Lyrics by Tim Rice Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Director Holly Harris Musical Director Simon Carter
Assistant Director Lyndsey Betts Choreographer Daisy Down
CODS production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was performed at Queen Elizabeth’s Lower School from 14th – 18th April. A cast of 50 brought this well known and much loved production to life. The cast included a Junior Choir which consisted of ten members of the recently formed CYTA namely CODS Youth Theatre Academy.
This is a show that has been around since 1968, and has been produced practically everywhere from the West End to Hollywood. As such people have high expectations of what they are about to see. The unanimous comments following the production demonstrated that the show not only met, but exceeded those expectations. It was indeed roundly praised by the sell out audiences.
Almost everyone knows the story that is told in this show. But, just in case, here’s a very brief recap …. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a non stop sung-through musical retelling of the Biblical story of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son, who is given a beautiful multicoloured coat by his father. His 11 brothers are exceedingly jealous of him. They sell him into slavery and tell his father that he was killed fighting a goat! Taken to Egypt, Joseph works for Potiphar, gets into trouble that is not of his making and is thrown into jail. Joseph uses his gift for interpreting dreams to rise from imprisonment to become the Pharaoh’s trusted advisor, eventually reconciling with his brothers.
The message of the story is that staying true to oneself, maintaining hope through adversity, and practicing forgiveness – even after being betrayed, leads to redemption and the realization of your dreams.
In addition to the cast of 50, the programme lists well over 30 people in the production team. Construction, set design and painting, lighting and sound, costumes, props to name just a few of the supporting departments. The company is so grateful to all who worked together to bring the show to the stage, to help the run, and to put it to bed afterwards. There is, as yet, no theatre in Crediton so the staging, seating and hospitality all has to be built from scratch in a school hall. A huge amount of teamwork is involved. Check out the time lapse video from a previous show on the Joining CODS page of our website (About CODS dropdown menu) to get some idea of the tremendous amount of work involved. Once again, thank you one and all for your invaluable help.
THE BAND
MD/Keys ………….. SImon Carter
Keys ………………… Allan Fouracre
Keys …………………. Alfie Pugh
Violin ………………… Gill Crew
Woodwind ………… Kate Grant
Woodwind ………… Luke Taylor
Horn …………………. Steve Herbert
Guitar ………………. Dave Jones
Bass ………………… Phil Williams
Drums …………….. Andrew Turner
CODS PHOTO GALLERY “SMUGMUG”
Photographs from JOSEPH and previous CODS productions
are all on this gallery.
These range from the very early productions to the present day.
There are also some movie clips.
Just click the button and select the show. Enjoy!
A little historical information….. So what were the the origins of the Joseph musical? (text edited from the Box Five Club webpage).
In April 1965, Tim Rice, an ambitious pop-songwriter of only 20 years of age, wrote to a 17- year-old Lloyd Webber saying: Mr [Desmond] Elliott told me “you were looking for a ‘with it’ writer… I wondered if you consider it worth your while meeting me.”
Intrigued, Lloyd Webber agreed to meet with Rice and the pair embarked on a legendary collaboration. They received a commission from Colet Court School, to write a Bible story set to pop music that the whole school could perform, no matter what their musical ability. Whilst a school show did not exactly scream ‘West End’, Lloyd Webber and Rice agreed to give it a shot.
They thought of a number of possible ideas before returning to the original Bible story suggestion. From The Wonder Book of Bible Stories, Joseph sparkled the brightest for its themes of revenge, forgiveness and the potential for humour.
The very first performance of Joseph took place on 1 March 1968 to an audience of 200 parents. Short and sweet at only 22 minutes, the show went down a treat with the school – not least thanks to Rice’s clever and masterfully-constructed lyrics alongside an Elvis-inspired performance of Pharaoh! In fact, the parents were so entertained that they requested a repeat performance. Lloyd Webber and Rice decided to give Joseph another “Go, Go, Go”, and two months later, the pair brought Joseph to the stage again, at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, to an audience ten times the size of the first. Amongst the proud parents was Sunday Times‘s music critic, Derek Jewell, who praised the performance as “irresistible”. When, soon after Jewell’s glowing review, Decca Records came knocking with an offer to turn the piece into an album, Lloyd Webber and Rice realised that perhaps they should start to dream big.
They were right. In February 1973, Joseph and his dreamcoat began dazzling audiences in the West End, when it premiered at the Albery Theatre with Gary Bond in the starring role. Today, almost 50 years later, hundreds of amateur and professional versions of the show are performed across the globe each year.