REVIEW: Dream of a show by Craig
BUXTON Opera House demonstrated on Monday night that the Devil doesn't always have all the best tunes...
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat looks set to have a run of truly Biblical proportions if the first night audience was anything to base a prophecy on.
Indeed it was hard to decide who was enjoying themselves the most at the end – the spectacularly energetic cast who had woven their own multi-coloured dreams in song and dance, or the customers, who abandoned their seats to sway, stamp and clap for an encore.
And it's even harder to believe that Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber weren't much more than teenagers when they brought the Old Testament story of Joseph to new life, becoming stars of the theatre who went on to superstardom with Jesus Christ Superstar.
The witty, inventive re-telling of the ancient tale in the modern idiom looks set to give the Joseph story another 2,000 years of top billing, especially as it never fails to remember the human side of the drama, bringing a lump to the throat despite the jokes when a broken family is re-united in love.
Craig Chalmers as Joseph is a golden boy – literally in some scenes – of the theatre, and his failure to win the TV search for Lloyd-Webber's Joseph just shows how much talent there is out there.
And if the white-haired old lady who nearly fell out of one of the boxes while clamouring for an encore is anything to go by, he won't need the telly to make his fortune anyway.
He was supported by a cast of stars in the making in this production of kaleidoscope scenes, side-slapping visual jokes and quick costume changes.
They were all excellent, but Scott Cripps as Elvis/Pharaoh – let's face it, they were both the King and spent time in Memphis – rocked the House.
There's still time to book for the Bill Kenwright show, which continues until Saturday: phone 0845 127 2190 for tickets.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Buxton
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
