Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Details and scheduling of BBC TV’s new
Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat casting contest show
Any Dream Will Do have been announced. Hosted by Graham Norton, the series will air weekly on BBC 1 at 7.45 p.m. beginning 31 March.
The initial two shows have been pre-recorded, and will cover the audition process. The remaining eight shows will go out live, and will invite the public to phone in and vote for their favoured performers.
Twelve finalists have been chosen to vie for the lead role in a new stage production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s perennial musical. Aged between 17 and 35, they include among their number a professional actor, a builder and two schoolboys.
John Barrowman and Zoe Tyler, both judges on last year’s
The Sound of Music TV casting showdown
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, which rocketed Connie Fisher to West End glory, will return to judge the new show’s hopefuls alongside Lloyd Webber, actress Denise Van Outen and the musical’s co-producer, Bill Kenwright. The regular judges will be joined by celebrity guests over the series’ run, including Joseph lyricist Rice, erstwhile Josephs Jason Donovan and Donny Osmond, and former judge of ITV1’s
The X Factor, Louis Walsh.
As
previously reported, Lloyd Webber has told Theatre.com that the version of the show he intends to revive is that which 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 that played at the New London Theatre from 2003 to 2005.