(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Every December, Middlesex County's Plays-in-the-Park moves from its home at the Stephen J. Capestro Theatre in Edison and travels to State Theatre New Jersey, lock, stock, and camel, to do their annual production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This year, four performances took place from December 27-28, 2025 and photographer John Posada was on hand to take photos.
One of the most enduring shows of all time, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat reimagines the Biblical story of Joseph, his father Jacob, eleven brothers and the coat of many colors. Told entirely through song, the musical follows preferred son Joseph from being sold into slavery by his brothers, to ingratiating himself with Egyptian noble Potiphar, ending up in jail where he discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and finally in front of the Elvis-inspired Pharaoh, where his solution to Egypt’s famine elevates him to Pharaoh’s right-hand man and reunites him with his family.
Joseph is full of catchy songs in a variety of styles, from a parody of French ballads (“Those Canaan Days”), to country-western (“One More Angel in Heaven”) and calypso (“Benjamin Calypso”), along with the unforgettable classics “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door.” A musical for all ages.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was first written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber at the request of a friend of Andrew’s father, Colet Court School choirmaster Alan Doggett, for the school’s 1968 end of term concert.
The children's concert proved so successful that the piece, originally 15 minutes long, continued to expand until it became a full-length professional musical. The first amateur production in America was in May 1970 at the College of the Immaculate Conception in Douglastown, New York.
Professionally, Joseph premiered at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival in 1972, and transferred to the West End’s Albery Theatre the following year. The Broadway opening, with the late Laurie Beechman as the first female to take the Narrator role, was in 1982 and garnered six Tony nods, including Best Musical. The title role has been played by a succession of stars, including Gary Bond, Donny Osmond, Patrick Cassidy and Jason Donovan.
It has been staged numerous times in the decades since; a new production recently toured the U.S., directed and choreographed by Hamilton Tony winner Andy Blankenbuehler. A 2019 summer revival at the London Palladium was a smash hit and returned to the venue in 2021.
Here are more photos from the production.
Plays-in-the-Park is a unique, government-sponsored outdoor amphitheater in Edison that presents three full-scale musicals each summer, an indoor children’s musical each October, and a December tradition of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.
ALL PHOTOS BY JOHN POSADA
John Posada is a New Jersey based photographer specializing in photographing live theatre and music performances. Currently, John has spent the last 6 years concentrating on photographing almost 400 theater productions at over 70 different NJ theatres. Click here for John's website.
