Go, go, go Joseph - family-friendly musical opens in time for half-term treat at Scarborough's Queen Street Methodist Church
As one of its hit songs says: “Go, Go Joseph, you know what they say. Hang on now Joseph you’ll make it some day. Don’t give up Joseph fight till you drop. We’ve read the book and you come out on top.”
Yes. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tom Rice’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which first hit the West End stage more than 50 years ago, is still going strong.
Scarborough Theatre Company, with a new and vibrant production dazzzled Pickering audiences last week and is due to set the stage at Queen Street Methodist Central Hall, Scarborough, abuzz with it.
Fittingly, schoolchildren from two schools will join members of the company for the performance. The show started life as a 15-minute pop cantata at Colet Court School in London in 1968. It became an antidote to previous generations’ favourite fare of the ikes of The Student Prince, The Merry Widow and anything by Gilbert and Sullivan.
It was out with the stuffy, operatic-style musical and in with anything and everything Lloyd Webber and Rice threw at it. Joseph includes rock ‘n’ roll, country and western, calypso, Broadway-style tap dancing and a Parisian lament.
It still stuns with its inventiveness, cheekiness and sheer joy – which Scarborough Theatre Company grabs hold of and wrings out the last drops.
Part of the production’s community focus has been collaboration with local schools, which help form choirs for the performances. They include Helmsley CP School, Wheatcroft Primary School, East Ayton Primary School and Scarborough College Prep School.
Pupils also designed Joseph’s finale coat, decorating it with their hopes, dreams and aspirations, alongside names written in hieroglyphics, creating a unique centrepiece that reflects the imagination and optimism of the next generation.
It’s unfolding – complete with multi-coloured light effects – is breath-taking.
For those unfamiliar with the story, it is a rendition of the Biblical tale of the Israelite Jacob and his 12 sons of whom Joseph is the favourite. His jealous brothers conspire to kidnap him and leave him in the desert to die.
He is rescued, taken to Egypt and sold as a slave. What follows is a lesson to the brothers in karma and forgiveness. Let’s not get too heavy, the show wears its themes as easily and brightly as the multi-coloured coat. It is full of light and hope.
Returning to the company after a two-year break is Connor Canvess, familiar to audiences for roles in a diverse range of shows, Mr Cinders and Elf to The Addams Family and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His Joseph is a kind, caring boy-next-door who has a gift for interpretating dreams.
There are cameos, milked to the max, from Tim Tubbs as Jacob/Potiphar, Lauren MacDonald as Potiphar’s wife and Dominic Hulme as Levi and an Elvis-style Pharaoh.
It is packed with tunes, Any Dream Will Do, One More Angel in Heaven, Close Every Door and Go, Go, Go Joseph to name a few. They are so good, thanks to a roof-raising, hand-callping, foot-stomping, sing-along, standing ovation, finale, they are sung twice.
The production, which comes in, with an interval, at two hours, is family-friendly on all levels. Perfect for half-term treat.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoast is on at Queen Street Methodist Central Hall, Scarborough, on Thursday May 28 and Friday May 29 at 7.30pm; Saturday May 30 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm and Sunday May 31 at 2.30pm.
Tickets: adult £18; under 16 £14 and a family ticket – two adults and two children – is £58, saving £6.