JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT Comes to Virginia Stage Company

Virginia Stage Company will bring Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to life with a 17-member cast of national and Hampton Roads performers in a bold new vision of the beloved musical.

But this is not a traditional revival.

Director Billy Bustamante has been carrying this version of Joseph with him for six years.

“This version of the show has been sitting on my heart for a long time,” Bustamante shared at the company's first rehearsal. “I needed to find a place like VSC to do it in. I needed to find a collaborator like Jeni to do it with. This is happening at the perfect time.”

While the musical, created by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, is known for its joyful spirit and unforgettable score, Bustamante sees it as a story about belonging.

“Joseph is a misfit in his world,” he said. “The thing that makes him feel different may be the thing that lets him change the world.”

Audiences can expect the color, humor, and crowd-pleasing numbers that define Joseph. “We're going to give them the fun and the earworms,” Bustamante said. “But through that, I hope to offer a reminder of how necessary it is to look at people who are different than you and acknowledge their humanity.”

That sense of humanity is woven directly into the design.

Director of Design and Costume Designer Jeni Schaefer has transformed Joseph's iconic coat into a living tapestry of community participation. Throughout the season, audience members, staff, and visitors were invited to draw their dreams on fabric pieces displayed in the Wells Theatre lobby. Those dreams are now incorporated into Joseph's coat.

“What you will see in Joseph's coat are the dreams of our audience members, our staff… anyone who walked in this building,” Schaefer said. “Our community has put their energy into this production.”

The coat began with thousands of pattern explorations before becoming a custom-designed textile that fills the stage in the show's finale. The actor playing Joseph wears original quilted dream panels, while the full-stage coat reflects the collective vision of the community.

The personalization extends beyond Joseph. Cast members will add their own dreams to the coat and design graffiti-style artwork on their white sneakers. Modern overalls and affirmation T-shirts replace traditional biblical robes, reinforcing the show's contemporary heartbeat.

“These brothers are not evil people,” Schaefer said. “They're siblings. They have dreams too. The affirmations are the things we say to each other every day: Be the light. Choose joy. Love. Be a good human.”

For Bustamante, theatre offers something rare: repetition with purpose.

“The joy of theatre is that we get to repeat it over and over again,” he said. “Every night, we get to practice letting that seed grow and ripple out into the world.”

With a large, energetic cast and a design concept rooted in the voices of the Hampton Roads community, Virginia Stage Company's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat promises a celebration of music, individuality, and shared humanity… stitched together with thousands of dreams.

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