Joseph opens in Edinburgh

This time last year, Keith Jack was working in Tesco, Dalkeith, directing irate shoppers to the sausagemeat and wrestling with huge piles of Christmas baubles and selection boxes. I can't imagine that he realistically thought that a year on he'd have a key role in a major production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat which opened at the Edinburgh Playhouse tonight to a wildly cheering 3000 strong audience, including 30 from my street.

We supported him all through "Any Dream Will Do" and were delighted to see him become runner up.

His role in Joseph is that of the Narrator, which is actually a bigger and much more vocally demanding role than Joseph. He did a marvellous job, and I think he will get even better as he settles into the 8 show a week routine. There were some points at the beginning when his vocal and his general demeanour was a little subdued, but the range in his voice is amazing. By the second half, he looked more comfortable. I remembered how the judges during "Any Dream Will Do" kept slating him for his diction. He perhaps over compensated in places tonight in parts but he's certainly been working on it and improving in the intervening months.

The role of Joseph was taken by another Any Dream Will Do finalist, Craig Chalmers. He did well in the role, bringing light, colour and humour in places. He made a little heartfelt speech at the end saying how proud he was to be playing in Edinburgh and introducing Keith and the other reality musical show finalists, Wayne from Grease is the Word and Chris Barton from Any Dream Will Do.

To have had such entertainment for £8 a ticket (albeit we did get altitude sickness from our position looking down on the gods) was amazing. However, my friend Anne and I have decided that we want to go back and enjoy it all from the Body of the Kirk. If you haven't got tickets already, book them now. It's well worth seeing.