Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: History and Key Facts

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a sung-through musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, based on the character Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly: their first collaboration, The Likes of Us, written in 1965, was not performed in public until 2005. Its family-friendly retelling of Joseph, familiar themes, and catchy music have resulted in numerous stagings. According to the owner of the copyright, the Really Useful Group, by 2008 more than 20,000 productions had been staged by schools and amateur theatre groups.

Joseph... was first presented as a 15-minute "pop cantata" at Colet Court School in London in 1968, and was published by Novello and recorded in an expanded form by Decca Records in 1969. After the success of the next Lloyd Webber and Rice piece, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph... received amateur stage productions in the US beginning in 1970, and the first American release of the album was in 1971. The musical had its professional premiere, as a 35-minute version, at the Haymarket ice rink during the Edinburgh International Festival in 1972. It was Part Two of Bible One, a Young Vic Theatre Company production presented by the National Theatre of Great Britain. While still undergoing various modifications and expansions, the musical was produced in the West End in 1973. In 1974, its full modern format was performed at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester and was also recorded that year. The musical was mounted on Broadway in 1982. Several major revivals, national tours, and a 1999 direct-to-video film starring Donny Osmond followed.

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