"Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" by Nottingham Girls' High School Youth Group.
The Space.

This production was one of a few firsts for me tonight. It was the first time that I had sat in the upstairs balcony, proving that you get a good view from almost every seat in The Space.

It was the first time that I had see a Nottingham Girls' High School production.

It was also the first time that I had seen an all female version of a production that is predominantly an all male stage show.

It's also the first time that I have seen the stage like it was for this production. I have seen several productions at The Space over the last few years but never have I seen a set like this. It looked like someone had dug out the stage and built concrete blocks in the centre, leaving the sides visible as a drop. The band were raised up on scaffolding platforms (JSW Scaffolding Ltd). A really interesting and innovative stage set by Richard Warriner.

The video design (George Lamb) also added something interesting to look at, at the back of the stage, as well as adding to the position and timeline of the story.

Directed by Chris Nicklin, the story line was well paced and the flow was good.

Loved the sound and lighting (Michael Donoghue) and I appreciated the sound to light co ordination which is sometimes not as sharp as it was in this production, and that made such a difference to me for impact reasons.

The choreography (Anushka Basu) was a big job but done really well, especially in "Pharoah's Dream", which was one of the highlights of the production for me, along with the wonderful "Those Canaan Days".

There were also a few highlighted solo and dance pairs behind the songs with ballet and tap sequences, which was something I can't remember seeing in other productions.

The costumes looked like an advert for The United Colours Of Benetton and really made a splash of colour on stage, and I loved the way they did the final coat for Joseph, which was practical but also gave the desired, and colourful effect.

The cast is too big to mention all of them individually, but what an impact they made, an absolute explosion of colour and energy.

Elise McCracken (Joseph) did a cracking job. She got the two big popular numbers from the show "Any Dream Will Do" and "Close Every Door", and quite rightly was the last to leave the stage to soak up the applause.

Anushka Basu was a brilliant Pharoah, and I must also mention Rachel MacDonad-Hulme as Potiphar and a lovely comic, almost "Carry On" performance as Mrs Potiphar.

There were four narrators, Lilli Tichardson, Izzy Slade, Pepper Uleberg-Smith and Harriet Watkinson. All had really good voices but one, and I don't know which one, as I don't know these girls, who for me stood out. She seemed to have a slight Irish, folky lilt to her voice and if I was directing "Legally Blonde", I would have her cast as Paulette.

By the end of the evening, I'd forgotten that this was all female cast, and I saw a cast of talented young actors who had worked hard to present a credible, and slightly different version of one of Rice/Lloyd-Webber's most performed pieces.