This is the musical that started the amazing career of Andrew Lloyd Webber. When he was 20, Webber and Tim Rice wrote a portion of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a 15-minute peroformance at a London prep school. Just a year later the expanded concept album was recorded; the show was on the West End stage by 1973 (when Webber was 25). Donny Osmond played Joseph in the 1990s Toronto stage production, toured North America for the six year run, and then earned the lead in this 1999 film.
The story is from the Bible's Book of Genesis. Joseph is the favorite among the twelve sons of Jacob, and he is cast aside by his jealous brothers. After several adventures Joseph is imprisoned and despairs for his future singing this song, "Close Every Door."
Over the past 40 years this sung-through musical has become very popular for school and community theatre productions, with over 20,000 productions world-wide. Often a large children's choir performs on the simplistic stage, giving lots of moms and dads the chance to see their future Broadway stars in action. In fact, our local high school is putting on a performance this weekend...
