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REVIEW: York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday ****

Gold top performance: Reuben Khan’s Joseph in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick

AFTER Lee Mead, Keith Jack, Joe McElderry and Union J’s Jaymi Hensley, Joseph’s coat of many colours fits Reuben Khan delightfully lightly at the Grand Opera House.

The University of York psychology student, from Burnley, has plenty on his mind: third-year studies; his debut York Stage title role and applications to London drama schools to do a Masters degree in musical theatre.

On the evidence of his assured performance at 23, especially vocally, his future looks as bright as the Technicolor Dreamcoat that had him “saying the colours of Jospeh’s coat before I could spell them” on car journeys with his mum.

Director, producer and designer Nik Briggs returns to Lloyd Webber and Rice’s early musical for the first time since his “Joseph as you’ve never seen it before” show at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in November 2018 with its  cast of 50 and Joseph in pyjamas.

Performing on crutches: Finn East’s Simeon singing with the Brothers

The Grand Opera House offers the opportunity to deliver a production on a bigger scale, not in cast size, but in lighting, staging and visual impact, aided by the fabulous parade of costume designs from Charades Theatrical Costume, St Helens.

The stage is built from scratch, as first the Narrator, Hannah Shaw, then Joseph and children from York Stage School (divided into Team Canaan and Team Egypt) oversee the creation of the world of Canaan, home to Jacob and his 11 sons (some of them daughters in Briggs’s company).

It looks so inviting, you want to book a holiday there. All it needs now to complete the scene is a camel. Oh, and here comes a camel on wheels, pretty much life-size!

From the off, this sung-through pop musical moves at a lick: typified by Finn East’s Simeon defying his injured knee to speed around on crutches, popping up everywhere and taking on a second role too as the Snake.

Hannah Shaw, who studied music at York St John University, sets the tone and style in glittering dress and shiny boots, engaging with the children like a teacher, driving the show forward and singing with oomph, both in her high notes and a lower register.

Storyteller in song: Hannah Shaw’s Narrator

Reuben Khan’s Joseph sings like a dream, whatever a song demands, whether tenderness, drama, power, or emotion further heightened by standing atop a ladder on a stage suddenly full of them in one of Briggs’s most striking designs.

Khan’s characterisation of Joseph has to be expressed largely through Rice’s narrative lyrics, and he does so particularly strongly in the dark ballad Close Every Door, while Any Dream Will Do is as irresistible as ever.

Lesley Hill’s choreography is as playful, fun and camp as this glitterball of a musical demands, at its best in the glorious ensemble number Joseph’s Coat, where Adam Moore’s lighting design matches every change of colour in the lyric.

Briggs’s company revels in playing old favourites with a knowing campness that has only increased with the passing of the years, especially in Jacob (Martin Rowley) and the brothers’ cod rendition of the sad chanson Those Canaan Days, exaggerated French accents et al.

The York Stage company in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Benjamin’s Calypso is even dafter, full of Caribbean joy as Cyanne Unamba-Oparah’s Judah has the brothers walking on sunshine.

Pop hit after pop hit hits home in all manner of musical styles, from Alex Hogg leading the brothers in the One More Angel In Heaven hoedown to Matthew Clarke’s vainglorious Potiphar luxuriating in the richness of his self-titled song.

In the absence of Carly Morton with shingles (get well soon, Carly), Amy Barrett takes on the rock’n’roll role of Pharaoh, traditionally played in sequinned-Elvis-in-Las-Vegas style. Not so much Elvis as Elvira here, but her Song Of The King is still a peach (one of the 29 colours in Joseph’s coat, by the way).

Adam Tomlinson’s 15-piece orchestra is on top form throughout, savouring the multitude of song styles and pumping up the beat for the Joseph Megamix finale as the party vibe suffuses the cast and cheering audience alike.

York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, 7.30pm tonight, Wednesday and Thursday; 5pm and 8pm, Friday; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

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Eat mindfully, go to the gym, rehearse, psychology student Reuben is ready for York Stage’s Joseph at Grand Opera House

Lighting up the lead role: Reuben Khan as Joseph in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

REUBEN Khan will play the lead role for York Stage for the first time in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from tomorrow (12/4/2024).

Not that the third-year University of York psychology student is a stranger to stepping into the spotlight in a Nik Briggs production at the Grand Opera House, York.

“I had more than a week’s notice this time, that’s the main difference,” says Reuben, 23, seated with his Technicolor attire behind him in Dressing Room No 1 ahead of Tuesday’s rehearsal.

“For Beautiful [the Carole King musical], Nik called me a week before the show opened to say, ‘look, you wouldn’t happen to be free, to play Gerry Goffin in the early performances, would you?’.”

Frankie Bounds had been rehearsing the role of King’s co-songwriter, husband and ‘serial womaniser’ for his last performance in York before starting studies at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

“He’d checked with Mountview early on that it would be OK, but then suddenly Frankie was told he’d have to go down to the theatre school in the first week, and that’s why I stepped in. That was an interesting experience,” recalls Reuben.

“I didn’t know much about the show, I hadn’t seen it before. So I had to learn a few songs and learn the lines as quickly as possible, and l loved doing it. Obviously the music is phenomenal, the story moves at a pace and it’s just a great show – and it was nice to have the chance to watch Frankie when he came back during the second week.”

Reuben, from Burnley, has past experience of appearing in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph. “I did the show twice when I was 12, once at my school, Unity School, and then with Basics Junior Theatre School. Both times I played Judah [one of Jacob’s sons], and there was a crossover between the two productions. I finished one and, not long after, I did the other.”

He is delighted to be taking on the title role, performing alongside Hannah Shaw’s Narrator and Amy Barrett’s Pharaoh, among others.

“It’s one of those shows where the vast majority of people have come into contact with it, whether it’s at school or, in my case, my mother having the songs on in the car,” says Reuben. Then there’s the film, and there’s always a tour going on or a local production – or people may know the Bible story of Joseph.

Reuben Khan performing in York Stage’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

“I knew the vast majority of songs already, so I feel like I’ve barely touched the book because the songs were ingrained in me!”

Following in the sandal steps of the likes of Jason Donovan, Phillip Schofield, Donny Osmond, Lee Mead and Joe McElderry holds no fears for Reuben. “Honestly, it’s great fun. It’s a funny role to some extent, as you can kind of understand some of the qualms that his brothers have about him! Joseph is flawed, and you think, if I was one of his brothers, I’d be having problems with him,” he says.

“But at the same time, he represents the everyman. Yes he’s flawed but he tries his best, people around him either like him or they don’t, and there’s something nice about playing a character who the audience is rooting for. It’s good fun.”

Reuben has enjoyed responding to the direction of Nik Briggs. “He has this overarching vision that he puts across incredibly well, to get the best out of us by directing in a very fluid, creatively free way, which is massively important, without micro-directing us,” he says. “He also has this ability to stay level-headed, which is such a skill, something that I’ve not seen in a lot of people in his position.”

Reuben’s preparations have stretched beyond rehearsals to ensuring he will be in peak fitness for a role that involves “wearing not a lot of clothes” (except when he is in his “day to day” coat or the Technicolor dreamcoat of the title).

“It’s all part of the tongue-in-cheek side of the show that Joseph is this half-dressed man! When I knew I would be doing the role, initially it was at the back of my mind, but in the past two months it’s been very much to the front – and at the same time, I’m trying to focus on the third year of my university studies too!

“I’ve never spent so much time keeping an eye on what I’m eating, going to the gym most days of the week for six weeks, to be in the best shape – just in time for the summer!”

On top of his Joseph rehearsals and university studies, Reuben is in the middle of auditioning for drama schools. “I’m studying psychology, but I want to go into musical theatre, and the second I say I’m studying psychology, they say, ‘oh, that’s really interesting’!” he says of his auditions at Associated Studios and the Royal Academy of Music in London to do a Masters degree in musical theatre.

“I guess it’s because psychology is all about understanding people, and that’s the same with acting, understanding a character.”

Now, after such roles as Rapunzel’s Prince in Into The Woods and Bobby in Company for the university’s Central Hall Musical Society, Reuben is ready to go, go, go, Joseph from tomorrow.

York Stage in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Opera House, York, April 12 to 20, 7.30pm except April 14, 15 and 19; 2.30pm, April 13 and 20; 4pm, April 14; 5pm and 8pm, April 19. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

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On your marks, get set, go, go, go, Joseph as York Stage opens audition registration

GO, go, go, Joseph! Audition registration time is here for York Stage’s “dazzling” spring production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

“Alongside our main adult casting, we’re also looking for children aged seven to 12, at the time of the audition, to join our cast,” says producer Nik Briggs.

Auditions will be held this month, beginning with initial adult auditions on January 9 from 7pm, followed by children’s ensemble auditions on January 11 from 7pm and recall auditions on January 14 from 1pm, all at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Nik will aim to release the cast list within 48 hours.

To resister for an audition, go to: www.yorkstage.com/event-details/joseph-2024-auditions. The full audition pack can be found at: www.yorkstage.com/_files/ugd/ce9cd2_86a604a4aafa470e82d1c030ef479fb4.pdf.

Joseph was first written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice at the request of a friend of Andrew’s father, Colet Court School choirmaster Alan Doggett, for the school’s 1968 end-of-term concert.

The full-scale musical will be presented by York Stage at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 12 to 20, at 7.30pm, except Fridays and Sunday; Fridays, 5pm and 8pm, and Sunday matinee, 4pm.

Set in ancient Egypt, this vibrant musical tells the biblical story of Joseph, his coat of many colours, and his prophetic journey as he learns that dreams really can come true. Among the songs are Any Dream Will Do, Go, Go, Go, Joseph, Close Every Door and the Elvis pastiche Song Of The King.

Tickets are on sale at atgtickets.com/york.

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REVIEW: York Musical Theatre Company in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Joseph Rowntree Theatre ****

Ah, that Technicolor Dreamcoat moment as colours spread across the Joseph Rowntree Theatre stage. Picture: Lucy Baines, Joy Photography

COLET Court School in London has its place in British musical theatre history.

It was at this Barnes prep school that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice – whatever became of them? – first staged Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, performed by the school choir as a 15-minute pop cantata.

The original West End production opened in February 1973 at the Albery Theatre; the soundtrack LP followed in 1976, and many a revival and tour since then. Jason Donovan, Donny Osmond, Phillip Schofield, Joe McElderry, Gareth Gates, Steps’ Ian H Watkins and Lee Mead have all donned that famous coat on the London stage.

Some things change – Colet Court School became St Paul’s Juniors in 2016 – but some things don’t. School choirs (from Knavesmire Primary and Wiggington Primary Singstars) still feature in York Musical Theatre Company’s Joseph.

This week’s run is selling well, very well. No change there. Go, go, go, Joseph ticket seekers; there’s not a second to be wasted. Saturday’s matinee has sold out and only the last few tickets are available for the evening performances.

Red is the dominant colour in this scene in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Picture: Lucy Baines, Joy Photography

One significant change to report in this 50th anniversary production: Songs still refer to Egypt, but director-choreographer Kathryn Addison has switched the setting to the Yorkshire farming community of the 1920s/1930s with a “Peaky Blinders vibe” to Joseph’s brothers. “They were a nasty bunch,” she reasons, as waistcoats and caps flatter than Yorkshire vowels adorn the stage.

Antony Gardner’s Pharaoh is still the expanding Elvis Presley of the Las Vegas rhinestone years, albeit more of an Elvis tribute act on the Scarbrough sea front, where he rules the roost from his casino.

Always in shades, but never one for the shadows, his Song Of The King is a gloriously daft Presley pastiche, thank you very much, typical of the joy that percolates through Lloyd Webber’s plethora of musical magpie styles and Rice’s witty, storytelling lyrics.

Egypt, Yorkshire, wherever! Lloyd Webber and Rice take in Parisian chanson for Those Canaan Days, sung with a wonderfully exaggerated French cabaret accent by Anthony Pengelly, who also makes his mark as Potiphar, lounging like Jacob Rees-Mogg in the House of Commons. Later they veer wildly to the Caribbean for Adam Gill’s Benjamin Calypso (a kind of forerunner of 10CC’s reggae chart topper Dreadlock Holiday).

Dreamcoat dreamboat: Jonathan Wells’s all-in-white Joseph with Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Narrator and the Wiggington Primary Singstars choir. Picture: Lucy Baines, Joy Photography

Any other changes? Joseph, son of Jacob (Rob Davies), is one of ten, rather 12 brothers, two of them strictly sisters as they are played by Lauren Charlton-Mathews and Rachel Higgs but credited as brothers and looking the part in their Great Yorkshire Show farming gear.

The leads are new to York Musical Theatre Company but not new to the musical theatre scene: husband and wife Jonathan Wells and Jennie Wogan-Wells, living their dream theatrical life in their dream roles as Joseph and the Narrator respectively.

The bearded Wells looks more like the Bee Gees of the Saturday Night Fever Seventies era all in white, later adding shades and a red waistcoat, rather than stripping down in Joseph and his amazing bare chest tradition. 

He has the toothpaste smile, the twinkle in the eye, the handsome swagger, for the Dreamcoat dreamboat, and he sings with warmth and boy band appeal, if a little diffidently in his first rendition of Close Every Door. Go, go, go, for it, Joseph! Don’t hold the drama in check!

Kathryn Addison: Director-choreographer for York Musical Theatre Company’s Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat

Since childhood days of listening to the soundtrack LP, Knavesmire Primary teacher Wogan-Wells has craved playing the Narrator. Aside from opening the show on her laptop, with pupils on screen on Zoom, this is not an Are You Sitting Comfortably, Then I’ll Begin narrator. She is on her feet, dancing, singing, even fitting in a cameo as Mrs Potiphar, and no-one sings more through this sung-through musical than her. Her singing is top notch throughout, full of personality and power.

The set is a familiar construction: a scaffolding edifice with a mezzanine level and stairways either side, populated by the young choir, the rest left empty to accumulate the ensemble work of the 23-strong adult cast.

Musical director John Atkin has fun with Lloyd Webber’s chameleon ability for constant change, from ballad to pop anthem and more besides. Director Kathryn Addison has even more fun, sheep puppets, megamix finale and all. Rehearsals were a delight, and it shows in this radiant show, one that captures the innocence of Lloyd Webber and Rice’s bygone days and puts summer rather than a spring in your step.

Now, go, go, go for those last few tickets before they’re gone, gone, gone.

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, York Musical Theatre Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York. Performances at 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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Jennie’s dream role in Kathryn’s Dreamcoat show for York Musical Theatre Company

Jennie Wogan-Wells: Teacher and Narrator, in rehearsal for York Musical Theatre Company’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

KATHRYN Addison directs York Musical Theatre Company in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s ever popular, ever colourful 1968 debut musical at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from tonight.

From the book of Genesis to the musical’s genesis as a cantata written for a London school choir, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has grown into an iconic musical theatre staple with its story of the biblical journey of Joseph, son of Jacob and one of 12 brothers, and his coat of many colours.

Here husband and wife Jonathan Wells and Jennie Wogan-Wells lead the cast as Joseph and the Narrator respectively.

“I directed it in 2015 with my Year 3 and 4 pupils at Knavesmire Primary School, where there are 120 children in those classes – and they knew all the words,” recalls Jennie of her past involvement at the helm of Joseph.

“Now I’m playing the Narrator – a very important role! – who knits the whole show together. It’s a bit of a dream role for me as my parents had the LP and I remember spinning round and round to Potiphar with my brother in the front room because it gets faster and faster.

“Now I get to play the Narrator, indulging in my childhood dream to be in the show.” What’s more, the choir from Jennie’s school will be singing at the Thursday evening and Saturday matinee performances. (Wigginton Primary School will provide Years 4 to 6 pupils to perform tonight, Friday and Saturday night.)

“They’re obsessed with it! We practise every lunchtime, and yes, they’ve learnt all the colours in the dreamcoat! It’s nice because parents and teachers remember it from their own childhood, and now, for the children, it will be the first time they’ve been on a stage away from the school.”

Director-choreographer Kathryn Addison was born in the year that Joseph made its debut (1968). “It started as a 15 to 20-minute school musical, so look how it’s grown since then,” she says.

Passion project for Kathryn Addison: Directing York Musical Theatre Company’s production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

It changes again in her hands: rather than 12 brothers, it becomes a story of a family: brothers and two sisters (although credited as brothers). “It’s not an issue. We still acknowledge the brothers who have ‘not turned up’ – and we’ve been really lucky in the casting. We’ve neither had to drag people in and nor would we have wanted to,” she says.

“I was in York Shakespeare Project’s all-female Henry V, and it isn’t about gender. It takes gender out of it. It’s not about male/female but who’s right for a role and what can they bring to it?”

Kathryn is “staying true to the spirit of Joseph”. “That’s really important,” she says. “I think Lloyd Webber is a bit ‘Marmite’, but like every writer or composer, there are things you like, things you don’t.

“I feel this musical has an innocence that allows people to really enjoy it as a company show, and it’s felt like a company in rehearsal. It feels tight and there’s a collective will. There’s been no egos in the rehearsal room and nor will there be any on stage.”

The cast of 23 will be complemented by 21 children from Knavesmire Primary and 17 from Wigginton Primary at this week’s performances. “It’s just fun for all of us,” says Jennie.

“If you’re enjoying it on stage, then the audience are going to enjoy it too. Rehearsals have been great fun and I’ve really looked forward to them.”

Nothing delights more than Pharaoh’s Song Of The King: the Elvis one, performed this week by newly married Anthony Gardner. “There’s no point trying to make it anything else than it is: some Elvis impersonator going down to sing on the Scarborough sea front!” says Kathryn. “So you recognise that and crack on with it! Let’s bring out that style as director/choreographer.”

Jennie says: “Kathryn has a clear vision, with room for nice little mood changes and quirks, and it’s great to have that freedom within it. It’s got great balance.”

It all adds up to a show that appeals to children and adults alike. “Everyone enjoys themselves, and it’s rare in being a show that brings people to the theatre that don’t normally go. It’s always nice to do that, for people to realise that theatre is open for them.”

A contemplative moment for Jonathan Wells’s Joseph in the reherarsal room

Jennie is enjoying performing alongside husband Jonathan’s Joseph. “It’s been lovely to do the show together, though we’ve done that before, but we’ve never been principals together before,” she says.

“The Narrator is the framework of the show. It’s that whole thing of me telling the story to the children, so it’s a busman’s holiday really.

“During the rehearsal weeks, I can switch off more than him. He’s always humming the tunes, singing in the car, but it’s very much our life at the moment. We’re going to be bereft when it finishes, but it’s been really lovely as I’ve been able to rehearse at home with him.”

Kathryn has her own fond memory of bygone Joseph performances. “I did the show with my dad, playing Jacob, more than 30 years ago. That really tugs at my heartstrings, but also I’m at the stage when being on stage is quite hard work, and I’ve done a lot of directing and choreographing, though this show is much harder to direct than I’d first given it credit for because it’s sung through,” she says.

“But I love the show. It’s a passion project, and to be able to work with a group of people on a community project, where it’s all about the whole company working together, has been a really positive process for me.

“From the start, I’ve seen this story as being based in Yorkshire; these farmers in the 1920s/1930s, with a bit of a Peaky Blinders vibe to it. They were a nasty bunch to their brother! So we travel from the Yorkshire farms to Scarbados and that sea front, our Las Vegas!

“When I think of Joseph and Scarborough, I think of Mark Herman’s film of Little Voice, with the lights on the sea front at night. And a casino; that’s where I see Pharaoh.”

As for the Technicolor Dreamcoat of the title: thank you to Ripon Amateur Operatic Society for providing wardrobe services.

York Musical Theatre Company in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, 7.30pm tonight until Saturday plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee (sold out). Ticket update: limited availability for tonight and tomorrow; last few for Friday and Saturday. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Light’s Evita at York Theatre Royal

Emma-Louise Dickinson’s Eva Perón and Jonny Holbek’s Che in York Light’s Evita. All pictures: Tom Arber

York Light in Evita, York Theatre Royal, until February 19, including Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

IT’S no fun being out of action for two years. So there was relief and pleasure on all the faces of York Light – the musical theatre company formerly known as York Light Opera Company – when they returned to their rightful home base in a rousing Martyn Knight production of Evita.

The company is sensibly alternating two groups of principals over its 12 performances. On this second night (10/2/2022) it was Team Blue’s turn.

Eva Perón, familiarly known as Evita, and even Santa Evita to diehard fans, still excites
controversy today, even in Argentina. She was both an ambitious social climber who slept her way to the top but also a benefactress, a figurehead who spent lavishly on herself, a unifying icon for some and a uniquely self-seeking politico for others.

Neil Wood as Juan Perón : “His baritone serves him well over a wide range”

None of which makes it easy for the actress playing her. How likeable should she be?
Emma-Louise Dickinson’s response is bravely sassy, which comes close to being a warts-and-all exposé. It is the right approach. Nobody wants a prissy heroine. Tim Rice’s lyrics don’t allow her to be.

Much of her singing is stridently assertive, which doesn’t always make for the prettiest of sounds. For those we have to wait till Act 2 and in particular the scenes surrounding her illness and death.

Like all true operatic heroines, Evita takes a long time to die but Dickinson uses it to show us that she has a pleasing soprano. She is the main reason why Act 2 generates such pathos. Buenos Aires and You Must Love Me are poles apart but her versatility is more than equal to both.

Jonny Holbek’s Che: “Brings a folk-singing style to the role”

Juan Perón may have been twice Eva’s age when he married her, but their personalities were well-matched. He strong-armed his way to power and was just as ruthless. His police state is echoed here with several shows of repressive policing. But Neil Wood plays him with sensitivity as well as strength and his passion for his young wife is never in doubt. His baritone serves him well over a wide range.

Jonny Holbek brings a folk-singing style to the role of Che, the narrator and social conscience of the unfolding events, which makes him an engaging man of the people, even if he sometimes strays from the notes that are actually in the score. He is mainly dressed in camouflage pants which verge on the paramilitary. He leads And The Money Kept Rolling In superbly.

Two other roles deserve special mention. Richard Weatherill’s big number as Magaldi, Eva’s
home-town boyfriend, comes early but he is more than ready. So too is Hannah Witcomb as Peron’s glamorous bit on the side, neatly crystallised in Another Suitcase In Another Hall.

Melanie Groom and Tom Menarry: “Dancing a succulent tango”

A word, too, for the top brass in the musical chairs of The Art Of The Possible: good fun. There is also a succulent tango danced by Melanie Groom and Tom Menarry. Considering the importance of tango in Argentinian music, we could stand to see a lot more of them.

The chorus shows a marvellous mix of voices and ages, with plenty of young blood among several company veterans. All its numbers are danced, which means that a huge amount of choreography – also by Martyn Knight – has had to be memorised, an incredible feat considering they barely put a foot wrong.

Chorus delivery is occasionally on the shouty side but the opening Requiem is beautifully sustained and there is some lovely quiet singing in Act 2. The ladies look especially appealing in vintage hats and dresses.

Hannah Witcomb as “Juan Perón s glamorous bit on the side”

Mike Thompson conducts an 11-piece orchestra with plenty of pizzazz. Its feel for Latin
American rhythms is consistently excellent. The balance is not always quite right. The bass is too boomy in Act 1, which means that several delicate phrases from keyboard or guitar do not get the prominence they deserve. In general the amplification could be turned down a notch to good effect.

The show is well served by its permanent set (from Lowestoft, but otherwise uncredited), which casts a presidential aura. It is absolutely heart-warming to have York Light back in action and in such amazing shape. The company’s enthusiasm is infectious. You daren’t miss it.

For the record, the Yellow Team principals are Alexa Chaplin as Eva, John Hall as Perón and Dale Vaughan as Che. All are seasoned performers.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Alexa Chaplin, centre, as Team Yellow’s Eva Perón with the ensemble in in York Light’s Evita