Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Hippie Fashion

Style, manner dorsum many centuries ago, non long after The Bible began...

It's part of the Book of Genesis... BUT WITH SINGING.

Really, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (abbreviated as Joseph...Dreamcoat, Dreamcoat, J&tATD, etc. etc.) is simply that: Andrew Lloyd Webber'southward Breakthrough Hitting, his first written musical, with lyrics by his frequent collaborator Tim Rice, and based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors.

As a side note, this was the musical by which Donny Osmond, playing the titular Joseph, surpassed George Rose to take the Globe Record for Most Appearances as a Unmarried Character in a Stage Product. Rose previously held the record for playing Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance over 5200 times on stage; Osmond surpassed this mark, and eventually would go along to play Joseph in over 7000 presentations of the prove, including a filmed version.

Was later followed up by Webber's other major biblical musical: Jesus Christ Superstar.

This prove provides examples of:

Adaptation Distillation: While generally faithful to the Bible apart from the Anachronism Stew, the musical streamlines the story here and there. Instead of Joseph escaping from Mrs. Potiphar'due south advances and her retaliating later with a False Rape Allegation, her husband barges in during the seduction attempt and blames Joseph in a Not What It Looks Like scenario. Subsequently, the brothers' two separate trips to Egypt are condensed into ane, and instead of multiple Hole-and-corner Tests of Grapheme, they face just the "cup in Benjamin'south sack" incident. The musical too never mentions that Benjamin is the simply other son of Joseph's mother, and therefore Jacob's second favorite, which ways that a layer of meaning behind the "cup in the sack" test (i.e. will the brothers carelessness Rachel'due south other son the fashion they did Joseph?) is lost.
Adaptation Expansion: The initial product of Joseph was a schoolhouse cantata that was fifteen minutes long. Needless to say, it's grown a fair bit since.
Adaptational Villainy: Benjamin and Reuben. In the Bible Benjamin is still fairly young when Joseph is sold as a slave and does non participate in the attack, throwing him in a pit, or selling him. Reuben is the 1 who convinces the balance of his brothers not to kill Joseph and only throw him in a pit, intending to return that nighttime to rescue him. He also does not participate in selling Joseph and is angry when he discovers it. At that place are some productions where Benjamin objects to Joseph being sold and has to be held dorsum by his brothers but Reuben is always portrayed (initially) as a villain.
- In Benjamin's case it even gets a fleck weirder: The musical mentions that at least part of Jacob's favoritism was due to Joseph being the son of Rachel, his favorite wife. Given that Benjamin was Joseph's total brother, and besides the son of Rachel, it makes far less sense for the favoritism to affect him so blatantly (...although it was Benjamin's birth that killed Rachel...). Some productions avert this past leaving Benjamin out of the kidnap scene and having him at Jacob's side during "One More than Angel in Heaven".
Adapted Out: Joseph'southward Egyptian wife Asenath and ii sons Ephraim and Manasseh are never mentioned in this retelling.
- Joseph's sis Dinah, Jacob'due south only daughter, is never mentioned either.
- In a way, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah. Rachel is referred to only never mentioned past proper noun, and is presumably dead before the action starts, as the vocal 'Joseph'southward Glaze' heavily implies ('Joseph's mother, she was quite my favourite wife / Never actually loved some other all my life'). Meanwhile, Leah, another of Jacob's wives and the female parent of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon and Dinah isn't even mentioned at all. Neither is Naphtali and Dan'south female parent Bilhah, nor Zilpah, the mother of Asher and Gad.
All Deserts Have Cacti: Justified - the "1 More Angel" song is meant to accept a Western feel.
All-Knowing Singing Narrator: When the evidence started out, it used to exist interchangeably male or female, but afterwards changed to female to make upwards for the asymmetric number of leading male characters in the show.
Amazing Technicolor Population: The blue babes in Pharaoh's courtroom.
Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Joseph and his brothers tend sheep the seven colours of the rainbow in the flick.
Ambiguously Gay: The butler and the baker who were thrown in jail for "doing their thing".
Anachronism Stew: The show deliberately embraces and revels in this trope. In particular, it goes without maxim that the choice of genre for several songs would not accept existed in the times of the Book of Genesis and make most as much sense as a rapping dog on the Titanic:
- Pharaoh is an Elvis impersonator singing the rock-and-coil "Song of the King".
- Joseph's brothers sing the country-western "1 More Affections in Heaven" in cowboy hats, and i fifty-fifty says "x-4, good buddy!"
- Potiphar is introduced with the 1920s Charleston-style song "Potiphar", which references getting rich past investing...in pyramids. (This vocal offers a two for one, since all the best-known pyramids were already centuries sometime by the time Joseph is believed to accept lived.)
- Joseph'south brothers sing "Those Canaan Days" as a French ballad (with ridiculous faux accents and costumes).
- Joseph's brothers sing "Benjamin Calypso".
- Many productions include other anachronisms, such as the Ishmaelites paying for Joseph with a credit menu, or having a slot machine on the fix during "Grovel, Grovel".
And There Was Much Rejoicing: "At that place's 1 more affections in heaven, In that location's one more star in the sky..."
And Yous Were There: In the motion-picture show version, because of the Framing Device of the show being done as an actual school play, all the main roles also play teachers or other faculty at the fictional school.
Anti-Villain: Potiphar isn't really all that bad. He's just more than faithful to his wife than she is to him, to the point where he'll take anyone locked upward who gets involved with her.
Bible Times
Breaking the Quaternary Wall: There are various times in the film where characters interact with the narrator.
Cursory Accent Imitation: In the flick, Joseph imitates the Butler's British accent when he says "you'll buttle as yous did earlier." Too, in "Song of the Rex", especially when played by Donny Osmond, Joseph imitates the Pharaoh'due south Elvis impersonation when he calls him "Mister Pharaoh Human being".
Camp: The film, in spades.
Canon Foreigner: The Biblical Jacob had only two wives, Rachel and Leah (and two concubines, the handmaidens Bilhah and Zilpah). The musical has twelve wives to go with the twelve brothers, presumably so that there's a more robust female chorus.
- Although the brothers did all have wives; several of them were married with children when Joseph was sold, as he was the second youngest of them.
Cardboard Prison: Played for Laughs in the picture show, where Joseph'south Oubliette is revealed to have very wide confined (and, if you tin't squeeze through them, at that place's also a door).
Irresolute Dress Is a Free Activeness: In the movie when the kids run onstage, their uniforms instantly inverse to more colorful clothes.
Chekhov's Skill: Joseph's ability to interpret dreams.
Cloudcuckoolander: Some productions play Joseph equally 1 of these. And it's definitely what his brothers think that he is.
Colorful Song: "Joseph'southward Coat" includes a long listing of colors that Joseph's coat is:
It was ruddy and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and ruddy and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and gray and regal and white and pink and orange and blue.
Blended Character: Inverted. In early recordings of the show, it'southward an anonymous "lively lad" who tells Pharaoh well-nigh Joseph; in afterwards ones, it's the butler Joseph'south already met, which makes a lot more narrative sense. Were the two characters combined when the musical was revised? On the contrary—somebody must take gone back to the Book of Genesis and noticed that in the book, the lad in question is Pharaoh's butler.
Encompass Innocent Optics and Ears: Even though the scene isn't really worth an eye-covering anyway (a dancer in a leotard), and even though Benjamin is hardly a child.
Crocodile Tears: The brothers shed them during "Ane More Angel in Sky".
Cross-Bandage Office: Equally written, the Narrator has no specific gender, and is played by a man in the 1973 Original London Cast recording (and by no less than Cleavon Little in a mid-'70s Broadway operation). All the same, the part is now always played past a woman to recoup for the fact that, otherwise, there are no prominent female roles and but one named female person character (aforementioned Mrs. Potiphar) in the show.
Crowd Song: "Go Go Get Joseph".
Crucified Hero Shot: Benjamin on the steps of Pharaoh's palace, in the movie, after his Frameup.
Darkest 60 minutes: Joseph'southward time in prison, expressed through the deeply moving "Close Every Door".
Dem Bones: In the picture show when Israel is hit by the famine, their sheep are walking skeletons.
Denser and Wackier: Though ever campy, in the 30-odd years the play's been running around the earth, productions accept more often than not gotten more and more aggressively wacky, with hammier acting, more Flanderized portrayals of the characters, more anachronisms, and a deeper comprehend of the varied genres of the songs. Compared to a gimmicky production, the Original Broadway Cast sounds similar everyone'southward taken a load of valium.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: From "Close Every Door": "Just give me a number, instead of a name" — coupled with the references to the Children of Israel — hark back to the treatment of death-camp inmates during Earth War Ii.
Double Entendre: Especially among high schoolhouse productions, it's practically a contest to run across who can make Joseph's dream nigh his brothers' small, dark-green sheaves seem the most like a penis joke.
- From the "Benjamin Calypso" we have Benjamin beingness "straighter than the tall palm tree/big bamboo" and "honest every bit coconuts".
Double Standard: Rape, Female person on Male: Zig-zagged. Depending on the production, the wacky musical break may portray anything from Mrs. Potiphar chasing Joseph around the stage to bodyguards holding him downwards while she has her way with him. Mrs. Potiphar molesting Joseph is 1 of the few things in the story that isn't played for hilarity, yet there'due south a goofy upbeat musical and mayhap dance number playing. He conspicuously has the correct to reject her advances, and she's clearly wrong for forcing herself on him, merely yous can bet withal it'due south portrayed, will be treated more lightly than information technology would exist with the roles reversed.
Dreaming of Things to Come: Joseph tin predict the hereafter past interpreting dreams. His own dreams, as described in "Joseph'due south Dreams," are Foreshadowing of the end of the bear witness, when his brothers go to Arab republic of egypt.
- The commencement dream is of his brothers' sickly sheaves of corn bowing before his golden 1. In Egypt, Joseph has gold finery and provides the brothers with food during the dearth.
- The second dream is of eleven stars bowing before his. During "One More Angel," the brothers refer to Joseph as "one more star in the sky."
Elvis Impersonator: The Pharaoh is a parody of Elvis.
Everything's Better with Cows: The Song Of The King And The Seven Fatty Cows
Fanservice: Apart from shirtless Joseph, amongst the costumes featured in the movie version? Mrs. Potiphar'due south costume. Which looks like a bustier with pasties.
- And her servants/handmaidens? Holy Flurking Sckint
  - Pharaoh's—later on Joseph'southward—servants were even worse. Those women were wearing nets and had gold-embellished crotches.
- Some productions even plow the wives into this.
Femme Fatale: Mrs. Potiphar. "She was beautiful simply evil", indeed—and conspicuously more than evil than Potiphar, who is simply a hopelessly faithful hubby to an apparently unfaithful wife.
Framing Device: The movie has a load of kids in a chief school watching the play.
French Piano accordion: "Those Canaan Days" is an accordion-backed French-style carol, sung by Joseph's brothers putting on French accents.
Funny Background Event: Several in the 1999 movie.
- During "I More than Angel," one of the wives takes Joseph's torn coat and starts singing over information technology. Then Asher tries to accept the coat, dragging her with information technology, and they fight over it equally the residuum of the brothers are playing upwards their sadness for Jacob (Asher wins the fight and is wearing the coat when they trip the light fantastic toe triumphantly).
- Joseph consults the Bible to interpret the dream during "Song of the Rex."
- In "Those Canaan Days," i of the wives performs a trip the light fantastic toe that involves splits in mid-air. One of the brothers rushes to cover Benjamin'due south optics.
- During "Benjamin Calypso", Judah takes the narrator'southward cocktail and offers it to Joseph, merely he refuses. She and so reclaims her potable with a glare at Judah.

Groupie Brigade: During "Stone the Crows" in the movie.
Happiness in Slavery: Joseph would be perfectly happy being enslaved in Potiphar'due south house, if it weren't for those darn beautiful women trying to have sex with him all the time. Though to be fair, he worked his mode up so he was basically running the house. As far as slave gigs go, it'south not the worst you lot could get.
Have a Gay Old Fourth dimension: Those extravagant, elegant soirees,/The gayest the Bible has seen
"I Am Great!" Vocal: Joseph's lines in Joseph'south Coat (The Glaze of Many Colors) are him talking about how peachy he looks in his coat and in Joseph's Dreams he's telling his brothers how he'll rule over them all.
I'thou a Humanitarian: Played for Laughs in "Those Canaan Days."
"No 1 comes to dinner at present/We'd only eat them anyway."
Incredibly Long Note: Builds to this with each verse of Those Canaan Days ("where diiiiiiiiiiiid they go"), until the final poesy. Played differently depending on the product - the movie has the brothers intentionally stop, glance around at each other, nod, then repeat the annotation. Most schoolhouse productions volition play this as belongings the note then long they run out of breath.
Interactive Narrator: Depends on the production, just in the motion picture? Interactive plenty to dance with the brothers, flirt with Pharaoh, and get hippie-married to Joseph.
Introdump: "Jacob & Sons".
Karma Houdini: As in the source material, Mrs. Potiphar never gets any punishment for her infidelity nor for raping someone, who concluded up getting locked upwardly on her business relationship.
Big Ham: The brothers, Jacob, the chorus, Pharaoh, Potiphar'southward wife, and the narrator usually are in later on productions, which makes information technology a World of Ham.
Lighter and Softer: Than Jesus Christ Superstar, the other religious musical that Rice and Lloyd Webber are famous for.
Listing Song:
- "Jacob and Sons" includes a long list of colors that Joseph's coat is:
It was cerise and xanthous and light-green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and cherry-red and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silverish and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orangish and blueish.
- "Jacob and Sons" likewise lists all of Jacob's sons.
Loincloth: Part of Joseph's standard slave attire in Arab republic of egypt, and also all he wears later on Potifar's wife forces him out of the balance of his clothes.
MacGuffin: the Technicolor Dreamcoat itself, which Joseph wears for all of v minutes.
Massive Numbered Siblings: Joseph had eleven brothers, as in the Bible, and half the opening number is dedicated to naming them.
Medium Awareness: A few of the lyrics suggest that the characters know they are in a show. For instance, the Prologue has the narrator say that she volition tell the story of Joseph since the audience are at that place for a couple of hours. The lyric, "We've read the volume and y'all come out on height" also applies; some versions go on to reference the operation venue itself, saying, "Nosotros've been outside, and you're on the marquee."
- A lyric in Potiphar's song reminds audiences "it's all in that location in chapter 39 of Genesis."
- In the pic, when failing to sympathise Pharaoh's dreams, Joseph flips through the pages of a Bible to find the answer.
"Metaphor" Is My Middle Proper noun: Joseph'due south brothers in "Grovel, Grovel". "Honesty'south our center name!"
Minor Character, Major Song: Pharaoh!Elvis is onstage for about fifteen minutes (counting the contractually-obligated reprise of his unmarried major song), merely normally receives high billing in the credits and cast.
Mood Whiplash: "Benjamin Calypso", a cheery pseudo-Jamaican vocal which comes just seconds later Benjamin is framed for theft.
- Also in "One More Angel", where the brothers celebrate Joseph's "death" while their father'due south gone, and then pretend to cry whenever he arrives.
- Likewise, the ensemble goes into the rousing chorus of "Go Become Go Joseph" simply later the proclamation of the Baker's death.
- For that thing, the somewhat cheery, bouncy "Potiphar" segues immediately into the extremely dramatic, serious invoked Tear Jerker of "Close Every Door", which then leads into the above "Become Get Go Joseph".
Never Trust a Title: Though Joseph receiving his colored coat does set the plot in motion, it's not the source of his dreams nor his power to interpret them, as information technology'due south being called a "dreamcoat" in the title might have you believe. In fact, the coat is destroyed early on then Joseph doesn't even have information technology for most of the evidence.
No Party Like a Donner Political party: Implied in a Black One-act way in "Canaan Days":
No one comes to dinner now.
We'd only eat them anyhow.
Obviously Evil: Mrs. Potiphar, who is fifty-fifty stated to exist evil. Inverted with Potiphar, who despite appearing to be a Fat Bounder is simply a hopelessly faithful husband to a clearly unfaithful wife.
Original Bandage Precedent: The same person usually plays both Jacob and Potiphar, three of the brothers play the baker, butler, and Pharaoh, and sometimes Mrs. Potiphar will be played past one of the wives.
- Averted in the moving picture, where instead the cast doubles as teachers in a school.
Overly Long Gag: Pharaoh Elvis. First in that location is the Song of the Male monarch, which is followed by an encore of the Song of the King. Which is followed by a reprise of Song of the King. Which is followed by an encore of the reprise of Song of the Rex. And every iteration is even more over the top and ridiculous than the last.
Painful Rhyme: Full of them...
- "All these things you saw in your pajamas/Are a long range forecast for your farmers"
- "His astounding clothing took the biscuit/Quite the smoothest person in the district"
- "The greatest human since Noah/It only goes to testify ya"
- "First the butler, trembling, took the floor/Nervously he spoke of what he saw"
  - Also Rhyming with Itself: "And their father couldn't see the danger/He could not imagine any danger" and also many examples of "colors" to count in Joseph'southward Coat.
- The English language being what it is, some of these rhymes are a quite flake less painful when sung with a British accent.
Parental Favoritism: The whole plot starts because of this.
Rape Discretion Shot: When Mrs. Potiphar forces herself onto Joseph, the scene soon shifts to a comparatively mundane scene, and we don't return to the previous scene until Potiphar walks in on it.
Potiphar was counting shekels in his den beneath the chamber
When he heard a mighty rumpus clattering to a higher place him
Suddenly he knew his riches couldn't purchase him what he wanted
Gilded would never brand him happy if she didn't love him
Reading Ahead in the Script: Go,go,go, Joseph, Fight till you drop/Nosotros've read the book, and yous come out on summit.
Recurring Riff: Webber leans heavily into this trope in most of his works, and this is no exception:
- "Poor, poor [whoever], whatcha gonna exercise?"
- The Prologue becomes the prologue-of-sorts to the second act ("Pharaoh's Story").
- "Joseph'southward Coat" becomes "Pharaoh'due south Dreams Explained" in the second deed.
- "Joseph's Dreams" becomes "Joseph All The Time", every bit Joseph essentially reveals to his brothers that the dreams have only come true.
Recursive Canon: The prisoners singing Get Go Joseph claim that they know Joseph will be fine because they've read the book.
Undercover Exam of Character: When Joseph'south brothers prove upward in Egypt without recognizing him, he decides to both become a little revenge and prove whether or not they've changed and thus deserve his help by framing Benjamin for theft. Rather than letting him take the fall and exit with the food (as they had sold Joseph into slavery so they could return abode and, they thought, get their father's attention once more), they proclaim his innocence and beg to be taken and punished instead.
Soundtrack Noise: Joseph being held down past Mrs. Potiphar's servants while she molests him, while a wacky tune plays that sounds more similar information technology belongs in a carnival.
Stars Are Souls: In "One More Angel in Sky", Reuben lies to his begetter that Joseph's soul has become "one more star in the sky" subsequently his "decease by a caprine animal".
Sung-Through Musical: Pretty much the but spoken line in the evidence is during "Vocal of the King", when Joseph tells Pharaoh, "I understood the one almost the corn, but I couldn't quite become the 1 nearly the cows. And so, could you lot requite it to me ane more time... 'Mister Pharaoh Man'... delight?"
Token Minority: Gerry McIntyre plays Judah in the movie, who is Joseph'southward but black sibling.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Potiphar and his wife.
Villain Song: Potiphar and his wife get their own. The brothers get "Ane More Angel in Heaven".
Walking Shirtless Scene: Joseph, who wears nothing but a loin cloth throughout about of the musical.
You Tin can't Fight Fate: The brothers try to make it so that Joseph's dreams won't come true... And oh, how they fail.