The Friary’s lower school’s production of Joseph was met with a standing ovation from the audience on its first night.
The show even gave the upper school performance in November a run for its money.
Throughout this enjoyable performance many youngsters showed amazing talent and enhanced the school’s reputation for the arts.
As well as Joseph, particular cast to mention include the hilarious Potifar, the highly proficient and skilled narrative singers, and the brothers of Joseph, who together worked to deliver a sometimes highly amusing and bespoke side to this well told story.
It was also settling to see so many male performers involved when girls typically outnumber them on a school stage.
When the curtain first opened, it was surprising to see the band made up of staff, but this soon proved to be a good decision as their talents provided a solid foundation for the performance.
One of my pet hates about school shows is synchronised choreography, but to my delight the dance routines seemed a lot more honed. This constant high standard of dance allowed the audience to enjoy the show and fully complemented some innovative special effects to really bring this musical alive.
Some of the technical issues often seen in school performances once again reared their ugly head, with microphones cut in late and lighting was often shaky. Such errors take some of the gloss off the polished efforts of those on stage.
But despite this, the show is a must see and a near-capacity audience on the opening night showed that it was likely to be a popular production.
