Saturday 13th May 2017, with my second blog of the day. Another milestone for me this weekend,as it’s been one year since my first ever blog (WNO’s In Parenthesis on 14th May 2016). This afternoon and evening I’m back at the Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay for three performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Another musical I have never seen before, so not sure what to expect. Although I think watching it three times should give me a good insight into the show. With the music written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyrics from Tim Rice, it does show a great deal of promise to a first time viewer, and even though I’ve heard the music from the show (CD), you can’t really put it all together from that part alone.

With some well known celebrities taking the role of Joseph in the past, for this tour we have Joe McElderry playing the lead, who I must say has a fantastic voice along with Lucy Kay as the narrator. Lucy has such an amazing voice, so good. The singing in the show is phenomenal, with beautiful choral voices from the children of the choir (from the Bristol school of performing arts), mixed in with the brilliant voices eminating from the ensemble and lead cast members.

This show has so many different musical genres from Country music scenes, a singing Elvis as Pharaoh (played brilliantly by Ben James-Ellis), and a bit of Calypso music at the end of the show. Joseph is a real family fun filled show, it has great staging with a wonderful light show to add to its many attributes. The band in the pit are also magnificent, playing for the whole show, this fantastic ‘ALW’ score. Such a treat to watch this musical 3 times in one day. The dance routines scattered within the show were so crisp and sharp throughout all three performances.May I also add how surprisingly good the whole show was, I even cried in some parts, mainly due to the wonderful singing on show. An absolutely magnificent show which really impressed me totally, definitely one to see next tour.

There is one last thing I would like to add in an attempt to make audiences more in touch with the performers. I’ve noticed recently that not many shows are using a cast board to make people aware who plays who. As I write a blog for every show I see, it would be nice to know these facts, as more of the ensemble would probably get a bigger mention, and therefore more publicity, which could lead onto bigger roles and so on. So come on you show producers out there, get more cast boards on tour productions.