WATCHING the story of Joseph and his 11 jealous brothers is like reading the Book of Genesis on an acid trip - inflatable sheep spring up from nowhere, the Pharoah is an Ancient Egyptian Elvis Presley and his subjects cheerleaders and quarterbacks.

The energetic professional cast and singers from Liverpool's Performers Theatre School are led by Scottish actor Keith Jack, who came second in BBC1's Any Dream Will Do talent show back in 2007 but has matured well into the role.

With his Colgate smile he makes a likeable Joseph, despite the owner of the technicolor dreamcoat being so smug that his brothers' act of selling him into slavery seems almost restrained.

Tim Rice's cheeky lyrics and Andrew Lloyd Webber's upbeat score remove any anguish from the Bible story - Jacob's sons delivering the false news of their brother's death in the form of a hoedown and bursting into a calypso when, as reformed men, they beg Joseph to spare other brother Benjamin a spell in jail.

First performed in the West End in 1973, some of the orchestrations feel quite dated, the songs are excessively repeated and the story-telling is Genesis crossed with Nickelodeon, but none of that detracts from its overriding sense of fun.

Three out of five stars