Stephen & Dreamcoat Make Ready for West End Twirl???

Plans to bring Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat back into the West End are shaping up (See News, 2 Sep 2002). Former Boyzone star Stephen Gately is poised to make his theatrical stage debut in the title role of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice classic, and producer Bill Kenwright is confident it's going to be a bigger hit than ever. So confident, in fact, that he's poured an extra £1 million into revamping the production for its four weeks at the Liverpool Empire (16 December 2002 to 11 January 2003) and in preparation for its West End transfer, expected in February or March. The musical was last seen in the West End in the early 1990s, when it ran for more than two years at the London Palladium, taking over £47 million at the box office and bringing huge stage success for its Josephs - Philip Schofield and Jason Donovan. A show insider reckons the new-look Joseph will run for a similar length of time, most probably on Shaftesbury Avenue where various Kenwright offerings have maintained a foothold this year, including currently Sleuth and Home and Beauty and, coming up, the transfer of the RSC's Swan season.

Got some goss? Contact gossip@whatsonstage.com

Related Content