MyJosephDiary7

My Joseph Diary

New Victoria Theatre, Woking

Saturday 30th March 2002

Carl, Donna and I arrived in Woking just after 1pm, after having to call out the recovery people to take a look at our car as it was making some strange noises. Anyway we got off again and we were only 10 mins away from the theatre anyway. When we got to the theatre was met up with Jamie Reed and his girlfriend, Zoe for lunch. We had a good old chat and talked about funny things that had happened in different show Jamie had work on and with Joseph too, it was strange to think he wasn't going to be on stage when we saw the show in the evening. They both went off to watch the matinee with the others that had left the show the day before, which included Adam Johnson, Greg Barnett, (both of whom we saw in the café) and Karl Clarkson, not sure if Richard Ashley was there or not though. Anyway we had a chat with John Melvin briefly before he had to dash to be on stage and we talked to Henry Metcalfe too before we went off to look round the shops.

We went to O'Neal's for a drink, I ran over to the tourist info to see if they had a free paper with a review which I found, then we went back to the theatre as we were meeting Jamie and Jenette Humphris. We met Jamie and he told us where they were all going for a meal and invited us to join them, so we said we'd wait for Jenette then join them. We saw Jenette and had a chat, she had to go back to the theatre so we went off to meet the others, we got to the pub and ordered our food. Jamie, Brian and Trevor all came over and talked to us for awhile, before those of the cast had to leave to go back to the theatre to warm up. Jamie pointed out the new Benjamin, Craig and we also saw the guy who plays Reuben. Jamie and Karl decided that they enjoyed watching the show so much that they were going to watch the evening show too.

We ate our meal which we almost didn't get in time as we all had ordered at the same time the staff were having trouble trying to keep up with our orders and those of other customers. It seemed a sad atmosphere as the cast that had left were having sort of a last meal with the cast that are still in the show, but they made it fun by taking pics and having a laugh.

We got to the theatre with ten mins to spare. We had front row seats and they were fab. Just before the show we were looking for Jamie and Karl as they said they were going to sit with Marcus in the sound desk, but we couldn't se them, we found out later that they were in the lighting box behind him! 2 mins before the show started our friend Lynne came running in, we didn't think she was coming so it was great to see her. The show started and as I always say but I mean completely the atmosphere was really electric. The curtain rose and Vivienne came on, her smile lighting up the stage. She spotted us straight away and sang to Carl at one put. The back drop rose and there were the cast looking at Jo, as Graham turned round with is gorgeous smile we knew it was going to be a good show.

As 'Any Dream Will Do' finished there was a rush and giggles from our left, we looked and there was Jamie, Zoe and Karl. So as you can imagine the rest of the show was great as the cast spotted them. We all sang along , clapped and had a really good time. The new cast members were great, they really fit in well, though I did find myself looking for the familiar faces I know and wondering where they were! When Joseph was showing off his coat, Benjamin sits at the top of the stairs now and admires t with Jo, they've finally made Benjamin not hate Jo, which is how it show be. The new Jacob is brilliant, he has a fantastic voice. Graham sang 'Close Every Door' with real emotion, in fact I think he was crying as much as us. The last note sent a shiver down my spine, he really deserved the round of applause and cheers (mainly from us). Go go go Joseph was really good as we all did the moves and sang along. In the interval we chatted to Lynne , Jamie and Zoe. Apparently they were waving like mad from the lighting box when we were trying to spot them before the show but as they were behind glass we couldn't see them.

The second half started and we couldn't wait, as I always feel the second half is best. It's more like a party by the time you get to the end. Anyway, the show re-started with Vivienne bring some choir members to the front to sit with her, I must admit the choir were very good and looked so sweet with white ribbons in their hair. Vivienne sang 'Pharaoh's Story' with real power. Trevor made 'Song of the King' even better than normal, we did the hand jive and clapped along. When it came to the part where Joseph asks to do it again, the audience cheered, we also had to women who thought the whole thing was hilarious and laughed when it was all quiet when Pharaoh thinks about singing it again, they had such loud laughs the cast had trouble not to laugh too. Then my dear other half Carl thought it was funny and laughed, Trevor heard it at homed in on him straight away, the look was like 'excuse me you think this is funny?' anyway he sang it again and Joseph told him the meaning of the dream.

'Those Canaan Days' was sung by Keiron and Jenette and Brian did the apache dance and got a well deserved round of applause. The show really started to get into party mode when they sang 'Benjamin's Calypso' Benjamin (Craig) seemed to enjoy all the attention of the girls. When Jacob came to Egypt and Benjamin announced his arrival it was lovely to see him run to Jacob and cuddle him, then for Jacob to turn and wave to his family. Joseph came in on a gorgeous bike as always. When Joseph meets his Father there were real tears in Graham and James's eyes and ours too, it was really emotional. The whole show seemed to be. The mega mix was fab, each time Graham sang 'Any Dream' the last note got longer and longer. Karl, Jamie and us got up and gave them a standing ovation before the mega mix started. Then everyone else did too as the songs just kept coming, and when they came out into the audience Karl got up and did the dance with them. We did too but sitting down, it was great joining in with the ' 1 - 2 - 3 -4' bit at the end of 'Go Go Go Jo' It was Joanne's last show so it was really sad by the end, lots of the cast had tears in their eyes, Jamie and Karl too, as they remembered their last show on Friday night.

As the curtain came down we waved to the cast and Graham put his thumbs up at us as if to say 'was that ok?' Would it be any other way but ok? When the show had finished Donna and I gave Jamie and Karl a rose each, which they loved. We went round to the stage door, leaving Karl and Jamie behind as they had been spotted and were signing autographs. We had difficulty getting to the stage door as there were lots of people there waiting for the choir and for autographs, plus there was scaffolding up as they seem to be re-doing the outside of the building. Still we managed to see most the cast and took some photo's. We gave some of the cast roses, would of liked to give everyone one but didn't have enough, so those of you who didn't get one, I'll try to get some more next time we come to see you all. We chatted to Shaun, Graham, Faye, Jenette, Jamie before he went, Brian, Russel and the new Reuben (sorry don't know names at the mo), Trevor and Vivienne were last out but we waited for them. Trevor talked to us for awhile and so did Vivienne before we all left, we had to get our car out of the car park before calling out the recovery people again to tow us home. We had a good laugh sitting in the car waiting for the tow truck, the crew asked us to move so they could put the lorry there, luckily we were on a slope so the car rolled down it easily enough. We sat listening to my Joseph tape, which was a bad idea really as we killed the battery, but hey we couldn't drive home anyway. We got home at 1.30am (2.30am I suppose with the clocks put forward). We had a fantastic time in Woking, and we can't wait to see the cast and show again in hopefully six weeks in Windsor so till then bye for now

Tanith








				My Joseph Diary

	New Victoria Theatre, Woking Saturday 30th March 2002 Carl, Donna and I arrived in Woking just after 1pm, after having to call out the recovery people to take a look at our car as it was making some strange noises. Anyway we got off again and we were only 10 mins away from the theatre anyway. When we got to the theatre was met up with Jamie Reed and his girlfriend, Zoe for lunch. We had a good old chat and talked about funny things that had happened in different show Jamie had work on and with Joseph too, it was strange to think he wasn't going to be on stage when we saw the show in the evening. They both went off to watch the matinee with the others that had left the show the day before, which included Adam Johnson, Greg Barnett, (both of whom we saw in the café) and Karl Clarkson, not sure if Richard Ashley was there or not though. Anyway we had a chat with John Melvin briefly before he had to dash to be on stage and we talked to Henry Metcalfe too before we went off to look round the shops. We went to O'Neal's for a drink, I ran over to the tourist info to see if they had a free paper with a review which I found, then we went back to the theatre as we were meeting Jamie and Jenette Humphris. We met Jamie and he told us where they were all going for a meal and invited us to join them, so we said we'd wait for Jenette then join them. We saw Jenette and had a chat, she had to go back to the theatre so we went off to meet the others, we got to the pub and ordered our food. Jamie, Brian and Trevor all came over and talked to us for awhile, before those of the cast had to leave to go back to the theatre to warm up. Jamie pointed out the new Benjamin, Craig and we also saw the guy who plays Reuben. Jamie and Karl decided that they enjoyed watching the show so much that they were going to watch the evening show too. We ate our meal which we almost didn't get in time as we all had ordered at the same time the staff were having trouble trying to keep up with our orders and those of other customers. It seemed a sad atmosphere as the cast that had left were having sort of a last meal with the cast that are still in the show, but they made it fun by taking pics and having a laugh. We got to the theatre with ten mins to spare. We had front row seats and they were fab. Just before the show we were looking for Jamie and Karl as they said they were going to sit with Marcus in the sound desk, but we couldn't se them, we found out later that they were in the lighting box behind him! 2 mins before the show started our friend Lynne came running in, we didn't think she was coming so it was great to see her. The show started and as I always say but I mean completely the atmosphere was really electric. The curtain rose and Vivienne came on, her smile lighting up the stage. She spotted us straight away and sang to Carl at one put. The back drop rose and there were the cast looking at Jo, as Graham turned round with is gorgeous smile we knew it was going to be a good show. As 'Any Dream Will Do' finished there was a rush and giggles from our left, we looked and there was Jamie, Zoe and Karl. So as you can imagine the rest of the show was great as the cast spotted them. We all sang along , clapped and had a really good time. The new cast members were great, they really fit in well, though I did find myself looking for the familiar faces I know and wondering where they were! When Joseph was showing off his coat, Benjamin sits at the top of the stairs now and admires t with Jo, they've finally made Benjamin not hate Jo, which is how it show be. The new Jacob is brilliant, he has a fantastic voice. Graham sang 'Close Every Door' with real emotion, in fact I think he was crying as much as us. The last note sent a shiver down my spine, he really deserved the round of applause and cheers (mainly from us). Go go go Joseph was really good as we all did the moves and sang along. In the interval we chatted to Lynne , Jamie and Zoe. Apparently they were waving like mad from the lighting box when we were trying to spot them before the show but as they were behind glass we couldn't see them. The second half started and we couldn't wait, as I always feel the second half is best. It's more like a party by the time you get to the end. Anyway, the show re-started with Vivienne bring some choir members to the front to sit with her, I must admit the choir were very good and looked so sweet with white ribbons in their hair. Vivienne sang 'Pharaoh's Story' with real power. Trevor made 'Song of the King' even better than normal, we did the hand jive and clapped along. When it came to the part where Joseph asks to do it again, the audience cheered, we also had to women who thought the whole thing was hilarious and laughed when it was all quiet when Pharaoh thinks about singing it again, they had such loud laughs the cast had trouble not to laugh too. Then my dear other half Carl thought it was funny and laughed, Trevor heard it at homed in on him straight away, the look was like 'excuse me you think this is funny?' anyway he sang it again and Joseph told him the meaning of the dream. 'Those Canaan Days' was sung by Keiron and Jenette and Brian did the apache dance and got a well deserved round of applause. The show really started to get into party mode when they sang 'Benjamin's Calypso' Benjamin (Craig) seemed to enjoy all the attention of the girls. When Jacob came to Egypt and Benjamin announced his arrival it was lovely to see him run to Jacob and cuddle him, then for Jacob to turn and wave to his family. Joseph came in on a gorgeous bike as always. When Joseph meets his Father there were real tears in Graham and James's eyes and ours too, it was really emotional. The whole show seemed to be. The mega mix was fab, each time Graham sang 'Any Dream' the last note got longer and longer. Karl, Jamie and us got up and gave them a standing ovation before the mega mix started. Then everyone else did too as the songs just kept coming, and when they came out into the audience Karl got up and did the dance with them. We did too but sitting down, it was great joining in with the ' 1 - 2 - 3 -4' bit at the end of 'Go Go Go Jo' It was Joanne's last show so it was really sad by the end, lots of the cast had tears in their eyes, Jamie and Karl too, as they remembered their last show on Friday night. As the curtain came down we waved to the cast and Graham put his thumbs up at us as if to say 'was that ok?' Would it be any other way but ok? When the show had finished Donna and I gave Jamie and Karl a rose each, which they loved. We went round to the stage door, leaving Karl and Jamie behind as they had been spotted and were signing autographs. We had difficulty getting to the stage door as there were lots of people there waiting for the choir and for autographs, plus there was scaffolding up as they seem to be re-doing the outside of the building. Still we managed to see most the cast and took some photo's. We gave some of the cast roses, would of liked to give everyone one but didn't have enough, so those of you who didn't get one, I'll try to get some more next time we come to see you all. We chatted to Shaun, Graham, Faye, Jenette, Jamie before he went, Brian, Russel and the new Reuben (sorry don't know names at the mo), Trevor and Vivienne were last out but we waited for them. Trevor talked to us for awhile and so did Vivienne before we all left, we had to get our car out of the car park before calling out the recovery people again to tow us home. We had a good laugh sitting in the car waiting for the tow truck, the crew asked us to move so they could put the lorry there, luckily we were on a slope so the car rolled down it easily enough. We sat listening to my Joseph tape, which was a bad idea really as we killed the battery, but hey we couldn't drive home anyway. We got home at 1.30am (2.30am I suppose with the clocks put forward). We had a fantastic time in Woking, and we can't wait to see the cast and show again in hopefully six weeks in Windsor so till then bye for now Tanith