ХРЮ!

Traditionally, if one of us has a birthday, we go to a theatre (or, as it happened this May, to Italy). This time our choice was rather obvious as Joseph-and-I-dont-know-its-full-name came to the right place at the right time.

So, what did we get? An entertaining musical by Webber & Rice.

To be honest (since I don't know how embarassing this is I might as well say it), I had no idea what the musical was about, I only heard that it was good. But when the story started, I recognised it immediately - it was from Bible!

So. Jacob had a son Joseph, whom he loved dearly. He also had 11 other sons, whom he also liked, but probably not as much. Consequently, the sons disliked Joseph, so one day they sold him as a slave (and told the father that Joseph had, in fact, been killed) and off he went to Egypt. After various falls and rises Joseph became very close to Elvis Presley the Pharaoh, while his family started to starve, and so they came to Pharaoh to ask him for food. Joseph recognised them, after some hesitation revealed himself and they all lived happily ever after.

It is a captivating show, very colourful and full of energy. It is certainly a show I'd like to take my kids to (that is, when I have kids). It is, however, not a masterpiece and you should  not expect to hear a variety of strong voices or memorable melodies. In fact, there were only three actors who had solo performances: Tara Bethan (who played the Narrator and was incredibly good), Craig Chalmers (who played Joseph, and also produced a very strong performance) and Antony Hansen (who played Elvis-Presley-looking Pharaoh and Naphtali, but however entertaining he might have looked, I am afraid, his voice was quite weak in comparison with the two I have already mentioned. Well, it was certainly much quieter. In fact, often we couldn't hear it at all, so possibly that influenced our impression). I must also mention the children's choir sitting on the stairs. Kids were very cute and did a good job. Shame that they weren't even "introduced" during the ovations, I think they deserved it no less that the others.

The music was nice and cheerful, like the whole show. There were no songs I disliked, but there were almost no outstanding ones. Although I really loved the "french" song (Those canaan days). Apparently it turned out that I heard the main theme (Any dream will do) many times before. And it also turned out that it is very sticky. But I like it, so it's not too bad. Yet. A few themes seemed remarkably similar to certan themes from Jesus Christ Superstar (and it's not the first time notice such resemblance between Webber's musicals!)

There was also a dancing component which made everything even more lively. It was perhaps not as good as it could have been, but it did contribute its share and was very entertaining to watch.

Ah yes, the costumes were.. fitting. Such as servants wearing white shirts, bow-ties and egyptian armour. Oh, and did I mention Elvis Presley? :)

So, to summarise - this lovely production has yet again confirmed my feelings about Webber's work: I find most of his musicals good, some of them very good, but none of them the best. Sorry. Nothing comes close to Les Miserables! 

P.S. I must also mention that I could actually distinguish most of the words! I am not sure whether it is because of the acoustics, or because of my ears, but for some reasons it happens regularly that I cannot understand words in songs, which is quite annoying especially if you haven't heard them before. Well, here I could understand even the choir! Such a pleasant change!