Hawthorn AFL legend Shane Crawford will play a starring role in 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'.
Hawthorn AFL legend Shane Crawford will star exclusively as the Pharaoh, in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, for the strictly limited Melbourne season.
Crawford will join an all-star Australian cast that includes Euan Fistrovic Doidge (Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert) as Joseph, and Paulini (The Bodyguard, Australian Idol) as The Narrator.
Shane Crawford in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- Venue: Regent Theatre, Collins Street, Melbourne
- Dates: From 13 November 2022
- Times: Wednesday to Saturday at 7.30pm; Saturday at 2pm; Sunday 1pm & 6.30pm
- Bookings: www.josephthemusical.com.au
- Prices: From $79 plus any booking fees
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Crawford’s decorated AFL career has since been diversified through his wide-ranging television background, his work as an author and as an ambassador for Breast Cancer Network Australia. This will be the AFL star’s first role in a major theatre production, seen by over 30 million people since its first run.
Crawford said: “To be offered an opportunity like this is amazing. I have done so many different things in my sporting and media career, but I have never performed in a musical, and I can’t wait! To be given the chance to be on stage, working with so many talented performers, entertaining an audience will be a huge buzz. Playing the role of the Pharaoh in this new production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is going to be fun – and a little daunting. Bring on the rehearsals.”
Crawford played 305 career AFL games for the Hawthorn Football Club, and was a member of Hawthorn’s 2008 Premiership side. He is a four-time All Australian player, and became captain of Hawthorn in 1999 – winning the AFL’s top individual honours, the Brownlow Medal and the Leigh Matthews Trophy that season. He also won four Hawthorn Best & Fairest Awards (1998, 1999, 2002, 2003).
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Released as a concept album in 1969, the stage version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has become one of the world’s most beloved family musicals. The multi-award-winning show, which began life as a small-scale school concert, has been performed hundreds of times in over 80 countries worldwide.
The show features songs that have gone on to become pop and musical theatre classics, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door to Me, Jacob and Sons, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go Go Go Joseph.
Told entirely through song with the help of The Narrator, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat follows the story of Jacob’s favourite son Joseph and his eleven brothers. After being sold into slavery by the brothers, he ingratiates himself with Egyptian noble Potiphar, but ends up in jail after refusing the advances of Potiphar’s wife. While imprisoned, Joseph discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and he soon finds himself in front of the mighty but troubled showman, the Pharaoh. As Joseph strives to resolve Egypt’s famine, he becomes Pharaoh’s right-hand man and eventually reunites with his family.
Most recently the Pharaoh has been played by fellow Aussie Jason Donovan in this production at the London Palladium and he can still be seen in the role on the current UK tour of the production.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The production is directed by Laurence Connor (Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, School of Rock), choreographed by Joann M Hunter (School of Rock), with music supervision by John Rigby.
In Melbourne from November, playing at the Regent Theatre, for a strictly limited season. For all the latest info, head to the website here.
