Mandurah theatre spectacular a show of colour and fun

That was the situation when this scribe saw Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the latest big production offering from Primadonna Productions and local theatre matriarch .

I’m not a huge musical fan; I’ve seen a few, but I don’t follow them with the fervour of a learned thespian.

Being a production of only songs, with no dialogue in between, may at first confuse those not heavily versed in musicals, but the quality of costumes, choreography and talent made the show a real treat for everyone watching – kids, elders and everyone in between.

Simply put, the weekend’s shows were as good as community theatre gets.

Featuring a cast of more than fifty performers, Joseph... filled out the main stage at Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, with some acts having performers overflowing onto the stage-side steps and into the crowd.

Sian Dhu excelled in her role as The Narrator, keeping the story going and fuelling the story’s energy with her keen dramatic abilities.

Being a community production, there was a wide variety of people taking on roles, which definitely added the the family atmosphere.

Other standouts included the eleven brothers of Joseph, who push the story by (spoiler alert) selling him into slavery and generally being foils for the plot.

The variety of songs achieved a strong sense of surprise and spontaneity; the brothers’ Les Miserables-like commiseration on their plight was a little more than tongue-in-cheek, and had the audience in stitches.

Each character had their own well-defined personality and on-stage demeanour, the brothers themselves regularly earning chuckles from their clumsy antics.

Speaking of stitches, Tom Hennessy absolutely stole the show as The Pharoah, who in full Elvis regalia lead an amazing, rockabilly-driven act that ranged from epic to slapstick.

In this day and age, Elvis impersonations might seem a bit naff, but it perfectly suits the frivolity that fills Joseph... from end to end.

Right from his sudden appearance at the top of the biggest pyramid in Egypt, Hennessy was the focal point of the play, gyrating away and raising his eyebrows to such an extent I thought the pompadour resting on his head would fly off.

The role of Joseph himself was played by Laurence Williams, who brought the character to the fore with a larger-than-life performance.

Williams nailed the ability and hope entwined into Joseph and his story with his commanding performance and adept vocals.

The main stars of the show were ably supported by a talented and passionate cast of locals.

The choreography and blocking was mostly spot-on, exhibiting the amount of work and preperation that has gone into the production over the past few months.

Josephs… itself is very different form the usual Andrew Lloyd Webber fare, with a decidedly more comedic lean and a shortened length that suits the songs-only production. The wide variety of characters more or less ensure there’s no low points throughout it’s run.

Apart from the cast, the real driving force of the play was, you might expect, the colour. Primadonna Productions have really set a high-water mark with the work put in to the design and aesthetic of the production: each act was replete with hundreds of costumes, ranging from deep blues and purples to vibrant gold and silver.

Starting off, as you might expect, in the Middle East, Joseph... eventually moves into ancient Egypt. The sets, while simple, fully built on the frivolity of the production and added an extra dash of mystique to the show.

Set pieces included the aforementioned pyramid, as well as a giant Sphinx head covering the rear of the set.

While the set was fairly minimalistic, it acted as more of a background to the ensemble cast, who regularly filled out the stage during dance sequences.

While being exhausted on a Friday night did not do any favours for latching on to a song-driven story, the sheer class on show during Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat made the experience more than worthwhile.

Primadonna Productions are already back at work, preparing for their mid-year spectacle. No doubt the slew of upcoming shows will uphold the calibre of performance shown on the weekend.

Until then, I’ll be humming showtunes in my head, non-stop.