Right, ANY DREAM WILL DO. I only actually watched the final of this TV reality show (aim: cast lead of new production of Joseph + Dreamcoat) tho I was aware of it cos Isabel was keen. I was disappointed by the pick for winner – a tousled smoothie by the name of Lee, chosen over a charming Scots lad named Keith. Lee was hugely impressive on first encounter – really engaged the audience with gestures, eye contact, movement, phrasing, a really polished performance – but it became clear that he does the same hand-and-eye-and-smile routine with every song, no matter what the material and its emotional demands or tempo. Too slick by half in other words.
But then I remembered what Joseph is actually like! Joseph IS a bit of a smug git, unintentionally at first but then once he sells out to Pharaoh almost unstoppably so. I am writing of course from the perspective of having played A BROTHER in J&TATD at least twice so maybe I am still feeling my role, but as I recall it is hard not to cheer the brothers on when they throw him into a pit and pull the trick with the goat (also the Brothers get all the funny songs!) (and “Benjamin Calypso” of which the least said etc). Perhaps Sir Andrew did make the right choice after all.
The show missed a huge trick though! The musical is about 11 brothers who hate and resent their spoiled youngest sibling, and the show is about 11 wannabes who get booted off (each episode ended with a marvellous bit of emotional sadism whereby the coloured coat was STRIPPED from the loser’s back while he tearfully sang “Close Every Door To Me”!) So why not cast the 11 ex-Josephs as the brothers! Real actual resentment and hate! The ones who really couldn’t sing could be Zebulon, Gad etc.