Review: Joseph never ceases to Amaze!

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is at Peterborough New Theatre until Saturday. Photos: Pamela Raith Photography. | Other 3rd Party

With its eclectic mishmash of musical genre parodies it shouldn’t work, but Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which opened at the New Theatre in Peterborough on Tuesday, remains an incredibly uplifting and entertaining two hours of musical theatre.

It is bright, brash, loud, lavish - in terms of set design, costumes and lighting - and at times wonderfully silly (a Biblical tale with Elvis) but the audience quickly got caught up in this fast-paced magnet of a show.

After a quite gentle opening from the narrator (the excellent Alexandra Doar) there comes one iconic song after another.

They come thick and fast - there’s barely time for the audience to take a breath never mind the tireless, talented bunch on stage, not to mention the incredible orchestra hidden from view.

From the Country and Western feel of One More Angel in Heaven to the Parisian chanson delivery of Those Canaan Days - with great harmonies - and the catchy Benjamin Calypso - it is a non-stop musical treat.

Mark McMullan - from Britain’s Got Talent fame- has some big shoes to fill stepping into the lead role but looked an absolute natural.

The voice that served him so well on the TV talent show was outstanding - particularly Close Every Door which rightly got a noisy ovation - to the song that got everyone in celebratory mood, Any Dream Will Do.

There’s a happy ending, of course there is, and the iconic unveiling of the coat of many colours. And as if that isn’t enough, there is an incredibly cheesy musical finale that had everyone on their feet for a well-deserved standing ovation.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is at New Theatre until Saturday. Tickets at www.newtheatre-peterborough.com