Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical or operetta with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The story is based on the “coat of many colors” story of Joseph from the Bible’s Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly (the first, The Likes of Us, written in 1965, was not performed until 2005). The show has little spoken dialogue; it is completely sung-through. Its family-friendly storyline, universal themes and catchy music have resulted in numerous productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; according to the Really Useful Group, by 2008 more than 20,000 schools and amateur theatre groups had successfully put on productions. (More from Wikipedia)
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is another Biblically themed musical created by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and is the first of their productions to be presented publicly, predating Jesus Christ Superstar by several years. Based on the story in the Book of Genesis about Joseph and his “coat of many colors”, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was first presented as a 15-minute “pop cantata” at the Colet Court prep school in 1968. A more refined concept album, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was released in England in 1969 and was then reissued in the US in 1971 on Scepter Records after the success of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Its first stage production was in 1971 as part of a double billing at the Edinburgh International Festival, with a reworking of the medieval Wakefield Mystery Plays as the first half and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as the second half. Several productions in the UK and the US followed, including a run at London’s West End in 1973 and an off-Broadway production that moved to Broadway in 1982.
A recording of the full Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat musical was released on MCA Records in 1974, featuring Gary Bond, Peter Reeves, and Gordon Waller who had appeared in the 1971 production in Edinburgh. The review of the album by Sarah Erlewine in Allmusic notes that “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has the distinction of being the only musical that starred Michael Damian, Donny Osmond and Andy Gibb.” (Osmond later appeared on a DVD of the musical).
(October 2014)
* * *
