Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, Joseph is one of the most enduring shows of all time and reimagines the biblical story of Joseph, his father Jacob, eleven brothers and the coat of many colours.

In the summer of 1967, Andrew Lloyd Webber was asked by Alan Doggett, head of the Music Department at Colet Court, St Paul’s Junior School to write a ‘pop cantata’ for the school choir to sing at their Easter end of term concert. Andrew immediately approached his friend Tim Rice to ask if he would write lyrics for the project. After toying with ideas about spies, 007′s and the like, Tim suggested the story of Joseph.

It was the success of Jesus Christ Superstar that enabled Joseph to continue to grow. The album of Jesus Christ Superstar was a massive success in America and when Joseph was released there, with a marketing campaign implying it was the follow-up to Superstar, the Joseph album stayed in the charts for three months.

The first West End production opened in February 1973 at the Albery Theatre, with the Broadway production premiering at the Royale Theatre in New York in January 1982. Several major revivals in the West End and on Broadway, national tours and a 1999 film with Donny Osmond followed.