.   After the big cast change Dean Read has taken over as Pharoah and is doing a superb job he is equally at home as one of the brothers but obviously enjoys reacting to the audiences whilst on stage as the ‘KING’.

This is as always a great show with a brilliant cast well worth following during the tour and possibly seeing it when it comes back to Scotland. I would normally point you to the Kenwright website but as it has been down over the past few months I will endeavour to let you know when it is back on line.