On song & just as amazing as ever? Oh yes it is!

JOSEPH and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat demonstrated again last night that it is a piece of theatrical history – and most of all it’s fun, fun, fun.

From the camels on wheels to the corny rhymes and whiskery jokes, this very first Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, back in its natural home at the London Palladium, caused the West End to stand still in time last night.

Jason Donovan, Joseph nearly 30 years ago, was back as Pharaoh and stood aside to let new Joseph – unknown Jac Yarrow, 21 – bring the house down with Any Dream Will Do, the song he made a hit. Jason was not seen

until the second act, as a golden vision at the centre of the extravaganza forming the Pharaoh’s palace. His entrance was well worth the wait.

And, with his voice deeper than in 1991, he still had one great song, Song of the King. Meanwhile, Jac appeared gorgeously bare-chested and with voice to match but, unfortunately for Joseph aficionados, with no loin cloth.

But the scene-stealer was the immensely talented Sheridan Smith, showing her versatility as the twinkletoed singing narrator. There are singing and dancing numbers with themes as far ranging as the Orient and Wild West. Pyramids are silhouetted by a cardboard cut-out sunset. Something naughty goes on beneath the faux skin of a big cat.

And throughout, there is more than a hint of pantomime – not surprising as this show is from leading panto producer Michael Harrison.

To me, that is what gives it the final element of magic.