Gregory Bossler

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opened Jan. 27, 1982, on Broadway, more than a dozen years after its British premiere. The sung-through musical, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is based on the Biblical story of Joseph from Genesis. It was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed. Their first collaboration, The Likes of Us, written in 1965, was not performed until 2005. 

Joseph’s long journey to Broadway began when music teacher Alan Doggett, a family friend who had helped on The Likes of Us, commissioned Lloyd Webber and Rice to write a Biblical “pop cantata” for his Colet Court School choir, and a 15-minute Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was first presented at the school on Mar. 1, 1968. Lloyd Webber’s father arranged a second performance at his church, where a 20-minute version was performed by Colet Court students in May. Derek Jewell, a Colet Court parent and Sunday Times music critic, reviewed the piece favorably, lending impetus for a third performance of a 35-minute version at St. Paul’s Cathedral in November. In 1969, Novello published the 20-minute score, and Decca released the 35-minute recording, which featured David Daltrey as Joseph and Tim Rice as Pharaoh. The first U.S. production was in May 1970 at Cathedral College of the Immaculate Conception in Queens, New York.

The show’s professional premiere was the 1972 Young Vic production at the Edinburgh Fringe, with Gary Bond as Joseph, Gordon Waller as Pharaoh, and Peter Reeves as Narrator. Later that year, the company remounted the show in London, while RSO released the cast album and Granada TV broadcast the show in the U.K. In 1973, the Young Vic version moved to London’s West End, paired with the one-act Jacob’s Journey, written by Lloyd Webber and Rice to a book by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and ran for 243 performances. Below is the full 1972 Granada TV broadcast.

The first production of the show in its final form was in 1974 at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester. In 1976 and 1977, Brooklyn Academy of Music presented this version as its holiday show, with David-James Carroll as Joseph, William Parry as Pharaoh, and Cleavon Little as Narrator. Joseph then opened Off-Broadway on Nov. 18, 1981, with Bill Hutton as Joseph, Tom Carder as Pharaoh, and Laurie Beechman as Narrator. This is the production that transferred to Broadway’s Royale Theatre on Jan. 27, 1982 and ran for 747 performances. It received six Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Below is Laurie Beechman and the Broadway cast in a medley at the 1982 Tony Awards.

The show’s three London revivals (1991, 2003, 2019) each received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Musical Revival. The 1991 production received five other Olivier noms, including those for Jason Donovan as Joseph and Linzi Hateley as Narrator. The cast album also topped the UK charts for two weeks, and the single “Any Dream Will Do” was the #1 UK single for two weeks. The 2019 production received a second Olivier nom for Jac Yarrow as Joseph. Below is Jason Donovan and the 1991 West End revival cast in “Any Dream Will Do” at the 1992 Olivier Awards.

The 1999 direct-to-video film adaptation, based on the 1991 London production, starred Donny Osmond as Joseph, Robert Torti as Pharaoh, and Maria Friedman as Narrator. Below is Osmond and the film cast in “Close Every Door.”