Joseph Review of shows 16 & 17/12/02 at the Liverpool Empire Theater.

OK I will do two versions of the review - this is the full one, so if you dont want to find out what happens in the show or have any surprises spoilt for you before you see it click here for a shorter review which has only general comments on the performace etc, which I wrote for the news section of the site.

Stephen made an excellent Joseph in the show - his voice was powerful and his solo's were brilliant. After arriving in Liverpool about lunch time, I met up with another friend and we investigated to see if there was any activity at the stage door but came to the conclusion the cast were all in early to reherse and set up for the evenings performance. So we found some flyers for the show and also found what we called 'Stephen Gately Street'; as the main shopping street was full of posters, two hanging from each lampost for the length of the street. It was nice to see the 'Gately grin' again after what has been quite a while since Stephen has performed or had his face plastered around in shopping areas!

Show time eventually came and an eager audience were let in slightly late. Unfortunately the mechandise was still all that from the previous Joseph, and the new stuff which had Stephen on/in it hadn't arrived yet. So it made the trip a bit cheaper as none of that needed to be invested in - I shall get some with pictures of Stephen rather than a random person on, next time I go to see the show.

I found myself getting slightly nervous for Stephen as the show finally started with the overture - which seemed to last forever! The narrator then appeared to start the show with the prologue, which ended with the curtain finally lifting to reveal the rest of the cast - Stephen stading with his back towards the audience, center stage. He is dressed in off-white trousers and top with a sheepskin jacket. His outfit sort of glows white under the lights while he still has his back turned highlighting him as Joseph and the main character. All of the brothers are wearing similar attire (i will do a seperate end bit about the show on tuesday as some costumes changed and also so did some of the set and performance). However all the other Brothers seem to be wearing white trainers, which look alot more comfortable that Stephen's shoes which if you look closely are actually quite a bizzare shape.

Then the moment we have all been waiting for - Stephen turns round with a big grin to reveal himself as Joseph to the audience, and sings Any Dream Will Do. He does an excellent redition and also acts out the part well. He sings most of it center stage but also wanders around and says hello to all of the brothers shaking hands etc with them. Stephen then runs off stage to the left, at the end of the song to the left.

Jacob and his wives are left on stage for Jacob and sons - which involves at first 12 small dolls being handed to Jacob by his wives, one of which has a 'J' on - obviously signifying that one is Joseph. As the names of the sons are sung towards the end of the song, they all appear on stage some from above and some from the sides of the stage. Leaping to center stage to join Jacob. Finally 'Joseph - Jacob's favourite son' appears on stage and Stephen/Joseph stuts out from the side of the stage to join his father and brothers. He has a big grin on his face during most of this and looking very proud is left standing center stage with his father.

The narrator, who is now on the stairs on the right side of the stage, and Jacob explain how Joseph is his favourite son and why. During this time Stephen is invited to play leap frog with his brothers by Benjamin, but the second brother he is to jump over moves and leaves him to fall flat on his face. During the whole show Stephen's facial expressions are great and he acts out the role really well. The games continue and he is blind folded and wanders around center stage with his arms out in front trying to find his brothers in a game of 'blind mans bluff', all the time smiling looking unsuspecting of his scheming brothers. However his brothers, jealous of his fathers special preference for Joseph, beat him up and pummel him to the ground. So Stephen is left blindfolded on the floor, to be helped up by his father and one of his wives. This is all during the song 'Joseph's Coat'. They then, having explained how Jacob had bought Joseph a coat to show his love for him, take off his blindfold to reveal his new multicoloured coat to him. Joseph looks exceptionally pleased with his new coat, huridly takes his sheepskin off and try's it on. Stephen looks great in his new coat and walks proudly around on stage showing it off. He continues looking down his arms at his sleves and doing twirls to show the whole thing off. Also at the front of the stage, after the line 'it even went well with his vest' he whips the coat open with a cheeky grin to reveal his vest then wraps it round himself again. He is on the platform at the top of the stairs for most of the song and then comes back down the stairs to finish the song, with everyone punching their hands in the air to the final 'blue!'. He sounds really good during this song (as he does in all of them) and you can pick his voice out from the rest on stage while they are all singing together. His voice training also shows through while he's singing as he pronounces everything very clearly which makes the story very easy to follow for the audience.

Stephen then goes and sits on the right hand set of steps [these rights and left are as you look at the stage]. His brothers sing how what really makes them mad are Joseph's dreams. Stephen sits, still in his fabulous new coat, and sings about Josephs Dream's and how the corn gave him a sign with his golden sheef. Also on the Monday night especially, they way he said 'really rather small' about the brothers sheaves of corn was quite funny. He said it in a very clearly pronounced voice, and pulled a great 'you know what I mean, mine was so much better than yours' face with it. He then stands up and walks across the stage to the other side to sing about the stars, 'sun, the moon and sky'. As he is singing this the brothers are in pairs across the stage and he walks between them to the other end while singing, ending up at the other end to finish the song with another spoken line, 'A post, in someones government - A minitry, or two!'. Then exiting the stage to the right with his coloured coat flapping behind him.

The brothers are left on stage to explain how this has annoyed them and its all a 'load of corn'. Pounding their fists as they sing, they decide the 'dreamer has to go'!

So the brothers and the narrator explain their plans. Joseph appears back on stage happy and smiling to find he has his precious coat ripped off him by the brothers, to which he looks shocked and runs off around the stage and up the stairs to the top, where he is caught by two of his brothers and dropped, 'flung into a pit', back down onto the lower stage. All the time Stephen's face showing worried, upset and confused expressions. Just after he's been dropped into the pit, (by which I mean the two brothers each have an arm and lower/drop him into the pit as he pulls as pained worried face - so dont worry Stephen isnt literally thrown from a great height on stage!) he is held so he can't escape by some brothers. Then the Ishmaelites appear on stage. They are dressed in black and have 'camels', well camel heads as props and the way they move on stage all tied together give the impression of camels. Its quite amusing really - and they usually get a laugh as they appear on stage. So the brothers sell Joseph to them and receive their silver coins. Before he is taken away by the Iscmaelites, one of the camels sings poor poor Joseph to him in a comical voice. Stephen has a rope thrown around his neck after trying to escape and run away, and is dragged across stage is finally tried up. He is on the floor center stage lying down towards the end of the song and the other end of the rope is used to 'whip him' - well obviously as its quite a big heavy rope he's not actually hit but the floor next to him and he acts as if hit, and tries to get up then falls to the ground again with pained, lonely expressions. Although I'm sure the rope looks like it does get a bit close to him sometimes. He is then placed in a boat which appears on stage - to take him to Egypt. However the flag on the boat starts off saying 'Lyverpul' and then once Stephen is placed in the boat changes to 'Birkenhead'. Which got a laugh from the audience.

He is left on his own on stage with a large egyptian head statue which has come down from above, at the back of the stage. This then sings poor poor Joseph what'ya gonna do' to him as well I think. I'm trying to remember exactly what happened but especially on the first night I was paying far too much attention to Stephen and what he was doing on stage to notice too much of everything else that was happening!

Oops nearly forgot this bit! The brothers then have to explain to Jacob what has happened to his favourite son... i think the sheep have popped up by this time, or might have gone again hmm - they pop up out of the stage but invariably one or more either only partially inflates or just doesnt really make much of an appearance. It is still amusing though. Anyway so the brothers sing 'One more angel in heaven' to Jacob - at which point Stephen appears looking very angelic hehe. He is in all white with angel wings and a halo...walks across the top of the stage and stops in the middle to point out 'look its me hehe' with a very non-angelic cheeky grin. This is to the great amusement of most of the audience. The brothers continue to sing and then begin a bit of a barn dance in celebration of Joseph's disappearance. Appart from Benjamin who when they had sold him screamed out no - and also found them all dancing and went to fetch his father to come see - by which time they have conveniently finished celebrating. Benjamin had earlier also looking very upset brought Jaboc Josephs coat which the brothers had earlier ripped up and, after attacking a passing goat (pulled along by Benjamin) dipped in its 'blood and guts and gore'. They however still all made Joseph out to be a hero to Jacob saying he had fought the beast and protected them all, having died the way he wished with honour.

The narrator sings twice that 'Joseph was taken to Egypt in chains and sold'. There is a fire eater on stage (which as I was so busy watching to see what Stephen was doing I didn't notice at first! oops) at this point and Stephen is stood on the right of the stage still in his clothes, with the butler for Pharoah and also a few people to make sure he doesnt escape. Potiphar then arrives on stage, he is played by the same person as Jacob. He buys Joseph and opens a huge wallet to reveal his creditcard - hmm not too sure they had them in ancient egypt, but then again they probably didnt have american football players which appear later either... Anyway so Stephen is shut in a jail cell once bought, where while the others on stage continue singing, he changes out of his Canaan clothes and into his Potiphar servent clothes. These are a silver loin cloth and a silver tight fitting vest, which show off his newly toned figure well. He is also wearing a collar and erm things on his arms - not sure what they are called but they are like silver arm-bands (no not like the ones you go swimming with when you are learning!) which are half way up his upper arm. They however don't cover up his tattoos which can clearly be seen especially if you are close to the stage. He has the chinese symbol and Eloy written very small underneath still on his right arm and a new large tattoo on his left shoulder/upper arm - this one is a sort of erm hmm hard to explain but it looks good.

This is quite a camp scene and is very funny, he has a pink feather duster and goes around the stage dusting the other servants and household members. If you are going to see the show watch his face throughout the show for the expressions he pulls, but especially in this part and when Mrs Potiphar makes her advances, which has him pleeding with the other servants to save him. She throws him a flower at one point - so far Stephen has managed to catch it and hand it to a member of the childrens choir each night but came close to missing it one night apprently. Its very funny how he is chased around the stage by her and made to tango with her. His exclamation of, 'I don't believe in free love' is great too - however the Irish accent creeps back in for some things he says where as others are in his clearly pronounced plumy accent hehe. The funniest part however is when they sit on the other sevants who are now kneeling/bent over to create a seat. He sits next to her and she keeps puting her hand across onto his leg and moving his onto hers and he pulls a very worried/help expression and moves them back doing a kind of nervous hand wringing too. Potiphar lets out his mighty roar and comes dominatingly onto stage - to find Mrs Potiphar mid-dance with Stephen, with her holding her feather boa wrapped around Joesphs neck! Joseph then gets on his knees and pleads with Potiphar, that he is sorry and it wasn't his fault etc, but to no avail. A very sorry looking Stephen is then ordered to be chained and thrown in jail.

Stephen is left on stage on his own still in his servants clothes but with a chain around his wrists chaining his arms together. He has only a candel for light and acts really well convincing the audience of his plight at having been thrown into a cold dark jail and left to rot. He puts alot of emotion into his next song - which is an excellent version of 'Close Every Door'. His voice really shines through on this song, sounding amazing and with both power and control. He kneels alone by his candel while singing it and pulls at his chains in dispair. I think he was a bit nervous about singing it, especially on the Tuesday night as it was press night, as it is his major solo but settled into it well and didn't really let the nerves show. The song has the audience in silence and mezmorised - and leaves you emathising well with Joseph and his plight. I really hope that this and also 'Any Dream Will Do' will be released on CD. They both show off his voice - and as many people commented around me during the interval of both shows, he has an amzing voice. I think he will have gained alot of new fans by the end of his run in this musical.

The narrator comes back on stage at this point to tell Joseph that 'he's not beaten yet' and that we've read the book and he comes out on top. This gradually restores a beaming smile to his face and he stands up tall. The part with the butler and baker of Pharoah is next which has StephenJoseph explaining their dreams after carefully listening to their stories. He reveals to the butler that 'you will soon be free, old chap' however looking saddened and worried at the bakers story, he has to tell him that his story 'is not the kind he likes to get' and that 'Pharoah has it in for him', with his execution date already having been set.

This leads into the rest of the choir and Stephen joining in with Go Go Go Joseph, which is the final song of the first half - leaving Joseph still in jail and down and out, but with an ultimate belife that things will turn out in the end.

So the curtain drops and the interval is about 20 minuites long, when you can buy icecreams or merchandise or anything. However I was just really waiting for the show to start again as I couldn't wait to see more of Stephen on stage after how good the first half had been. So I spent the interval talking to friends and also listening to what the people around me had to say about Stephen - all of which was positive and they seemed very impressed.

So finally the second act started - again with an overture which went on a bit, but then Joseph is known as a short show so it was probably to extend it a bit. Anyway the curtain went up to reveal Stephen sat on the right had side of the stage in just a white linen loin cloth, so revealing the majority of his body to the audience for the first time. This promted more wolf whistles and screams. There are also guards, who are in gold cloaks with american football helmets on. The narrator starts the second act explaining about Pharoah , and also Joseph, who was still in jail. When she says he is in with the guards Stephen looks up for the first time and shakes hands with the head guard. He is then led off stage, after the narrator has told about the run of crazy dreams which has been plaguing Egypt and Pharoah - and suggesting anyone who could interpret, insinuation Joseph, could become a star.

The butler and Pharoah then describe how Pharoah's dreams have been keeping him awake at night and the butler stood on the right side of the stage says to Pharoah that he knows of a bloke in jail who is hot on dreams. Pharoah sends him to fetch 'this Joseph man'. I should probably point out at this time that Pharoah, obviously being the King is an Elvis impersonator and appears from the top of the stage coming down some steps with lights at the back saying 'The King is back - '68 special or something to that effect'. He was in black leathers on Monday but was in what he wore for the finale on Monday on Tuesday night for this part which was a white all in one suit thing. So Stephen still chained as Joseph in his loin cloth is marched onto stage to listen to Pharoah's dreams, which is another one of the best bits of the show - not only is it really funny, Stephen was stood right in front of me on the left side of the stage where I was sitting, dancing along to the song and sort of pretending Joseph was a little Elvis fan, grinning and beaming at the others on stage and also the audience. The others were dressed as american footballers and cheerleaders! Once Pharoah has finished his song, Joseph then oblivious of the rest of the world starts singing along and continues with the Elvis style song. So we are all treated to an Elvis impersonation by Stephen, which is quite funny especially when he suddenly looks uneasy and stop and turns round to find the rest of the Pharoah entourage staring at him. So he creeps over to Pharoah and kneels at his feet, to say (in a lovely Irish accent) erm I didn't quite hear all the words so could you please sing it again.

So yes we get it again to the enjoyment of Joseph and the audience, and Stephen finishes it by wandering over to the left of the stage muttering to himself, seven cows, corn, thin ones fat ones... and a member of the choir lifts a sign above his head saying 'thinks' although this was upside down on the tuesday nigt oops! However before Stephen wanders away one of the cheerleaders is left screaming attached to Pharoah's leg and wont let go. In true Elvis style he gives her a scarf with his sweat on and then she picks it up and promptly faints - receiving a chuckle from those watching.

So Joseph ponders over the meaning of Pharoahs dreams, then with an 'I've got it!' type expression he wanders back over to the King and enlightens him of the future of Egypts farms. However forgetting his place and having to be reminded to kneel in Pharoah's presence at one point. Stephen again does this song really well and is still dressed in his jail clothes of the linnen loin cloth. So Joseph continues and suggest to Pharoah that for planning for the famine after the boom in produce he might need a helper - 'but who this man could be I just don't know!'. He gives a slightly embarassed implication that it should be him - and moves slightly away from Pharoah who is in the center of the stage.

Pharoah impressed with Joseph's tallents calls Stephen over to the stairs in the middle of the stage and calls upon him to be his 'number 2', and to be in charge of rationing. At this point Stephen nods and enthusiastically agrees with the King, who also said that it would be very wise to agree - as Pharoah's word was bascially law in Egypt at this time. So Stephen has his chains cut off - by the guards, who are still in american football outfits. Stephen looking relieved at having been cut free is then given a host of splendid things. Joseph had become a royal advisor and so he has another costume change on stage. He is given a golden cloak - which is some ornate shoulder covering type garment with long golden arrow shaped bits draped down his back. Hmm its kinda hard to describe but you'll get the idea when they finally have the brochures with pictures of Stephen in them. Anyway so he has that and is given some golden things to put on his upper arms again (as I described went with the siver servants outfit). He then turns around so he has his back to the audience and his loin cloth is removed by one of the female dancers to reveal when he turns around again a golden one. So the seven years of plenty follow, shown on stage as seven american footballers placing bags of corn at Josephs feet, and then seven years of famine, and they pick them up again. While Stephen, as Joseph obviously, is ordering them what to do and looking all very in charge of the situation. Seven years of plenty and famine then pass and he becomes a national hero. So Joseph after getting his royal pardon has risen to great heights, and he is left looking splendid and showered with praise. He is then showered with presents by the female members of the cast who are still dressed as cheerleaders I think. He however looks quite comfortable with managing to hold all the presents and flowers and soft toy while still managing to sign an autograph - obviously all that practise came in useful from the Boyzone and solo days.

Joseph and the King then exit the stage at the top by going back through the door Elvis arrived on stage through (confused yet?! - I'm not sure I'm making a great job of explaining this...). The narrator finishes singing how this would be the perfect place to end the show - but what of the other eleven brothers and Joseph's father Jacob?!

So we are again transported throught time and around the globe to what seems to be Paris - with the Eifel Tower in the background for a rendidtion of Canaan Days. Which is all very nice but I prefer it when Stephen's on stage. The however do a good job and get laughs in the appropriate places, and make you empathise with their plight of famine and starvation. So the brothers decide to come to Egypt where there is, thanks to Joseph who they assume is dead, plenty of food and drink.

So Stephen reappears on stage, another costume change - this time it occured off stage however. He is now wearing golden trousers and platform shoes, his shoulder garment however without the extra gold bits which covered his back, and a head mask which half covers his face and give him a pony-tail. He walks down the stairs from the top part of the stage down to the front center - looking slightly tentative on those platforms...I think he nearly tripped at one point on one of the nights but recovered himself well by taking a bit of a hop, step and jump down the last step. Noone woul have noticed really unless you were watching what he was doing quite closely. So the brothers tell Joseph of their plight and beg for food. Stephen listens to this and then decides Joseph shall now take them all for a ride. He starts singing about his dreams again, in a clear and oure voice. However then a slight shock comes as suddenly Stephen makes you nearly jump out of your skin as he shouts (very loudly and almost quite scarily) 'WHY?!' and then continues with his part and the brothers continue to grovel. Food sack are handed out to the brothers, however a golden cup is planted by Joseph in Benjamin's sack. Just as they are ready to leave another roar comes out of Stephen of NO! NO! No, No, NO! Ok I don't ever want to gte on the wrong side of him or make him angry - think that could be quite intimidating and scarey.

So Stephen is excellent in this part, as its completely different from anything we've seen him do before. He is dominating and authorative, marching about the stage and then searches through each of the brothers bags in turn, throwing them down as he deicdes its not them, who has stolen the cup. Finally he comes to Benjamin, in whose bag he finds his precious golden cup. Benjamin looks scared and cowers away pleading. Joseph orders him thrown in jail and the keys thrown in the Nile, Benjamin looks dismayed and then curls up in a corner on his sack in jail.

So the brothers all leap to his aid in the Benjamin calypso, defending his innosence and pleading that he takes them and releases Benjamin. Also the do a little bridie dance around Joseph who all the time is marching authoratitively around the stage among them, and keeping Benjamin in check and on his knees.

Joseph decides they must now be honest men, Stephen takes off his mask and reveals himself to the brothers as Joseph. Benjamin is set free and reunited with his brothers - he gets a huge hug from Joseph. I really wouldn't mind being Benjamin at that point!

Anyway so Jacob then come to Egypt and they are all reunited in a happy ending. Which is where the story ends...

However it is not the end of the show. There is the finale to come yet. Stephen dons his golden coat to meet his father and be reunited and sings Any Dream Will Do/Give Me My Coloured Coat - again he sounds and look great all the way through this song and at this point is relaxing slightly out of character and more into the Stephen we recognise on stage. He interacts with the audience more in the finale. A belt is tied onto his coat and a huge coat is unfurled around him (sort of as in the promo pics on the flyers). Which is then lifted up and so filled with air from underneath by all the brothers and wives - which Stephen has to stand firm for or he being slightly unstable on those platforms could quite easily be knocked over if it was done too hard I think. He also gets a second multicoloured coat which is made by streamers coming out of his golden coat which are pulled out by the cast. He then makes a quick exit of stage, while Pharoah get another chance to do a bit of his Elvis, and then Stephen is back to sing Close Every Door, which I think was even better than the first time as he had relaxed alot by this point. He also sings Give me my coloured coat again at the end which on the first night meant he got the streamers pulled out of his coat again, however on the second night it meant he was attached to a platform, as he'd disappeared earlier and for longer and changed into another coloured coat which was alot looser (and still looks good but the other one looks better i think) anyway he is then lauched into the air to the top of the height of the curtain almost and his coat drapes all around him - the same one as the belt that was attached before to the other coat. However as he was still on stage on the Monday night he was on stage and waved at evreyone beaming with the hugest smile ever looking soo happy, and even bent over and half upside down to continue grinning and waving at the audience under the curtain as it was going down. He got a standing ovation during the first Give Me My Coloured Coat both nights, and everyone had to sit down for Close Every Door, but then were on their feet again for the last song even before he asked them all if they wanted another song and if so to get up and on their feet and to have a good time. He also thanks the choir and orchestra etc at the end and the audience. All in all it was a fantastic show with loads of excellent parts and way to many best bits to mention. I could go and watch it every night I think and not get bored of it. Well done Stephen on an excellent performance, his charisma and personality come across and he has the audience following his every line, while playing and acting out a really convincing Joseph. I have seen the show before with Philip Schofield in it and I have the tape of Jason Donavon in the show - but I have to say Stephen is much better than either of them. There were some slight other costume differences between the Monday and Tuesday, but only for the rest of the cast and not for Stephen. However poor old Stephen had cut his knee quite early on in the first act on the Tuesday so had to cope with that as well as it being Press Night so probably some extra nerves - but did and excellent job and was great.

Incase people were wondering I managed to see him to talk to quickly after the show on Monday, and handed him the messages that you have all sent in via this site - so he has all of them that were sent before Monday now. I also told him I thought the show was great and he was glad I had enjoyed it. He was lovely and spent quite a bit of time talking to people and signing everyones stuff that people wanted signed and also stood there for what seemed like hundreds of photo's until he was finally dragged away to go home by his manager.

Roll on the West End! From what I heard people saying everyone seemed really impressed with his performance - even if some were a little slow and kept thinking he was out of Westlife - oops! hehe. He seemed to be gaining alot of new fans as well from what I could hear people saying around me. Comments like 'I didnt think he'd be that good but he has an amazing voice and was so much better than I thought' and the young girl sat behind me 'he's looking so fit and gorgeous' hehe also there was someone to the side who wondered where he'd found such a brilliant voice over the last two years as she said she had his album, which was ok but his voice sounds so much better on stage. Other comments of how fantastic he was were common and how he was their favourite Joseph so far - however one or two seemed to still prefer Jason Donavon, however I think Stephen was a great hit and should have got amazing reviews in the press.

[Hopefully I will be able to get some photo's to go with this soon]