| One Big Heart-Cheering Show to Close the Year |
Aberystwyth Winter Production |
| Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , December 22, 2016 |
“2016” has officially entered the language as an adjective. Its use is in as “How was it?” “Really 2016”. Its sense runs the span of crusty, mean-in-spirit, dismal. This “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” must then be the ultimate anti-2016 end of 2016 show. The Lloyd-Webber score is eclectic and bouncy and a company of sixty-plus sings its collective hearts out joyously. The show is much in demand for performance and the conditions for Aberystwyth are tight; four performances and a designation as a youth group production. That means no performers above the age of eighteen. That in turn means no adults to anchor the main roles. It is the young people and their exuberant, unleashed talent that we see and the show is all the better for it. The production has benefit of a professional team to give it its fizzing quality. Ross Doodson is musical director and has extracted thrilling singing across the range. Rachel West is both director and choreographer, the choreography unflagging and inventive. Richard Hull has taken a step back this year to co-ordinator and assistant director. The nine-strong band includes some great clarinet from Harry Jepson. Among the musicians Nils Marggraf-Turley is on trumpet, Llew Evans on bass, Arts Centre anchor Louise Amery is there and Ross Doodson is at the white piano. The costumes, including Egyptian-themed fabrics, flares and stetsons, are the work of Karen Evans. No lighting credit but Nick Bache is technical manager, with Glyn Dodd, Joe Wilcox and Ritz Wright in his team. If the professionals get it going it is the cast of young people who make it fly. The show is anchored by the narrators. Maeve Courtier-Lilley, Heledd Davies, Edith Smith and Cadi Williams are a dynamic and big-voiced quartet. Tom Kendall is an energetic and warm Joseph and Harry Edmunds an Elvis of a Pharaoh. The singing is spread across so many excellent voices; Anirudh Krishna's Judah is just one among dozens. Rachel West's choreography turns Potiphar's wife into pure seductiveness. Mary Grice Woods exudes snaky sultriness; think Cyd Charisse in “the Bandwagon.” The Aberystwyth youth companies have form. Professional names in lead roles were to be seen learning their craft on this same stage just seven or eight years back. It is a sliver of a programme for the show but I have filed it away. I can dare a guess on a name or two whom wider audiences may be seeing in years to come. Meanwhile in 2016 it is about the whole company. This quality of finish does not come by accident. Weekend after weekend has been put to getting it right and getting it good. Dedication shows. The audience at this second performance gives the company the mighty response it deserves. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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