Post by Tanith Messenger on Oct 29, 2010 15:39:41 GMT
JOSEPH And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has played the Grand Opera House more often than any other show since the York theatre reopened in 1989.
“Would you not think it’s played more than any other show at every theatre in the country,” says Liverpudlian impresario Bill Kenwright, the long-running show’s ever grateful producer.
“What I do know is it’s the only show, and I mean the only show, where four year olds and 84 year olds can sit and be rapt by what’s going on on stage. The truth is I don’t think people will ever see 60 goals in a season again, like Dixie Dean scored for Everton, and I don’t think you’ll ever see another show like Joseph – and I first saw it as a 23-minute show at a school!”
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph returns to York on Tuesday for 12 shows as the Grand Opera House goes into Kenwright overload with a Dreamcoat-Dreamboats double whammy over the next fortnight. Dreamboats And Petticoats will make its York debut, direct from the West End, from November 8 to 13 and another double Bill is on the cards for next year when Blood Brothers and Verdict will both have runs in May.
“God bless the Grand Opera House!” says Bill, who no doubt will say God bless Rice and Lloyd Webber too.
“Musicals didn’t used to be such big business but then Joseph came along and found a niche. I first did the show for two weeks at the New Theatre in Cardiff – it must have been more than 30 years ago – where my mate Martin Williams ran the theatre and he had a tour drop out and he said, ‘if you’ve got anything for Easter’, and I said I’d put Joseph in for two weeks – and I had only a two-week licence.”
Two weeks, then two more weeks, and then another two, and so the momentum built with every extension of the licence as Bill took the show on the road. “It got to the point where we said ‘there’s something extraordinary going on,” he says. “But did I know that at the start? Absolutely not! After five years possibly yes, but did I see it still booking in advance after 30 years? Absolutely not!
“But I’ve been blessed in my life that I’ve had musicals and helped to create musicals that are so loved, and Joseph is by far the most loved British musical of all time…and then there was Blood Brothers as well, so I can only thank Willy Russell and Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.”
It is “the people” (as in the audience) who have made Joseph the continuing success it is, says Bill; success that sees the show returning to cities on a two yearly rotational system.
“It’s a show that has a wonderful ability to introduce actors to the stage, and then there’s the love affair that’s happened with every town. It would be arriving in town and people would know it was coming – it was like the carnival in Rio! They knew Joseph and the boys were coming back, and like the old football teams, you’d see them in town and it felt like it was part of the town.”
Why is Joseph still so poplar, Bill, perhaps even more so since the TV talent search for Joseph on Any Dream Will Do? “It’s got everything a musical show should have; it’s got a great storyline, involving redemption, and it’s full of magical, magical moments,” he says.
“My grand-daughter, who’s four, knows every line of it, not because it’s her granddad’s show, but because she loves it, and out of all those TV talent-spotting shows, Andy Dream Will Do was the most popular.
“The songs are great, the lyrics too. They’re timeless and they’re great pop songs, and we’ve always managed to update it at intervals – and this latest touring version is more popular than ever.”
Jason Donovan, Phillip Schofield, Craig Chalmers, Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead and runner-up Keith Jack have all made their mark on the colourful title role. “Lee Mead had been in the production for a year as one of the brothers and I hadn’t recognised him on the TV!” recalls Bill. “Keith Jack is one of the best ever Josephs.
“People knock these auditions shows but anything that promotes theatre and new talent has to be a plus.”
Bill pulls the strings on too many shows to mention and while Joseph rolls on and on, the rock’n’roll nostalgia trip of Dreamboats And Petticoats is rapidly rising up the Kenwright charts too.
Not every show he backs turns out to be a hit but Bill instinctively knew he was on to a winner with Dreamboats. “I have a ‘feeling’ a lot and I’ll get it wrong more than you know, but part of my life is that I’m a real ‘saddo’ in that I’m addicted to Fifties and Sixties rock’n’roll,” he says. “I’ve just had the happiest ten weeks of my life doing a show on Radio 2 all about rock’n’roll.
“What Dreamboats And Petticoats had was a brilliant title, and for the TV marketing package for the first album to catch on in the way it did was remarkable.
“It entered this world of nostalgia and they asked me if I thought there was a musical in it and I wasn’t sure as I’d already done The Billy Fury Story and The Elvis Story, I’d done them all! So I contacted Laurie Mansfield and he contacted the writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran and they had the idea of setting it in a nightclub. We thought there might be a tour in it…”
And so another Bill Kenwright production was born.
* AT last, the Any Dream Will Do runner-up gets the coat.
So runs the poster campaign proclaiming Keith Jack’s accession to the Dream role of Joseph on tour after finishing a hair’s breadth behind Lee Mead on the BBC1 talent search.
He will arrive in York on Tuesday, already settled into fronting the show and meeting its contrasting demands to his TV appearances. “I think the difference is that when you’re doing live TV, you try to forget even though there are millions of people watching, but there’s pressure on stage because they think you will be good from finishing second in the TV show,” says Keith.
“So there’s pressure there, but it was helpful to do the Narrator’s role first, when people said I was too young at 19 to be the Narrator.
“It had been written originally for a male, but became a female role very quickly because you always think of your mum telling you a story rather than your dad, and people tend to think that it might be Joseph’s mum telling this story.
“When I did it, it was the first time since the 1970s that a man had played the role, and people were asking if I didn’t feel bad about not playing Joseph, but the Narrator is one of the biggest singing roles in Joseph and it was nice to be able to say that.”
He benefited from that experience, grooming him for the lead role.
“Now that I’m 22, I’ve learned a lot about stillness and I’ve gained maturity, so I bring a lot of that to playing Joseph. I learned from the Narrator’s role that thing of bringing the audience to you,” says Keith.
“Everything has to be bigger on stage… but on TV if you make your mouth as wide as the Clyde, it’s not going to look good on there.”
Keith is revelling in playing Joseph. “It’s nice to be finally doing the role. Good things come to those who wait, they say,” he says.
Of course he loves the show yet he believes Any Dream Will Do gave it a welcome shot in the arm.
“I think it was going through a weird period for a while before the TV show but it’s just one of those shows that people love. Every mum can say they’ve seen Donny Osmond or Philip Schofield in it – and there are half-naked men for them on stage,” says Keith.
“Everyone knows a Joseph song, like everyone knows an Abba song or a Queen song. That’s what makes it so good.”
Grand Opera House, York. Box office: 0844 847 2322.
© Copyright Newsquest Media Group A Gannett Company
© Copyright www.yorkpress.co.uk
“Would you not think it’s played more than any other show at every theatre in the country,” says Liverpudlian impresario Bill Kenwright, the long-running show’s ever grateful producer.
“What I do know is it’s the only show, and I mean the only show, where four year olds and 84 year olds can sit and be rapt by what’s going on on stage. The truth is I don’t think people will ever see 60 goals in a season again, like Dixie Dean scored for Everton, and I don’t think you’ll ever see another show like Joseph – and I first saw it as a 23-minute show at a school!”
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph returns to York on Tuesday for 12 shows as the Grand Opera House goes into Kenwright overload with a Dreamcoat-Dreamboats double whammy over the next fortnight. Dreamboats And Petticoats will make its York debut, direct from the West End, from November 8 to 13 and another double Bill is on the cards for next year when Blood Brothers and Verdict will both have runs in May.
“God bless the Grand Opera House!” says Bill, who no doubt will say God bless Rice and Lloyd Webber too.
“Musicals didn’t used to be such big business but then Joseph came along and found a niche. I first did the show for two weeks at the New Theatre in Cardiff – it must have been more than 30 years ago – where my mate Martin Williams ran the theatre and he had a tour drop out and he said, ‘if you’ve got anything for Easter’, and I said I’d put Joseph in for two weeks – and I had only a two-week licence.”
Two weeks, then two more weeks, and then another two, and so the momentum built with every extension of the licence as Bill took the show on the road. “It got to the point where we said ‘there’s something extraordinary going on,” he says. “But did I know that at the start? Absolutely not! After five years possibly yes, but did I see it still booking in advance after 30 years? Absolutely not!
“But I’ve been blessed in my life that I’ve had musicals and helped to create musicals that are so loved, and Joseph is by far the most loved British musical of all time…and then there was Blood Brothers as well, so I can only thank Willy Russell and Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.”
It is “the people” (as in the audience) who have made Joseph the continuing success it is, says Bill; success that sees the show returning to cities on a two yearly rotational system.
“It’s a show that has a wonderful ability to introduce actors to the stage, and then there’s the love affair that’s happened with every town. It would be arriving in town and people would know it was coming – it was like the carnival in Rio! They knew Joseph and the boys were coming back, and like the old football teams, you’d see them in town and it felt like it was part of the town.”
Why is Joseph still so poplar, Bill, perhaps even more so since the TV talent search for Joseph on Any Dream Will Do? “It’s got everything a musical show should have; it’s got a great storyline, involving redemption, and it’s full of magical, magical moments,” he says.
“My grand-daughter, who’s four, knows every line of it, not because it’s her granddad’s show, but because she loves it, and out of all those TV talent-spotting shows, Andy Dream Will Do was the most popular.
“The songs are great, the lyrics too. They’re timeless and they’re great pop songs, and we’ve always managed to update it at intervals – and this latest touring version is more popular than ever.”
Jason Donovan, Phillip Schofield, Craig Chalmers, Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead and runner-up Keith Jack have all made their mark on the colourful title role. “Lee Mead had been in the production for a year as one of the brothers and I hadn’t recognised him on the TV!” recalls Bill. “Keith Jack is one of the best ever Josephs.
“People knock these auditions shows but anything that promotes theatre and new talent has to be a plus.”
Bill pulls the strings on too many shows to mention and while Joseph rolls on and on, the rock’n’roll nostalgia trip of Dreamboats And Petticoats is rapidly rising up the Kenwright charts too.
Not every show he backs turns out to be a hit but Bill instinctively knew he was on to a winner with Dreamboats. “I have a ‘feeling’ a lot and I’ll get it wrong more than you know, but part of my life is that I’m a real ‘saddo’ in that I’m addicted to Fifties and Sixties rock’n’roll,” he says. “I’ve just had the happiest ten weeks of my life doing a show on Radio 2 all about rock’n’roll.
“What Dreamboats And Petticoats had was a brilliant title, and for the TV marketing package for the first album to catch on in the way it did was remarkable.
“It entered this world of nostalgia and they asked me if I thought there was a musical in it and I wasn’t sure as I’d already done The Billy Fury Story and The Elvis Story, I’d done them all! So I contacted Laurie Mansfield and he contacted the writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran and they had the idea of setting it in a nightclub. We thought there might be a tour in it…”
And so another Bill Kenwright production was born.
* AT last, the Any Dream Will Do runner-up gets the coat.
So runs the poster campaign proclaiming Keith Jack’s accession to the Dream role of Joseph on tour after finishing a hair’s breadth behind Lee Mead on the BBC1 talent search.
He will arrive in York on Tuesday, already settled into fronting the show and meeting its contrasting demands to his TV appearances. “I think the difference is that when you’re doing live TV, you try to forget even though there are millions of people watching, but there’s pressure on stage because they think you will be good from finishing second in the TV show,” says Keith.
“So there’s pressure there, but it was helpful to do the Narrator’s role first, when people said I was too young at 19 to be the Narrator.
“It had been written originally for a male, but became a female role very quickly because you always think of your mum telling you a story rather than your dad, and people tend to think that it might be Joseph’s mum telling this story.
“When I did it, it was the first time since the 1970s that a man had played the role, and people were asking if I didn’t feel bad about not playing Joseph, but the Narrator is one of the biggest singing roles in Joseph and it was nice to be able to say that.”
He benefited from that experience, grooming him for the lead role.
“Now that I’m 22, I’ve learned a lot about stillness and I’ve gained maturity, so I bring a lot of that to playing Joseph. I learned from the Narrator’s role that thing of bringing the audience to you,” says Keith.
“Everything has to be bigger on stage… but on TV if you make your mouth as wide as the Clyde, it’s not going to look good on there.”
Keith is revelling in playing Joseph. “It’s nice to be finally doing the role. Good things come to those who wait, they say,” he says.
Of course he loves the show yet he believes Any Dream Will Do gave it a welcome shot in the arm.
“I think it was going through a weird period for a while before the TV show but it’s just one of those shows that people love. Every mum can say they’ve seen Donny Osmond or Philip Schofield in it – and there are half-naked men for them on stage,” says Keith.
“Everyone knows a Joseph song, like everyone knows an Abba song or a Queen song. That’s what makes it so good.”
Grand Opera House, York. Box office: 0844 847 2322.
© Copyright Newsquest Media Group A Gannett Company
© Copyright www.yorkpress.co.uk
