| programme_notes_for_joseph_and_the_amazing_technicolour_dreamcoat.docx |
Programme notes for Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Welcome to the Grand Opera House for this production of the multi award-winning show Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat! It has been performed hundreds of thousands of times including multiple runs in the West End and on Broadway, international tours in over 80 countries worldwide and has become one of the world’s most beloved family musicals.
South Shields-born X Factor winner, Joe McElderry stars as the roof-raising Pharaoh, alongside Christina Bianco from The Wizard of Oz and and Adam Filipe from Titanic The Musical as the Narrator and Joseph.
Featuring much loved pop and musical theatre classics, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go, Go, Go Joseph.
Cast
Narrator/Jacob/Potiphar’s wife - Christina Bianco
The narrator is wearing a black jumpsuit with silver sparkling sides throughout. When she wants to change character she throws on the new character’s clothes over the top of her own. When she plays Jacob she wears a large woolen striped robe with a belt and a long fake beard that clearly attaches around her head, she pulls the bead down when she wants to act as the narrator.
When she plays the role of Potiphar’s wife she wears a long red silk gown with a black feather neckline and a gold crown on her head.
When she sings in ‘Those Canan Days’ she wears a black beret on her head and a red neckerchief around her neck.
The narrator is in the space in both the past and the present and sometimes interacts with the characters in the past. Such as cuddling up to the muscly guards when Joseph is woking for the Pharoah and winking and smiling with some characters. When the narrator enters the scene with the Pharoah she is carrying a takeway cup of coffee which she then hands to him and he takes a drink of it.
Joseph - Adam Filipe
Joseph is tall and has short brown hair. He has an athletic physique and wears white baggy trousers and a white top along with his technicolour dreamcoat.
The dreamcoat is a rich blue and multicoloured quilted long coat with a gold coloured interior. It has a pleated bottom with rainbow accents that peek out of the blue fabric and there’s a rainbow coloured quilted patch on the back. When he spins the coat, which he does often - all of the gold and colours are on show.
When he is captured initally he wears only his white trousers and is shirtless.
When he works for the Pharaoh he wears a white wrap around skirt and belt over his white trousers, a gold and blue headdress with a gold band and a gold cape draped from his shoulders. On his chest he wears gold belts and around his neck he wears a large gold collar.
Pharaoh - Joe McElderry
The Pharaoh is very extravagant. Not only are his surroundings full of splendor and gold he is wearing a white cape that says ‘the king’ on the back of it in glittering red and blue diamante letters. On his head he wears a gold and blue striped headdress, gold bands around his upper arms and gold cuffs on his wrists. A gold and blue belt criss-crosses his chest from underneath a gold and blue collar, his wraparound skirt has a buckle with an embellished pleat at the front and he has shiny blue and gold boots on his feet.
Costumes
Ensemble
The female ensemble wear ankle length skirts and dresses in vivid colours, sometimes paired with a scarf that they wear covering their heads initially and later around their necks and then draped down their backs. Some of their dresses are more like tunics that are open at the front with a contrasting coloured garment underneath. They wear belts around their waists, some are leather, some are embroidered and embellished. They wear brown flat sandals on their feet. Most have long black hair which is pulled back from their faces and worn long down their backs.
All Joseph’s brothers (including the little boys) wear fake beards and clothing typical of ancient egypt. They wear baggy trousers with tunics over the tops of them, tied with belts at the waist. The trousers and tunics they wear are contrasting in colour, turquoise blues with khaki greens and a pink belt, bright green with purple trousers and leather belt and some of the outfits have bobbled fringing. Some of the brothers wear waistcoats and some have embroidered embellishments. They wear brown leather sandals on their feet. They wear scarves on their heads. They are typically long bound scarves that are wrapped on top of the head and have a tail of fabric hanging off at the back or side.
As part of the first costume change, both the ladies and men wear multicoloured cowboy boots to go with the country music style along with their brightly coloured costumes. This happens with the song ‘One more angel in heaven’.
The third costume change involves all the men and women ensemble dressed as high school basketball players and cheerleaders - their costumes are white and have a constellation as the logo on their chests. The uniforms are predominately white with blue accents and rainbow colours up the sides. The men are in long vests and long shorts and the women are in short pleated skirts and they all wear white trainers.
When Joseph goes to live with Potiphar, four of the female ensemble are dressed as Potiphar’s wife’s handmaids wearing long red flowing gowns with low cut V necks in the front and back and simple red crowns on their heads.
When Joseph goes to work for the Pharaoh the men and women wear clothing reflective of the Egyptian court. The Men wear headdresses on their heads, large gold collars across their shoulders, gold wrap around skirts with gold trousers underneath and a mixture of gold chains, belts and animal pelts on their torsos.
The women are wearing long flowing golden trousers and bikini tops. The women all have a similar dark black fringed bob haircuts with gold beads attached and golden slippers on their feet.
Another costume change sees all the men and women wearing grey versions of their previous very bright clothing as they try to mimic an old style of sad French cinema. The women are wearing grey versions of their previously colourful dresses but under their skirts they have rainbow coloured ruffled can can skirts and white pantalons.
Children
The children that the narrator is talking to wear modern clothes, t-shirts, jeans and trainers. They all wear different colours.
Sets
Most of the sets are simple throughout with the characters themselves being the main attraction. The main stage has an illuminated rectangular archway around the outside which lights up throughout the performance in a solid line of colour, the archway is repeated 2 more times towards the back of the stage. Curtains around the stage look like a cloudy and starry night sky. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is projected onto the main front curtain, it is striped with colour, gold on the outside edges and rainbow stripes through the middle.
The floor of the set is dappled in colours that give the impression of a sandy desert floor. The back left and right corners of the floor are drawn up into points to look like sand dunes. In most scenes, the background has a big round sun. The sun is about five feet in diameter and it moves across the sky depending on the time of the day, it is most often low in the sky with a shilhouette of sand dunes appearing beneath it. A coloured glow suggests the time of day, such as red for sunset and blue for nighttime. When Joseph arrives, the pin hole stars in the back wall shine outwards very brightly into the auditorium.
The first set is in the desert under the stars, three constellations hang from the ceiling and hundreds of little stars sparkle on the back wall. The children sit around a fire pit on little white cubes that light up, they can move these into position by sliding them across the floor.
The hanging constellations are connected with metal bars and these drop down to help support some fabric in the first act. Long strips of brightly coloured fabric attached to them, some drape down to the floor as though on a washing line and some of them hang across as though they are above a bustling market alley way.
Throughout the show, more star constellations glow periodically and appear around the set curtains that are around the stage.
There are cushions placed on the floor when Joseph’s brothers gather round to listen to him, such as during the song ‘Joseph’s Dreams’..
In the ‘One more angel in heaven’/hoedown scene there is a wheeled wagon rolled into the background. It has a canvas top over it and it says Jacob and Sons on the side, Jacob paints a minus one onto the wagon canvas when Joseph isn’t with them anymore.
Ocassionally there are sheep mentioned, the ‘sheep’ are static models set onto skateboards and they are wheeled on and off at points thoughout.
There are camels in the desert on a couple of occasions and these are presented with the camel pulling a three wheeled trike. The heads and necks of the camel puppets are attached to the front of the trike. The camels are very large and tall, their heads being about 8 feet tall and much larger than a human head. The camel ‘rider’ is on the back and cycles the camel forwards while another person ‘leads’ the camel from the front and moves the head.
Through dance moves, the Narrator interacts with the set - moving her arms as if commanding the sun in the background to change position and as if she was drawing down the curtains to change set / location.
For the ‘Close every door’/ imprisoning scene a large floor to ceiling frame with bars drops in from the ceiling, the frame is a prison gate that has a door in the centre. The frame flares out at the bottom and appears looming behind Joseph. The bars are sometimes haphazard in their layout and some of them have the appearance of tally marks.
In act two between the two sand dunes at the back there is a large screen in the shape of tall tent on which dancers in the background act out moves shillouetted onto the screen, making them appear much larger than they are.
At Potiphar’s place, in his wife’s room there is a large leopard skin rug on the floor. The rug is picked up and worn by Potiphar’s wife at one point and is large enough for her to trap Joseph underneath it. It has huge paws and a massive head.
At the Pharoah’s palace there is a large neon sign that says ‘welcome to fabulous egypt’ in the style of the famous welcome to Las Vegas neon sign. Along the back wall there are hieroglyphics written in vertical strips that light up in different colours and the door to the palace opens here. Two tall statues about 10ft high adorn either side of the stage. On the left the statue of the god Horus, with a bird head and holding a staff. On the right the statue of Anubis, a dog head also holding a staff, both are on tall plinths. In this scene the floor is lit by individual lights in the shape of diamonds suggesting that it is like a disco floor. The lights also appear as circles and move around the space with the musical beats.
In the final few scenes the sets are simple and only the sun in the background with the lights are used.
Ensemble
Aaron Archer
Bella Baldock
Daniel Bowskill
Imogen Bowtell
Taylor Bridges
Joseph Browlie Johnson
Hugh Cotton
Joseph Craig
David Fienauri
Ellie Greenway
Will Haswell
Oliver Hawes
Kiera Haynes
Siobhan James
Ben Lancaster
Nicole Lupino
Bradley Perret
Harvey Shulver
Jessica Sutton
Charley Warburton
Jenna Warne
Alex Woodward
Production team
Director
Laurence Connor
Choreographer
JoAnn M. Hunter
Set & Costume Designer
Morgan Large
Lighting Designer
Ben Cracknell
Sound Designer
Gareth Owen
Wigs, Hair & Make Up Designer
Sam Cox
Orchestrator
John Cameron
Welcome to the Grand Opera House for this production of the multi award-winning show Joseph and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat! It has been performed hundreds of thousands of times including multiple runs in the West End and on Broadway, international tours in over 80 countries worldwide and has become one of the world’s most beloved family musicals.
South Shields-born X Factor winner, Joe McElderry stars as the roof-raising Pharaoh, alongside Christina Bianco from The Wizard of Oz and and Adam Filipe from Titanic The Musical as the Narrator and Joseph.
Featuring much loved pop and musical theatre classics, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go, Go, Go Joseph.
Cast
Narrator/Jacob/Potiphar’s wife - Christina Bianco
The narrator is wearing a black jumpsuit with silver sparkling sides throughout. When she wants to change character she throws on the new character’s clothes over the top of her own. When she plays Jacob she wears a large woolen striped robe with a belt and a long fake beard that clearly attaches around her head, she pulls the bead down when she wants to act as the narrator.
When she plays the role of Potiphar’s wife she wears a long red silk gown with a black feather neckline and a gold crown on her head.
When she sings in ‘Those Canan Days’ she wears a black beret on her head and a red neckerchief around her neck.
The narrator is in the space in both the past and the present and sometimes interacts with the characters in the past. Such as cuddling up to the muscly guards when Joseph is woking for the Pharoah and winking and smiling with some characters. When the narrator enters the scene with the Pharoah she is carrying a takeway cup of coffee which she then hands to him and he takes a drink of it.
Joseph - Adam Filipe
Joseph is tall and has short brown hair. He has an athletic physique and wears white baggy trousers and a white top along with his technicolour dreamcoat.
The dreamcoat is a rich blue and multicoloured quilted long coat with a gold coloured interior. It has a pleated bottom with rainbow accents that peek out of the blue fabric and there’s a rainbow coloured quilted patch on the back. When he spins the coat, which he does often - all of the gold and colours are on show.
When he is captured initally he wears only his white trousers and is shirtless.
When he works for the Pharaoh he wears a white wrap around skirt and belt over his white trousers, a gold and blue headdress with a gold band and a gold cape draped from his shoulders. On his chest he wears gold belts and around his neck he wears a large gold collar.
Pharaoh - Joe McElderry
The Pharaoh is very extravagant. Not only are his surroundings full of splendor and gold he is wearing a white cape that says ‘the king’ on the back of it in glittering red and blue diamante letters. On his head he wears a gold and blue striped headdress, gold bands around his upper arms and gold cuffs on his wrists. A gold and blue belt criss-crosses his chest from underneath a gold and blue collar, his wraparound skirt has a buckle with an embellished pleat at the front and he has shiny blue and gold boots on his feet.
Costumes
Ensemble
The female ensemble wear ankle length skirts and dresses in vivid colours, sometimes paired with a scarf that they wear covering their heads initially and later around their necks and then draped down their backs. Some of their dresses are more like tunics that are open at the front with a contrasting coloured garment underneath. They wear belts around their waists, some are leather, some are embroidered and embellished. They wear brown flat sandals on their feet. Most have long black hair which is pulled back from their faces and worn long down their backs.
All Joseph’s brothers (including the little boys) wear fake beards and clothing typical of ancient egypt. They wear baggy trousers with tunics over the tops of them, tied with belts at the waist. The trousers and tunics they wear are contrasting in colour, turquoise blues with khaki greens and a pink belt, bright green with purple trousers and leather belt and some of the outfits have bobbled fringing. Some of the brothers wear waistcoats and some have embroidered embellishments. They wear brown leather sandals on their feet. They wear scarves on their heads. They are typically long bound scarves that are wrapped on top of the head and have a tail of fabric hanging off at the back or side.
As part of the first costume change, both the ladies and men wear multicoloured cowboy boots to go with the country music style along with their brightly coloured costumes. This happens with the song ‘One more angel in heaven’.
The third costume change involves all the men and women ensemble dressed as high school basketball players and cheerleaders - their costumes are white and have a constellation as the logo on their chests. The uniforms are predominately white with blue accents and rainbow colours up the sides. The men are in long vests and long shorts and the women are in short pleated skirts and they all wear white trainers.
When Joseph goes to live with Potiphar, four of the female ensemble are dressed as Potiphar’s wife’s handmaids wearing long red flowing gowns with low cut V necks in the front and back and simple red crowns on their heads.
When Joseph goes to work for the Pharaoh the men and women wear clothing reflective of the Egyptian court. The Men wear headdresses on their heads, large gold collars across their shoulders, gold wrap around skirts with gold trousers underneath and a mixture of gold chains, belts and animal pelts on their torsos.
The women are wearing long flowing golden trousers and bikini tops. The women all have a similar dark black fringed bob haircuts with gold beads attached and golden slippers on their feet.
Another costume change sees all the men and women wearing grey versions of their previous very bright clothing as they try to mimic an old style of sad French cinema. The women are wearing grey versions of their previously colourful dresses but under their skirts they have rainbow coloured ruffled can can skirts and white pantalons.
Children
The children that the narrator is talking to wear modern clothes, t-shirts, jeans and trainers. They all wear different colours.
Sets
Most of the sets are simple throughout with the characters themselves being the main attraction. The main stage has an illuminated rectangular archway around the outside which lights up throughout the performance in a solid line of colour, the archway is repeated 2 more times towards the back of the stage. Curtains around the stage look like a cloudy and starry night sky. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is projected onto the main front curtain, it is striped with colour, gold on the outside edges and rainbow stripes through the middle.
The floor of the set is dappled in colours that give the impression of a sandy desert floor. The back left and right corners of the floor are drawn up into points to look like sand dunes. In most scenes, the background has a big round sun. The sun is about five feet in diameter and it moves across the sky depending on the time of the day, it is most often low in the sky with a shilhouette of sand dunes appearing beneath it. A coloured glow suggests the time of day, such as red for sunset and blue for nighttime. When Joseph arrives, the pin hole stars in the back wall shine outwards very brightly into the auditorium.
The first set is in the desert under the stars, three constellations hang from the ceiling and hundreds of little stars sparkle on the back wall. The children sit around a fire pit on little white cubes that light up, they can move these into position by sliding them across the floor.
The hanging constellations are connected with metal bars and these drop down to help support some fabric in the first act. Long strips of brightly coloured fabric attached to them, some drape down to the floor as though on a washing line and some of them hang across as though they are above a bustling market alley way.
Throughout the show, more star constellations glow periodically and appear around the set curtains that are around the stage.
There are cushions placed on the floor when Joseph’s brothers gather round to listen to him, such as during the song ‘Joseph’s Dreams’..
In the ‘One more angel in heaven’/hoedown scene there is a wheeled wagon rolled into the background. It has a canvas top over it and it says Jacob and Sons on the side, Jacob paints a minus one onto the wagon canvas when Joseph isn’t with them anymore.
Ocassionally there are sheep mentioned, the ‘sheep’ are static models set onto skateboards and they are wheeled on and off at points thoughout.
There are camels in the desert on a couple of occasions and these are presented with the camel pulling a three wheeled trike. The heads and necks of the camel puppets are attached to the front of the trike. The camels are very large and tall, their heads being about 8 feet tall and much larger than a human head. The camel ‘rider’ is on the back and cycles the camel forwards while another person ‘leads’ the camel from the front and moves the head.
Through dance moves, the Narrator interacts with the set - moving her arms as if commanding the sun in the background to change position and as if she was drawing down the curtains to change set / location.
For the ‘Close every door’/ imprisoning scene a large floor to ceiling frame with bars drops in from the ceiling, the frame is a prison gate that has a door in the centre. The frame flares out at the bottom and appears looming behind Joseph. The bars are sometimes haphazard in their layout and some of them have the appearance of tally marks.
In act two between the two sand dunes at the back there is a large screen in the shape of tall tent on which dancers in the background act out moves shillouetted onto the screen, making them appear much larger than they are.
At Potiphar’s place, in his wife’s room there is a large leopard skin rug on the floor. The rug is picked up and worn by Potiphar’s wife at one point and is large enough for her to trap Joseph underneath it. It has huge paws and a massive head.
At the Pharoah’s palace there is a large neon sign that says ‘welcome to fabulous egypt’ in the style of the famous welcome to Las Vegas neon sign. Along the back wall there are hieroglyphics written in vertical strips that light up in different colours and the door to the palace opens here. Two tall statues about 10ft high adorn either side of the stage. On the left the statue of the god Horus, with a bird head and holding a staff. On the right the statue of Anubis, a dog head also holding a staff, both are on tall plinths. In this scene the floor is lit by individual lights in the shape of diamonds suggesting that it is like a disco floor. The lights also appear as circles and move around the space with the musical beats.
In the final few scenes the sets are simple and only the sun in the background with the lights are used.
Ensemble
Aaron Archer
Bella Baldock
Daniel Bowskill
Imogen Bowtell
Taylor Bridges
Joseph Browlie Johnson
Hugh Cotton
Joseph Craig
David Fienauri
Ellie Greenway
Will Haswell
Oliver Hawes
Kiera Haynes
Siobhan James
Ben Lancaster
Nicole Lupino
Bradley Perret
Harvey Shulver
Jessica Sutton
Charley Warburton
Jenna Warne
Alex Woodward
Production team
Director
Laurence Connor
Choreographer
JoAnn M. Hunter
Set & Costume Designer
Morgan Large
Lighting Designer
Ben Cracknell
Sound Designer
Gareth Owen
Wigs, Hair & Make Up Designer
Sam Cox
Orchestrator
John Cameron
