Any sheep will do

 

 Does anyone else have specific memories of seeing a show with a close friend or relative? One special memory for me is connected to this next programme in my journey through theatre programmes, which is the production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Caird Hall in Dundee in February 2009 (when I was very nearly nine). As a general rule, Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals aren’t usually my favourites, but this is a significant memory, as I went with a very special person who really liked them, my maternal grandma (photo below of us on the night we saw Joseph). I have been lucky enough to have two lovely grandmas but my maternal grandma lived with us from 2004 until she passed in 2010 so in some ways this one, Grandma Margaret, was a bit like a naughty big sister as well. She was an amazing person, and any theatre outing with her was always fun and memorable, as she loved a show and a fancy evening out. She was also quite funny, and very generous, as she even bought me a rather extortionately priced toy sheep when we went to see Joseph, which might not have happened if I’d gone to the theatre with anyone else. At Mary Poppins (see last post) my Mum was absolutely not going to buy me the extravagant items on the merchandise stall there (umbrella with parrot head? No! Carpet Bag? No, no, no!) but Grandma Margaret… that was another story!

 Joseph was also the first show that I performed in with The Song Shop, our local musical theatre school in Montrose (see programme below, I mentioned Song Shop in the first post). This was all the way back in March 2007 and I played an angel for two nights that week in the chorus – the show was even performed in the town’s main kirk (church). And yes, there are photos and no, you can’t see them. I have good memories of singing and listening to the songs with friends and classmates from school – there does seem to be something about Joseph songs that appeals to children and senior citizens. 

The 2009 professional production in Dundee was also interesting to me as a few people who were my age that I knew from school and Song Shop were actually in the show, which is perhaps partly why I wanted to see it. Was I envious of their place up there on the Caird Hall’s big stage? Maybe a tiny bit but I also know taking part involved a lot of really late nights and while I like to drink and sometimes go to clubs, I still only have a few very late nights a year (even in my twenties). Another thing about this production was that Craig Chalmers, one of the actors playing Joseph, who was from Edinburgh, actually took part in the 2007 Andrew Lloyd Webber TV show Any Dream will Do that was looking to cast the role of Joseph. 

I researched Craig for this post to see what he was up to now and almost got more than I bargained for as he is currently doing something just a little bit different to musical theatre (porn). Well, the Caird Hall does have a particularly impressive organ (my Mum suggested that line, I apologise). Casualty and Holby City actor, Lee Mead, was the winner of the Any Dream Will Do TV competition, and he’s since been in many well-known musicals, including Wicked and Legally Blonde (I even saw him in Wicked in London in 2010 but more on that later... I do get to the West End eventually... or something like that). Lee Mead also makes a very funny cameo appearance in the Halloween episode of the recent series of the TV show Motherland. I haven’t mentioned this much yet but I am a TV comedy addict too (current obsession Brooklyn 99).

Next time - please sir, can I have some...? In the meantime, here's a toy sheep (though not the one from 2009... any sheep will do!)