In 1967, Andrew Lloyd Webber was asked by Alan Doggett, head of the Music Department at a Junior School, to write a ‘pop cantata’ for the school choir to sing at their Easter end of term concert.

Lloyd Webber approached his friend Tim Rice to ask if he would write lyrics for the project.  It was Rice who suggested the story of Joseph.

The first performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was on March 1st, 1968 at the Old Assembly Hall, Colet Court, Hammersmith.  The performance was only 15 minutes long.

It was such a success that a second performance was arranged on the May 12th, 1968 at Central Hall, Westminster, where Lloyd Webber’s father was the organist.  The third performance tood place on November 9th, 1968 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Joseph was expanded to 35 minutes and included songs such as ‘Potiphar’ for the first time.

Rice then encouraged Decca to release an album of the St. Paul’s Cathedral version of Joseph in January 1969.  This received several good reviews, but was unsuccessful commercially.  It did however, help land Lloyd Webber and Rice a three year contract to produce new work.

The first project under their new contract was a second piece for schools entitled Come Back Richard, Your Country Needs You, based on the story of Richard I and his minstrel, Blondel.  The team did not take this project further as they had already started work on another idea, the story of Jesus Christ.

It was the success of Jesus Christ Superstar that enabled Joseph to continue to grow.  The album of Jesus Christ Superstar was a massive success in America and when Joseph was released, with a marketing campaign implying it was the follow-up to Superstar, the Joseph album stayed in the charts for three months.

The first amateur production in America was in May 1970 at the College of the Immaculate Conception in Douglastown, New York.  It continued to be performed by colleges and schools - it finally opened on Broadway on January 27th, 1982 at the Royale Theatre where it ran for 749 performances.

In 1999 a film version was released starring Donny Osmond.  Osmond had toured North America in the role of Joseph after opening in Toronto in 1992.