Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
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50 free Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is one of the most often staged musicals there is. It started small, kept growing for years before it reached the big theaters, and has since been a first taste of the stage for generations of young performers and audiences alike. This quiz covers the show from every side: the tale of the dreamer, his jealous brothers and his rise in Egypt; the numbers and the many musical styles they borrow; the way a short entertainment grew into a full evening; and the famous names who have worn the coat in London, on Broadway, on tour and on screen. It is written for anyone who has seen, performed in or simply loved the show. Most questions suit casual fans, with a handful to test people who know every color of the coat. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is usually played in the style of which rock and roll star?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley is the model for Pharaoh, who describes his troubling dreams in a rock and roll number called Song of the King.
Q 02Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat began in 1968 as a 15-minute piece written for which performers?
A school choir
A school choir at Colet Court in London sang the first version, after its music teacher asked two unknown young writers for something new to perform.
Q 03Which Australian soap star topped the UK chart in 1991 with a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
Jason Donovan
Jason Donovan was playing the lead at the London Palladium when his single spent two weeks at number one. In 2019 he returned to the same stage as Pharaoh.
Q 04Which sitcom's character borrows the coat from a tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and gets arrested?
Seinfeld
Seinfeld sent Kramer backstage in the episode The Wig Master, where he takes a copy of the coat from wardrobe and is arrested while wearing it.
Q 05Which composer wrote the music for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat while still a teenager?
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber was 19 when the piece was first sung in 1968, long before Cats and The Phantom of the Opera made his name.
Q 06Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat retells a story of jealous brothers from which book of the Bible?
Genesis
Genesis tells of Joseph and his brothers in its final chapters, ending with the whole family settled in Egypt, which sets the scene for Moses and the Exodus.
Q 07Which American singer led the 1999 film of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat after years touring the role?
Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond had sung the part more than 2,000 times on stage, starting in Toronto in 1992, before the cameras rolled.
Q 08Which song does the title character sing at both the start and the end of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
Any Dream Will Do
Any Dream Will Do returns at the family reunion, where its words turn out to be a hazy outline of the whole story.
Q 09Which animal's blood do the brothers smear on the torn coat in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
A goat
A goat supplies the blood, and the brothers show the ruined coat to Jacob as proof that his favorite son is dead.
Q 10Which Dynasty star plays Mrs Potiphar in the 1999 film of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
Joan Collins
Joan Collins plays the wife whose pursuit of Joseph lands him in jail, opposite Ian McNeice as her wealthy husband.
Q 11Which lyricist of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat sang the part of Pharaoh on its first album?
Tim Rice
Tim Rice took the role on the 1969 recording, decades before he won Oscars for songs in Aladdin, The Lion King and Evita.
Q 12In Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, into what do the brothers throw Joseph before selling him?
A pit
A pit is where the brothers leave Joseph, meaning to kill him, until passing traders offer a way to be rid of him and make money too.
Q 13Which animals fill Pharaoh's first dream in the musical Joseph, seven fat ones eaten by seven thin ones?
Cows
Cows stand for harvests: Joseph reads the dream as seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and Pharaoh puts him in charge of preparing.
Q 21Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was sold to America as a follow-up to which rock opera by the same writers?
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar made the pair famous in 1970, so their older, gentler Bible piece finally got an American album release the next year.
Q 22The 1968 original of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was billed as what kind of piece?
A pop cantata
A pop cantata was what the commission asked for: a short Bible story for young voices in the pop styles of the day, like two earlier ones from the same publisher.
Q 23Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat had its third performance, in November 1968, in which London landmark?
Q 14In the musical Joseph, which jailed servant of Pharaoh does Joseph correctly predict will be put to death?
The baker
The baker gets the bad news in the cell he shares with Joseph, while the butler is told he will return to his old job. Both forecasts come true.
Q 15In the musical Joseph, what does Joseph hide in his youngest brother's sack to test his family?
A golden cup
A golden cup turns up in Benjamin's sack, and the brothers offer themselves as prisoners in his place. In the Bible the planted cup is silver.
Q 16In the musical Joseph, the brothers plead for their youngest brother's freedom in which Caribbean style of music?
Calypso
Calypso gives the plea a sunny bounce, led by Judah, as the brothers offer to be locked up in Benjamin's place.
Q 17In the musical Joseph, the brothers tell Jacob that Joseph is dead in which American style of music?
Country and western
Country and western is the sound of One More Angel in Heaven, a mock lament that turns into a joyful hoedown the moment Jacob leaves.
Q 18Which ballad does Joseph sing alone in jail at his lowest point in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
Close Every Door
Close Every Door comes after Joseph is locked up over a false accusation, and the other prisoners answer it by urging him to keep following his dreams.
Q 19The song Potiphar in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is written in the style of which 1920s dance craze?
Charleston
Charleston rhythms carry the tale of a wealthy Egyptian whose wife takes a fancy to Joseph, which ends with Joseph thrown in jail.
Q 20In the musical Joseph, what does Joseph first suggest his starving brothers might be when they beg for food?
Spies
Spies is the charge Joseph tries out on his brothers, who have no idea that the powerful Egyptian in front of them is the boy they sold.
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral heard a version that had grown to 35 minutes, more than twice the length of the one first sung eight months earlier.
Q 24In which city did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat get its professional premiere, at an ice rink, in 1972?
Edinburgh
Edinburgh hosted the Young Vic company's 35-minute staging during its International Festival, as the second half of a Bible double bill.
Q 25Which earlier musical by the writers of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat went unstaged until 2005?
The Likes of Us
The Likes of Us, about the children's charity founder Thomas Barnardo, was written in 1965 but found no backer, so the Bible piece became the pair's public debut.
Q 26The commission for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat came with an advance of 100 of which old money unit?
Guineas
Guineas were each worth a pound and a shilling, so the publisher Novello's advance to the two young writers came to 105 pounds.
Q 27Which Irish boy band star led Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat back into the West End in 2003?
Stephen Gately
Stephen Gately of Boyzone opened the touring production in Oxford and Liverpool in late 2002, then brought it to the New London Theatre the following year.
Q 28The BBC's 2007 hunt for a star of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat followed a series casting which musical?
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music needed a leading lady, and viewers chose Connie Fisher. The format worked so well that the hunt for a Joseph came the very next year.
Q 29Which performer won the 2007 BBC talent search to play the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?
Lee Mead
Lee Mead left an ensemble job in The Phantom of the Opera to enter, and the public vote sent him to the Adelphi Theatre in the title role.
Q 30Which 1970s teen idol took over the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Broadway in March 1983?
David Cassidy
David Cassidy, the heart-throb of The Partridge Family, saw out the last months of the Broadway run and then took the part on tour.