Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Synopsis

Dancing in the show requires all types of styles. This colourful retelling of the biblical story about Joseph, his uncanny abilities and his designer coat sings out to young and old alike with a score which is wall to wall hits - including Close Every Door and Any Dream Will Do. In this retelling of the Biblical story, Joseph is a handsome young man who is his father's favourite child, able to interpret dreams, and the bearer of an amazing coat. These facts lead Joseph's eleven brothers to become insatiably jealous. Thus, they sell Joseph into slavery to some passing Ishmaelites. After refusing the advances of his owner's wife, Joseph is sent to jail. Once in jail, he quickly becomes popular due to his ability to interpret dreams. The Pharaoh soon hears of Joseph's ability and appoints him to the post of Number Two man in Egypt. Years later, Joseph's now starving brothers arrive in Egypt and ask Joseph, whom they don't recognize, for assistance. Joseph, in turn, gives his brothers a scare, but eventually grants them all they desire, reveals his identity, and reunites the family.

Our Review:

4 March 2003

NOTE: Stephen Gately is no longer appearing in this production. For current cast information, see the show's performance listing.

We're back to where it all began, and also where it ended. The Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber story was finally launched in 1968 after several abortive collaborations with a 25-minute end-of-term schools version of what later become Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, now being revived at the New London Theatre.

And that fruitful partnership ended here, at the same address, in 1981 when Lloyd Webber went it alone without Rice, employing a member of the Dead Poet's Society instead as lyricist for Cats. That, of course, famously became the longest running musical in British history, only finally closing last year after 21 years.

But Joseph is the youthful folly with which the ceaselessly tuneful composer and wonderfully inventive lyricist first announc...

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Latest User Review

212.139.101.174) - 21 June 2005:

Glad to see Matthew Hanbury back in Joseph.Lets keep him in please, he is great as a brother....

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