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 The BBC has announced its follow-up to How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? – the TV search for a lead for Joseph And His Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat. The new show follows Connie Fisher’s success in The Sound Of Music, after she was plucked from obscurity to play the role of Maria. Graham Norton will host the BBC One search for a new Joseph for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage production. Lord Lloyd-Webber, a panel of experts and viewers will also look for a girl to play the narrator figure and a Pharoah/Elvis in the TV show. The TV search is entitled Any Dream Will Do, after one of the famous musical numbers in the production. BBC One Controller Peter Fincham said: "Any Dream Will Do is the perfect follow-up to the success of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? "Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a classic musical known to generations of schoolchildren and I cannot wait for the reunion of 2006’s most unlikely but successful partnership – Graham Norton and Andrew Lloyd Webber. "I think this show will have huge appeal for the BBC One audience." Lord Lloyd-Webber said: "The success of How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? this summer was a real boost for musical theatre in Britain and I was particularly thrilled with the reaction from schoolchildren up and down the country. I cannot wait to get them involved in Any Dream Will Do and to get back into the studio with Graham. "Joseph started in schools and I am looking for a great school choir – to play in the West End, we need a smashing girl, a great boy and of course a Pharoah/Elvis." Auditions for contestants will take place across the UK early next year before the show is broadcast in the summer.
The Press Association
This is one of my favorite Broadway musicals, so I wish I could see this show. Hopefully they will have guest appearances from past Josephs like Michael Damian and Donny Osmond!!!
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Will the next reality television casting show focus on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? That is indeed the plan, Lloyd Webber revealed to Theatre.com. The composer serves as the producer of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium, whose leading lady, Connie Fisher, was cast by the popular BBC TV series How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? “I’d like to do Joseph this way,” Lloyd Webber said to Theatre.com. “I think we could have a lot of fun with it. There’s Joseph himself, a girl narrator, and of course there’s huge fun in finding an Elvis [the pharaoh character], as well as finding the best children’s choir and the brothers. We could even have a situation where we keep sending the brothers to ridiculous places and ask the public to tell us where to send them next week. Then Tim [Rice, Joseph’s original lyricist] and I could write a new song in the course of the week, which they could perform when they get there.” If this idea is taken up, Lloyd Webber intends to revive the version of the show that Steven Pimlott directed at the London Palladium in 1991, which was also seen on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre. “We might want to make a slightly revised take on it,” he added. More recently, the show returned to the West End in Bill Kenwright’s touring production. Lloyd Webber said that plans are afoot for the reality TV series focused on Joseph to air next year.
Broadway (story) and Michael Damian’s Official Website (photo) (Thanks Michael!)
I hope they get Michael Damian to host because he was amazing in the role!!!
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