“Every director has a list of shows that they’d like to see happen and I’ve got that list,” says Kelda McManus, director of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Canberra Philharmonic Society.

Joseph’s high up there.

“It’s a great show for Philo, with a big cast. It’s got kids in it so gives great opportunities for young people and yet there are still roles to challenge actors and a bit of a moral story underneath.”

“As well, coming out of covid, theatre is had been doing it hard and so people will enjoy a show that’s a lot of fun.”

It’s also full songs people grew up with, possibly explaining its longevity and its likely success now.

McManus says there are people older than her who knew the original show. She used to sing the songs in school choirs.

Then there was the 1999 direct-to-video film starring Donny Osmond that another generation knew and they showed it to their kids, so it expands the potential cross-generational audience cohort.

Popular, yet it’s not often done in Canberra.

Joseph, she notes, was the first musical that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote together and she can hear echoes of Jesus Christ Superstar, which was to follow.

Musical director, Jenna Hinton, is having a lot of fun with the musical pastiche elements of the show, which will be conducted by Craig Johnson, former conductor of the Royal Military College Band.

“You think you know the music,” McManus says, “the show starts off in ancient Canaan then suddenly the music changes into Country and Western for One More Angel in Heaven. There’s a 1920s Charleston number for Potiphar and the French Apache street dance style for Those Canaan Days, 1970s go-go for Go, Go, Go Joseph and the Benjamin Calypso.”

There’s also the drama of Close Every Door, with its Yiddish undertones, Elvis-themed rock and roll for Pharaoh’s Song of the King and jazz for Joseph’s Dreams, sung by Tim Dal Cortivo, who played a sheep in the same show over 20 years ago.

As the title would suggest, Joseph is about beautiful colours and the dance numbers choreographed by Caitlin Schilg join other elements to make it colourful and dramatic.

The set changes have been a challenge because things move fast in Joseph as the action jumps from Canaan to the desert to sophisticated Egypt.

Among the showstoppers is the appearance of Joe Dinn as Pharaoh—“he’s electrifying, with that powerhouse voice,” McManus says, “he’s going to blow people away.”

The show was originally written for schoolkids as a 15-minute cantata in 1968 as a favour to a friend of the creators, which partly counts for the heavy male cast.

As McManus tells it, they then extended it to 30 minutes then 45 minutes, added some more songs to make it 60 minutes, eventually bringing it up to 90 minutes while expanding the school combo so that it’s now for a full band.

“We’ve added a female narrator, three main female supports and a full female ensemble.” There are also 10 children on stage who don’t just stand there, but are fully integrated into the show.

“My background is in plays, so for me it doesn’t matter how well you dance and sing, if you’re not telling the story it doesn’t matter,” McManus says.

With classical storytelling in mind, she’s talked to the cast about the Biblical story of Joseph, because it does lead to some theatrical questions such as how come the brothers don’t recognise Joseph when they come to Egypt and she also talked with the adult cast about how different religions have interpreted the tale.

For the smaller cast members, she asked whether they knew that Joseph travelled to Egypt by camel.

“They like that, and it’s in the show,” she says, “Yet ultimately the story of Joseph is about family, and about being different.”

Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Erindale Theatre, February 27-March 15.