Review: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Liverpool Empire ****

Sixty years ago this year, a young would-be lyricist penned a speculative letter to an even younger aspiring composer.

“I was told you were looking for a ‘with it’ writer of lyrics,” a 19-year-old Tim Rice wrote. “I wonder if you consider it worth your while meeting me? I may fall far short of your requirements, but anyway, it would be interesting to meet up.”

Happily, the letter’s recipient, 17-year-old Andrew Lloyd Webber, decided it was worth his while. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The pair’s earliest musical collaboration (The Likes of Us) would take decades to bring to the stage, but their next joint project was a more immediate hit.

Commissioned initially as a 15-minute pop cantata for an end-of-term concert at private prep school in London, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (based on The Wonder Book of Bible Stories) soon morphed into a full-length, musical phenomenon.

Six decades on, the latest high-octane, Technicolor version to arrive at the Liverpool Empire is a world away from a school hall in Hammersmith.

The whole show has been turned up to a Spinal Tap 11 to deliver an ultra-vivid, irrepressibly boisterous and impressively slick production.

It has also been given an update - Christina Bianco’s Narrator whips out a mobile phone at times - and it’s so larky that if its tongue was planted any further in its cheek it would need surgically removing.

All of which makes for plenty of energetic, crowd-pleasing entertainment.

Above; Christina Bianco as the Narrator. Top: Adam Filipe as Joseph and Joe McElderry as the Pharaoh. Photos by Tristram Kenton.

But I do worry that the central story of betrayal, forgiveness and redemption, along with some of the charm of the original, risks being subsumed underneath all the flamboyant razzmatazz which at times can feel just a bit too much. Those Canaan Days (a personal favourite) being a case in point.

Saying that, this Dreamcoat a whole lot of fun, anchored by strong performances all round – not least among the core trio.

Adam Filipe, the latest in a long line of Josephs to tread the Empire boards, is hugely engaging as the spoilt favourite son of Jacob who is so insufferable his brothers sell him into slavery. Added to which he is the possessor of a beautifully modulated and powerful singing voice and delivers his numbers – among them the power ballad Close Every Door - with absolute vocal clarity and crisp enunciation.

Eight years ago, Joe McElderry donned the coat of many colours on the Lime Street stage. This time he’s back where, like Jason Donovan before him, he has swapped roles to play Rice and Lloyd Webber’s Elvis-inspired Pharaoh. And it’s evident he really relishes the opportunity to cut loose with a camptastic, cheekily crowd-teasing performance of A Pharoah’s Story. Uh-huh-huh.

Above: Joseph's brothers sing Those Canaan Days. Photo by Tristram Kenton.

Bianco meanwhile is a charismatic pocket rocket as the Narrator who binds the series of Biblical scenes together with modern day storytelling involving the show’s large cast of children (who also double up as some ‘adult’ characters – the lad playing Potiphar deserving special mention).

She sparkles, literally (in sequins) and metaphorically, in a role that demands huge reserves of stamina. In some of the big numbers however, her lyrics are occasionally difficult to pick out over the volume levels generated by the ensemble, particularly when her New York accent becomes more pronounced.

The cast are buoyed by a dynamic and punchy live band, being led this week by assistant musical director Francesca Warren whose impish engagement with the packed auditorium led to a spontaneous burst of applause for the entr’acte that opened the second half.

They move smoothly through the show’s catchy tunes and various musical genres, from classic Broadway (Joseph’s Dream) to Country and Western (One More Angel in Heaven) to hip-swivelling rock-n-roll (Song of the King) to French pastiche (Those Canaan Days), in what is – overall – a Technicolor delight.