Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is a fun, lively and colourful musical. It’s a great family-friendly show, and fun for adults as well. Here’s my Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat theatre review.
Overview of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is a famous musical. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. It’s a popular musical, with frequent tours over many years. A lot of people will be familiar with the show and the music, so my Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat theatre review shouldn’t give any major spoilers!
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is based on the bible story of Joseph. It’s not a religious show – it’s just based on the bible story. Joseph is one of 12 brothers, all sons of Jacob. Joseph is Jacob’s favourite son, and Jacob gives Joseph a multicoloured coat. And Joseph seems to have a special talent for interpreting dreams. Joseph’s brothers are jealous of Joseph, so they come up with a plot to get rid of Joseph. They sell him to be a slave in Egypt.
In Egypt, Joseph works for a rich man called Portiphar. Despite a positive start to his work, Joseph ends up in jail after Portiphar accuses him of being with his wife. In jail, Joseph interprets the dreams of a baker and butler, who both work for Pharaoh. Pharaoh is also being troubled by dreams that he doesn’t understand, so he sends for Joseph to help. Joseph tells Pharaoh that his dreams a prediction of a famine in Egypt, and Pharaoh employs Joseph to help manage the collection of food and the rationing – Joseph becomes Pharaoh’s number two man.
Joseph’s family are hit hard by the famine, so they come to Egypt to search for food. At first, they do not recognise Joseph. Joseph plays a trick on them, pretending that his brother Benjamin has tried to steal a golden cup. The brothers defend Benjamin, and Joseph realises that they are now honest men. He tells his brothers who he is, and the brothers reunite. Jacob comes to Egypt, and the whole family are reunited.
What I liked about Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
I really enjoyed the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. I saw the touring production in 2025 at the Bristol Hippodrome. And I thought it was overall a good production.
My favourite thing about Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was how colourful and lively the show was. The set and costumes were great, and the whole show was really colourful. It had a great energy, that made the audience smile throughout. It’s definitely a happy show.
The music is great as well. I enjoy the songs from Joseph, so it was great to see them on stage. The songs were performed well, with lots of energy and humour. The whole show was loud and lively, in a good way.
The best moments from the show
One if the highlights of the show for me was Joseph’s performance of ‘Close every door to me’. It’s the song that Joseph sings when he’s put in jail. I thought the performer playing Joseph was excellent. He had a really powerful voice, and gave a really moving and powerful performance of this song. It was a definite highlight of the show.
Lots of other songs were enjoyable as well. I just really like the music. The song ‘Go go Joseph’ was really fun, and again had great colour and energy. And the song about Joseph’s coloured coat was really good, with bright colours, good staging, dancing, light and costumes. It was nice to have such colourful and elaborate costumes and really helped the show feel impressive.
I also really enjoyed the ‘Joseph megamix’ at the end. It’s an 8-minute long medley of all of the Joseph songs. The audience was allowed to film and take photos, which was great. Everyone was on their feet and singing and dancing along. It was a really high-energy, fun ending to the show. And it meant that the whole audience was buzzing with energy as they left the theatre.
Joe McElderry as Pharaoh
Another highlight of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was the performance of Joe McElderry, who played Pharaoh. Jo McElderry is famous as one of the winners of the TV show, X Factor. That series was one of the few series of X Factor that I’d watched and got into, I so knew Joe McElderry well from the TV show. So it was great to see him live on stage.
I thought Joe McElderry’s performance of Pharaoh was great. He’s got an amazing singing voice, and sang the famous Pharaoh song brilliantly. He just sings so effortlessly, like it’s just completely natural for him to sing so amazingly well. I just would have liked to see him more – there aren’t that many songs or scenes that feature Pharaoh, so it would have been nice to have seen him more. But the parts he was in were great.
What I wasn’t so sure about
Overall, I enjoyed seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. But there were still quite a few parts of the show that I wasn’t so sure about.
The narrator
I wasn’t keen on some elements of the narrator’s performance. I thought she had a good singing voice and performed the songs well. But this show also had her playing several other characters, including Jacob. And I don’t think that worked well.
When she played Jacob she wore a big fake beard, so it became a slightly silly, comedy thing. And I didn’t feel like that was appropriate for some of the songs. It completely took away from the emotion of the song ‘One more angel in heaven’. That song is meant to be about Jacob realising his favourite song is dead. The song is a bit funny, but there should also be some emotion behind it. But any emotion was lost because the narrator was playing a joke-role as the father.
This also meant that there wasn’t any emotion at the end of the show when Joseph and Jacob are reunited. Again, the narrator had the big fake-beard and was playing Jacob as a joke. So there couldn’t be an emotional father-son reunion. And that was a shame, as that could have been a really lovely part of the show.
There were other times throughout the show when the narrator was turning things into a silly joke. She’d do fake, over-the-top dance moves, or silly slapstick comedy. It gave the vibe of a cheap pantomime. Some of the young children in the audience might have found it funny. But for most of the audience, it felt a bit embarrassing to watch. And it took away from any emotion that could have been in the scenes. I would have much preferred the narrator to have played the role a bit more seriously and with some emotion, instead of like a cheap pantomime.
Children in the roles
This production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat also cast children in some of the main roles. Some of the brothers were played by children. Portiphar was also played as a child – although his wife was an adult. And the baker and butler in prison were children.
In a way, it was nice to see children being given these important roles. But I don’t think it really worked. I think the worst choice was Portiphar. The boy who played Portiphar was excellent – he delivered his lines with humour. But the whole plot around Portiphar is that his wife tries to seduce Joseph. So we went straight from a child-Portiphar, to the scene of his adult wife and her servants trying to seduce Joseph under the rug. It just didn’t fit together – the seduction scene wasn’t really child-friendly. And then Portiphar came back out to send Joseph to prison. I think the boy who played Portiphar did a good job, but it was a mistake to cast a child in that role.
Lack of emotion or serious scenes
While I appreciate that Joseph is a fun, family-friendly musical, I feel like there are still some more serious and emotional elements. In previous productions I’ve seen, I’ve found some of the scenes really moving. And I’ve liked having mix of emotion and also lively, colourful fun in the show. However, I felt like this production completely lost any emotional element.
The scenes where Jacob learns that Joseph is dead has the potential to be emotional, but any serious emotion was ruined because Jacob was played by the female narrator with a joke-y fake beard. Again, the scene where Joseph and Jacob are reunited lost all emotion as well. And the songs by the brothers also lacked emotion. There should be some emotion in ‘one more angel in heaven’, and also at the end when they realise it’s Joseph in Egypt. But the show didn’t portray any emotion at all.
I understand they want it to be a fun show. But it could still have had a few more more emotional moments mixed with the fun. It doesn’t to all be silly and funny.
Would I recommend Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Overall my Joseph and Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat theatre review is positive, so I would recommend this show. It’s a colourful, fun, lively musical. It’s family-friendly, and has lots for adults as well. Joe McElderry as Pharaoh was great, and there were lots of other great songs and performances as well. I just think it was a shame that some of the serious emotion of the show was lost in this production. But it was still a good show. With the fun ‘Joseph megamix’ at the end, it’s a fun night out and you’ll leave the theatre smiling, singing and dancing.
Hope you enjoyed my Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat theatre review ! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
