Part Bible story, part glam-rock circus, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a rare theatrical beast: deeply strange, relentlessly cheerful, and gloriously unapologetic in its absurdity. It defies logic, convention, and restraint – and somehow alchemises that madness into a crowd-pleasing triumph. More than 50 years after its debut, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s fever-dream of a musical still bursts with vitality, silliness and sheer delight.
This latest UK tour captures the full anarchic spirit of the piece – a gleefully unhinged technicolour spectacle that feels less like a musical and more like a musical detonation. Directed with maximalist flair and a keen sense of its own eccentricity, it hurtles through genres, decades and narrative sanity with such confidence that resistance is futile. You don’t watch Joseph. You surrender to it.
Christina Bianco commands the stage as the Narrator in a performance that is nothing short of a masterclass in charisma and control. Bianco’s reputation as a vocal chameleon precedes her, and she more than lives up to it – anchoring the production with dazzling vocal prowess while slipping seamlessly into a kaleidoscope of supporting roles. Her turn as Potiphar’s Wife is a comedic highlight – deliciously exaggerated, knowingly absurd, and genuinely hilarious.
As Joseph, Adam Filipe brings golden-voiced sincerity to a role that can easily drift into blandness. His rendition of ‘Close Every Door’ – anguished and echoing through prison walls – offers a rare moment of emotional gravity, performed with admirable restraint. That he transitions from this to the Megamix finale without losing focus or finesse is a testament to his skill with both vocal shading and stylistic whiplash.
Local pantomime royalty Matt Slack’s Elvis-inspired Pharaoh is a rhinestoned joyride of sequinned swagger, razor-sharp comic timing, and pitch-perfect parody. Every movement is fine-tuned for maximum impact.
Choreography throughout is bold and brazen, leaning into the show’s reference-rich framework. A tap number in Roman-style sandals precedes a cheer routine, followed by a Caribbean calypso – each genre-hopping sequence executed with tongue-in-cheek flair. It’s dynamic, relentlessly physical, and occasionally a sensory overload.
Visually, the production revels in its own excess. The set, while not elaborate, bursts with a palette of shifting bright colours. Costumes gleefully embrace visual absurdity, marrying rhinestoned robes with cowboy hats and cascades of gold lamé. The aesthetic borrows freely from school plays, Las Vegas revues, and pop-culture parody – and revels in every incongruous detail. Its eclecticism isn’t a distraction but a bold assertion of the musical’s unruly DNA.
Under the baton of John Rigby, the orchestra navigates the stylistic kaleidoscope with assurance and finesse. The sound is vibrant and textured, supporting the vocals without ever swamping them, and genre transitions – however ludicrous – are handled with effortless polish.
There’s no getting around the fact that this is a deeply strange piece of theatre. One moment we’re in Canaan, the next in Paris by way of faux-French cabaret. The brothers mourn, dance, repent, and reprise – all before the interval. The tone veers between pantomime, operetta, and sketch comedy. It’s as if Rice and Lloyd Webber set out to include every musical genre known to man – and somehow succeeded.
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And yet, for all its eccentricities, Joseph never wobbles. It holds fast because it knows exactly what it is: a full-throttle celebration of theatrical excess, presented without irony or apology. It doesn’t hedge its bets or reach for sophistication. It simply presses on, buoyed by joy, colour and unstoppable momentum.
In a theatrical landscape increasingly drawn to reinvention and re-examination, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat remains defiantly itself. It doesn’t ask to be taken seriously – only to be enjoyed in its technicolour glory.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham
Lyrics: Tim Rice
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Director: Laurence Conner
Set and Costume Designer: Morgan Large
Lighting Designer: Ben Cracknell
Sound Designer: Gareth Owen
Musical Supervisor and Musical Director: John Rigby
Cast: Matt Slack, Christina Bianco, Adam Filipe, Aaron Archer, Bella Baldock, Daniel Bowskill, Imogen Bowtell, Taylor Bridges, Joseph Bronwlie-Johnson, Hugh Cotton, Joseph Craig, Davide Fienauri, Ellie Greenway, Will Haswell, Oliver Hawes, Kiera Haynes, Siobhan James, Ben Lancaster, Alex Woodward, Nicole Lupino, Bradley Perret, Harvey Shulver, Jessica Sutton, Charley Warburton and Jenna Warne
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will be performed at the Birmingham Hippodrome until 1 June 2025 before touring nationally.
