About the work
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice – the legendary duo's first work to be performed together, originally written in 1968 as a short school cantata and later expanded into a full-length piece. The Broadway premiere followed in 1982. Cheerful, catchy and stylistically playful, it tells the biblical story of Joseph with a tongue-in-cheek romp through popular music.
Plot
Narrated by a storyteller, the tale unfolds of the young Joseph, the favourite son of Jacob, who is given a splendid multicoloured coat by his father. Out of envy, his eleven brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt. There, thanks to his gift for interpreting dreams, Joseph deciphers the Pharaoh's puzzling visions, predicts a famine and rises to become the powerful administrator of the land. When his impoverished brothers come years later to beg for grain without recognising him, Joseph puts them to the test – before a moving reconciliation and reunion with his father.
Cultural significance
Joseph marked the beginning of the unparalleled success story of Lloyd Webber and Rice and, thanks to its child-friendly accessibility, became one of the world's most frequently performed musicals in schools and amateur theatres. The shape-shifting mix of styles – from country through calypso and Elvis parody to the chanson ballad – made it an entertaining cross-section of music. Songs such as the gentle "Any Dream Will Do" and "Close Every Door" became classics. To this day it is a reliable family and holiday-season staple.