Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat comes to Ireland
WHEN Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber composed a small cantata for a London prep school some 46 years ago, they could hardly have had an idea of what they started.
That original 15-minute performance became a worldwide hit. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is now the longest-running touring musical of all time. A guaranteed success and seat-filler for professional productions in big venues, it’s also been staged by more than 20,000 schools and amateur theatre groups. Everybody has seen it at some point, and everyone can sing along to ‘Any Dream Will Do’.
You have to have the right actor in the title role, though. Over the years many famous names have donned the loincloth and rainbow jacket. Michael Damian, Donny Osmond, Andy Gibb, Jason Donovan — the list is a Who’s Who of heart-throbs and pin-ups.
The show’s evergreen success of course has meant a constant search for new and gorgeous young lads. Travelling nonstop, living out of a suitcase, often playing two shows a day, it’s a sure recipe for burn-out, and so the producers are always on the lookout for new talent. They got it in spades with the latest recruit to this particular hall of fame.
Remember little Lloyd Daniels from X Factor 2009? The cute 16-year-old finalist from Merthyr Tydfil? Well, not being the overall winner in the end surely didn’t hurt any.
Daniels has had a dizzyingly busy five years singing, recording, touring, playing pantomime, has amassed a huge following of fans (just check on Twitter, Instagram, or his fan site, lloyd-daniels.org, and you’ll get some idea), and has now made his musical theatre debut in the Bill Kenwright production of Joseph, opening at Cork Opera House tomorrow.
“I still can’t quite believe I got this role,” he says with genuine sincerity. “I’d actually never seen the show before, and when I was called to audition, I didn’t even know the songs were from Joseph.”
Once the directors heard him sing, they knew they had their new star. The new production opened at Windsor at the end of July, and so far has played in eight venues across the UK, with standing ovations and stage door queues at every performance.
Daniels was the youngest contestant in the 2009 X Factor competition, and got to the final five out of 250,000 entrants, performing in front of 10 million TV viewers. Quite an experience for a lad barely out of school in a small Welsh village.
“Yes, life has changed totally, I have to admit.” Just at first, he reveals, the excitement of being famous, of earning big money, went to his head. “I think the craziest thing I did was get on the Tube in London every single morning, head for Selfridges, and buy myself a completely new outfit which I would wear the next day going in. I did that for about two months! I appreciate money now, it’s a bit different. But one of the first things my father told me was that you can’t take it with you so I suppose I went with that at first.”
Wales seems to produce more than its fair share of superb singing voices. Was music a natural part of Daniels’ upbringing?
“Yes, when I was a kid singing was a good thing to be a part of, but then at high school they had a very different take — it wasn’t cool. I stopped at that point, but started singing again at the time of X Factor. Because of that childhood experience, I thought I’d go for it. And I suppose the rest is history.”
Has it affected his family much, this leap to stardom? “Well of course it has made some difference. They see me in magazines and on TV, and all kinds of stories are printed about me, but we’re very family oriented and that bond is still as strong as ever. I can’t see them as often as I would like to, but I value them all the more. It’s the same with my friends. I can’t hang out with them all the time, but when we do get together it’s really great.”
And how is he treated when he does get back to his local community? “A lot better, actually. Especially where I come from, there isn’t much going on so they’ve got a lot of respect for me getting out of the valley and doing something.”
With more than 80 shows under his belt already, Daniels is by now well practised in the nonstop merry-go-round: travel to the next venue, drop suitcase at digs, get to theatre, get ready, perform, go back to digs, unpack… and repeat. Between shows, he tends to collapse in his dressing room and zone out until it’s time to get ready for the next performance. Nevertheless, he’s enjoying it tremendously.
“The rest of the cast are amazing, especially Matt Lapinskas (EastEnders) who plays Pharaoh, and Danielle Hope, who narrates. And the audiences are simply wonderful. Everybody is up on their feet, dancing and singing along to all the songs. It’s incredible to be part of it all.”
Surely, though, the demands of constant touring must be getting him down? “Actually I’m love doing Joseph. I can imagine myself doing it for a long time because I’m so comfortable in the role. I don’t have to be too different to what I actually am. OK so I don’t have much of a personal life but it’s so nice when I do see my friends.
“And when I’m doing a long run at one theatre, they can come up and stay with me, see what life is like backstage, and that’s fun.”
And how about these frantic fans besieging him at every venue? Daniels laughs. “It’s pretty crazy both during the show and afterwards when they’re coming backstage or waiting outside to meet me. I get quite a few loincloth comments!”
So what age group are they? “It’s all ages of women from six to grannies. The older women want to love me up too,” he laughs, clearly not bothered at all about being an idol for millions.
Does he ever wonder what he would have been doing if The X Factor hadn’t happened? “I had planned to be an interior architect. I would have carried on and done that. Singing though is my hobby as well as my job. I sing everywhere — in the shower, round the house — it’s my comfort.”
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