“Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”
Nottingham Theatre Royal

How many times have I seen this musical and why does it never get boring? I still love seeing this show which is a testament – if you’ll pardon the pun – to the wonderful writing of Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Sir Timothy Rice.

By now there surely must be no one who does not know the story and at least a few of the songs from this incredible soundtrack, so I do not need to outline the plot about Joseph, sold into slavery by his scheming and jealous brothers and his rise to fame.

Jaymi Hensley – from the band Union J – reprises his role as Joseph, although this is the first time that I have seen Jaymi as Joseph.

There's no denying that this young man can sing and he has a charismatic stage presence, and looks good in a loincloth, although I'm sure a body stocking was used to cover Jaymi's tattoos.

His voice is powerful and he has great range, but what slightly niggled me was how he sang the songs. The affected tone/phrasing slightly jarred with me along with all of the vibrato. What I did notice was that when Jaymi and the cast, at the end sang "Any Dream Will Do" again, it sounded more "real" without the pronounced phrasing, and that for me was when the real Jaymi voice emerged, and I loved it. That said his clarity was perfect throughout.

Don't get me wrong, I love this musical and Jaymi performed a blinder, and I know that you're not supposed to make comparisons between other actors as every one brings something different to the role, but it was like he was auditioning for "Phantom Of The Opera". Maybe I could blame the Musical Director?

Alexandra Doar is the ever present narrator, and what a gorgeously clear voice she has. When she smiled she lit up the theatre.

James Head (Jacob/Potiphar) has a voice made for roles like this and I loved the physicality of the role, especially when he came on at the end of Act two when you could see visually the ageing process.

Amber Kennedy (Mrs Potiphar) plays a proper sauce pot, trying to seduce Joseph. Always a fun role.

Andrew Geater (Pharoah) completeley storms the musical with his Elvis/Pharoah performance. He is fun and while not trying to hard to impersonate the King, his cheeky cap doffing to Elvis brought roars from the audience.

I am sure as well that his second featured song in this production is a new one as I can't recall hearing "King Of My Heart" before; it's certainly not on the soundtracks that i have of the show. The song manages to mention many of Elvis's songs within the lyrics, and to tell the truth, I don't think it added anything to the musical.

The brothers are played by Alex Hetherington, Paul Brangan, Robert Bardsley, Richard J Hunt, George Beet, Mikey Heath, Matt Jolly, Tom Bainbridge, Lovonne Zeus Richards and Callum Connolly. A brilliant ensemble group who brought a great energy to the production

The new choreography for this production is fresh and is by Gary Lloyd, who has worked on productions like “Thriller Live” and “Heathers”. The original choreography is by Henry Metcalfe

The set design is by Sean Cavanagh. It's bright, colourful and provides levels for the brilliant children's choir from The Attic Theatre School in Nottingham. their choir masters Amanda Grimsley and Josh Kemp can be very proud of these very talented youngsters.

Sound Design is by Dan Samson and Lighting Design by Nick Richings. Crystal clear sound and a wonderful light show.

Musical Director, Mike Steel, headed up a solid sounding orchestra, proving that they can master any genre within this musical with ease.

The soundtrack to this musical is one of the most recognised with classic pop songs like "Close Every Door", "Any Dream Will Do", my absolute favourite "Those Canaan Days", "One More Angel In Heaven", "Go Go Joseph", "Benjamin's Calypso" and more. My toes were tapping all night long.

It's one of my favourite musicals and it's always great to see new actors take on the Joseph role, and this production is just as exciting to see as any that I have seen in the past. So go go get your tickets and see Jaymi and the gang in this all time favourite. And you never know, in a few years time, we may even see Jaymi in "Phantom", and he may even thank me for it.Come to think of it, Joseph's mask in Act Two also looked strangely like the mask for "Phantom", or am I just obsessed with "Phantom", Well Jaymi has the voice for it...... watch this space!

“Joseph” is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 19 October.