You may have heard of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, but chances are, you never saw it the way it was originally intended. Most of the productions that have reached the mainstream have been performed for adults and written and scored in the style of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best work. However, the musical was first created for and performed at Colet Court, a preparatory school for St. Paul’s School in London.

The child’s production was only 15 minutes long and was envisioned as a “pop cantata”, to be sung by the school choir. The choir, along with a rock group called The Mixed Bag and an orchestra performed the piece, and it was so well-received, that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s father arranged for an encore. As the production continued on, it added more songs and more numbers, eventually growing into a full length musical. After the success of Jesus Christ Superstar the full production of Joseph was marketed as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s follow up effort. It went on to receive multiple Tony Award nominations in 1982 including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score and Best Performance by a Featured Actress and Featured Actor in a musical.

The great news is that Marriott Theatre is now presenting a new version of Joseph that goes “back to its roots”. This production is tailored towards younger audiences, though performed by experienced actors. Like the original production, the musical is all singing, no dialogue, and features a variety of instruments.

This musical is based on the biblical story of Genesis and features famous songs like “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door”. The story concerns the humble origins and subsequent rising to power of Joseph, as he contends with his jealous brothers, his father, and various characters in Egypt.

This is a family-friendly production with catchy tunes, worthy of a Disney film (actually lyricist Tim Rice did co-write the songs from The Lion King). The play has been performed by over 20,000 schools throughout its run. If you have never seen the production before then now is your opportunity. Share this wonderful production with your children and teach them the value of the theatre!