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| Tim Dal Cortivo as Joseph |
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Lyrics by Tim Rice.
Directed
by Kelda McManus. Usical director Jenna Hinton. Choreographer Caitlin Schilg.
Conductor Craig Johnson. Stage Mnaager Sue Gore-Phillips. Canberra Philharmonic
Society. Erindale Theatre. February 27 – March15 2025
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Joe Dinn as Pharaoh and Ensemble dancers |
Canberra Philharmonic’s production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is an absolute dream of a production. It is a glittering star in Canberra’s musical theatre firmament and places Philo at the very pinnacle of musical companies in the Capital. What made this production such a joy to attend on the closing night was the amazing array of talent that director Kelda McManus, musical director Jenna Hinton and choreographer Caitlin Schilg were able to assemble. To simply label it an amateur production would do Philo’s production a grave injustice. What I witnessed on the final night was a community event displaying an amazing array of talent from the very young performers who excelled in singing, dancing and acrobatics to the adult actors and dancers who, under McManus’s direction, Hinton’s musical direction and Schilg’s vibrant choreography were slick and sparking with energy and exuberance to the principals who injected a freshness, contemporary relevance and stunning talent to make Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1978 West End musical a local triumph.
With a production as alive and fresh today as Philo’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat it is difficult to believe that the musical had its genesis as a short commissioned performance for a school in 1965 before being developed by Lloyd Webber and Rice in 1978 into the smash hit West End production. It is obvious that it was the creation of a young composer aged 17 and a fledgling lyricist aged 20. They were obviously having serious fun with a pastiche of music and dance styles, quirky arrangements and various styles from country and western to jazz to calypso and so on. The work is enormously challenging in its eclecticism but Canberra Philharmonic have hit the jackpot in every aspect of the show. It is simply stunning. The Old Testament story of Joseph of Canaan, sold into slavery by his jealous brother’s because of being the favourite child of Jacob is told with humour and a touch of the ironic. After various trials and tribulations , his talent for interpreting dreams frees him from a prison to become the right hand man of the Pharaoh. His brothers are brought before him to beg for food during the drought and now are at his mercy. He tests their character and decides to forgive them and be reunited with his father in a happy ending. And the moral of this tale?: Any Dream Will Do.
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| Tim Dal Cortivo (Joseph) Taylor Paliaga (Narrator) |
McManus,
Hinton, Schilg and conductor Craig Johnson have chosen their
cast and musicians and dancers with impeccable judgement. It is a pity that we
don’t see the musicians at the wildest, happiest, and most professional curtain
call of encores that I have ever seen on a Canberra stage. Their musicianship
under Johnson’s baton was outstanding.Taylor Paliaga
as the Narrator tackles her sung role with perfect assurance, commanding the
musical styles with perfect aplomd. Her diction is clear and she gives her
narration the variety and interest that is demanded of any narrator telling the
story. Tim dal Cortivo’s Joseph is thoroughly engaging. An excellent voice and
an endearing grasp of his character make Cortivo a pleasure to watch on the
stage. There is a sense of an ordinary man being thrust into extraordinary
circumstance . There is excellent support from David Cannell as the greasy
slaveowner Potiphar and a caricatured Jacob with a dreadful wig and beard. His
Jacob reminds me of the amateur period performances of the Fifties. Cannell
captures that air of comical pathos. In contrast his seductive wife, played
with sensual allure by Lara Niven uses her tempting wiles to lure poor Joseph
and effect his imprisonment, which ironically becomes his salvation when he interprets
his dreams for the butler (Daniel Isherwood) and the Baker (Amelia
Andersson-Nickson)
The sensational standout performance of the night in an evening of magnificent moments, music and dance routines was Joe Dinn’s over the top high camp performance of the Pharaoh. In a perfectly played parody of Garry Glitter and Elvis Presley and prancing about the stage like a Madam in Drag the heavily made up Joe Dinn commanded the stage with his Song of the King. Dinn brought the house down with his performance of a Pharaoh with the divine right to be outrageous.
