What on earth is Joseph singing about? (Technicolor Dreamcoat question)

Cafe Society
1

I was watching the Joseph & The Technicolor Dreamcoat DVD yesterday (a supreme guilty pleasure) when it occurred to me I’d never been able to understand what the ‘Any Dream Will Do’ song actually MEANS. Is there some story behind it, is it some kind of Kabbalistic code beyond our ken, or what?

So, some the lyrics (which I won’t quote in full) make sense. About having the coat and it flying away, etc. But this I don’t get:

So, what does he think he knows? Also, how can he see it for certain if his eyes are closed? Is he pulling back the curtain of consciousness or something? Groovy.

Does he mean the beginning of the story? Why would he want to do this? Is this a kind of ‘our revels now are ended’ kind of goodbye to the audience? I don’t know why the world and he are still waiting, still hesitating though. Is it about the Messiah? Wow, cool.

Anyway, can anyone elucidate?

2

Having done the show three times, I also can say that this song generally makes no sense. I’ve always considered it as a sort of meta-level call to the watchers of the show to bring them into the story. I haven’t seen the DVD, but from the ads I’ve seen of it, with whats-his-name singing to all those kids, it even makes more sense; he’s telling the tale, or introducing the tale that is about to be told.

Even so, the lyrics are pretty darned cryptic for musical theatre.

3

There is a school of interpretation that sees the biblical story of Joseph as a symbolic precursor of (or perhaps herald for) the coming of Jesus. (Needless to say, this isn’t part of Jewish interpretation and, IMHO, it takes a huge amount of stretching to get there.)

However, some of the folks putting on the play … Technicolor Dreamcoat seem to use that, and arguably Rice/Weber had that in mind. So, yes, the song is mystic, if it’s anything. Given that ALW had a hand in it, of course, it could just be whatever words fit to make rhymes, so long as each little phrase sounds like it has meaning.
“Drew back the curtain” would imply pulling away the curtain of reality to see the deeper meanings beneath
Eyes are closed to see better – that’s part of the dream-interpretation thing, that divine messages are clearer visions that simple eyesight.
“Someone is weeping” is presumably Jesus, weeping for the world.
“The world is sleeping” means they don’t see Jesus for who he is… well, OK, for who the songwriters think He Is.

(( Parenthentical aside: a Jewish interpretation of this would be even more stretched, but there is a psalm about Rachel – Joseph’s mother – weeping for her children, the Israelites, in exile. ))

The second verse you’ve cited is, I think, is just a way of saying “The play’s over.” Return to the beginning means he’s back with his father and brothers; the dream (his story, the play) is now ending so the stage lights are dimming, the world is still waiting for the Messianic Era.

I’ve always hated (with a passion) the line “Any dream will do.” Presumably, the sentiment is “Follow your dream, whatever it is.” Sorry, I don’t agree. I don’t think that a dream of white supremacy and the good old days of subjugation of the blacks “will do.” I don’t think that the dreams of Islamic terrorists “will do.” I think the notion of “Follow your dream, whatever it is” is dangereous and leads to madness.

Anyhow, that’s my interpretation, whatever it’s worth.

4

Yes, that is about it. Darling Donnie™ flashes the famous smile and hugs lots of cute kids. I suppose it works both as a hello and a goodbye song, a bit like OOOOOOOOKlahoma.

I like the Jesus interpretation! Although it does seem a bit rich to shoehorn Christ into a Jewish story. :wink: Who would have thought such a lightweight show could be so mystical! Although it was written in the late 60s, so…

With regard to the Jewish aspects of the story, I’ve always assumed that the lyrics ‘just give me a number, instead of a name’ added to the ‘close ev’ry door to me’ song referred to Jewish concentration camp inmates, and am not sure whether its touching or trite. What do you think?

No, me too. It is far too meh. That’s the 60s again for you. :smiley:

5

“Any Dream Will Do” was not in the orignal 1967 choral work. (I know this because I still have the score from Temple Choir) It was added, along with 2 of the narrator’s songs, for the 1977 stage production in London.
It’s a whimpy song, and is used only as filler, because Act 2 wasn’t long enough.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

6

Any Dream Will Do was in the was on the first 1969 and 1972 studio recordings of Joseph, at the end of the show. The stage versions have it at the beginning and the end.

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IIRC, this was a song that Andrew Lloyd Webber (whose name translates from a Briton subdialect into ‘Aaron Spelling of theater’) and Tim Rice wrote for an abortive musical about David (that later became- I’m not making it up- Jesus Christ Superstar [the title song for which was originally ‘Sam-u-el…Sam-u-el…this is from the first book of Sam-u-el’). When David became a musical about Jesus instead they had some leftover songs and inserted this one into Joseph with a quick modification of some lyrics.

Another song of L-W and Rice that even they admit doesn’t really make a lot of sense is Don’t Cry for Me in Argentina. It does the first time you hear it (Evita’s state funeral) but not so much from the balcony, but they couldn’t think of any lyrics they liked better.

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PS- Tim Rice later completed a musical about David with Stephen Schwartz called, logically enough, King David. I have the soundtrack. Save your money.

9

It seems to me to be a lot simpler than that. Joseph’s whole schtick is interpreting dreams. Well, he can’t very well do that if nobody has any dreams to interpret. Somebody, quick, have a dream about something, so I can show off and interpret it.

The world sleeping, and closing your eyes, have obvious connections to dreaming (in the nocturnal sense, not the hopeful sense).

10

I saw a stage production in Honolulu during the 80’s, but before that I had been introduced to the thirty-minute LP* in 1973. The final song had me convinced that Joseph, when his services in the famine abatement field had been made redundant, retired to a life of having and interpreting dreams, for his own amusement.

*Committed to memory. These days, when I am faced with a half-hour of waiting, and nothing else to occupy me, I play back the album in my head. If I only have fifteen minutes, I go through Side 1.

11

Minor nitpick - its in Jeremiah 31, not Psalms. It is recited as the Haftorah on one of the days of Rosh HaShannah.

As for the DVD, I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand what the song was about either - it just seemed to be a “fluff” number that didn’t do anything to advance the story or explore the characters.

Every now and again, whenever one of our kids gets too full of himself or acts up, we threaten to sell them to a “hairy bunch of Ishamealites.” :slight_smile:

Zev Steinhardt

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When I saw the thread title, at first I thought this was going to be about the Technicolor Dreamcoat Joke on the simpsons this week.

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OMIGAWD! I do that, too!! Usually with a Sondheim show, sometimes with Gilbert & Sullivan

14

The musical’s always been basically a revue of course, but the last time I saw it done the “hairy bunch of Ishmaelites” part was done as a gangsta rap. Weirdly, it worked. :cool:

15

Our 9th grade mixed chorus performed “Joseph” in 1973 and **Any Dream Will Do ** was the closing song in the performance.

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Actually, it was a musical called “Jacob’s Journey.” You are confusing it with Tim Rice’s much later musical “King David,” which was written with Alan Menken (not Schwartz). How many of the songs from Jacob were recycled is questionable, as no recording or anything is known to exist from it.

17

I played the part of Reuben in a production of this musical once; Two things are important (IMO):
-The precise form of the words themselves is not as important as the general thrust of their meaning in context and…
-The narrative thread cannot be ignored; the song Any Dream Will Do appears twice;
–Once near the start - just after the prologue, which is actually a past-tense account of the story of Joseph - so ‘may I return to the beginning’ is the character Joseph’s way of starting the story off at the right point
–Again as the finale, where the term ‘may I return to the beginning’ now seems to imply that everything is back where it belongs; he is reconciled to his brothers, Jacob knows he’s alive, etc.

If you dig too deep into analysis of the lyrics, they stop making sense.

18

Ace! That makes sense, actually, I was watching the documentary in the Phantom DVD (seem to be going through a Webber kick at the mo) and they mentioned that the Love changes everything’ song was originally written for Phantom.

“Sam-u-el… Sam-u-el…wears frilly knickers and a wonderbra” - doesn’t really work, does it? :wink:

But that’s part of the fun! Besides I like the idea of Joseph being full of Jewish mystical inferences, even if it’s not.

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It was added ***after * ** 1967

20

I know I’m about 20 years late to this, but this thread is still the first result on Google when you search “Any Dream Will Do Interpretation” so I thought I’d add my 2 cents.

I thought of it as a song version of the short story “The Egg” by Andy Weir (which was also released after this thread but gets some inspiration from much older religion/philosophy) (here’s the story in text or the video version if you want to watch it).

Basically, when “you” die, your soul/consciousness returns to its most essential state, and you have a conversation with God. God tells you that “you” aren’t just the person who died, “you” are and will be every single thing that has ever lived and will ever live, and will be reincarnated into every possible form (for various reasons but that part is less important). This mortal coil was just the latest in a long line.

I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain

He died, and came to this purgatory/liminal space where the conversation with God happens

To see for certain, what I thought I knew

He always had an inner sense/intuition about reincarnation and the unity/non-duality inherent in all things, but now it’s been confirmed.

Far, far away, someone was weeping

A faint notion of the sadness of his loved ones at his passing, or maybe a premonition of the baby he will be born into crying as they are born (I admit this is a very loose interpretation of reincarnation but it fits the song)

But, the world was sleeping

He’s in that purgatory/liminal space/abyss, the world of existence might as well be asleep to him.

I wore my coat with golden lining

This mortal coil/body/costume etc.

Bright colors shining, wonderful and new
And in the East, the dawn was breaking
And the world was waking

Seeing existence again in all its beauty, as if it’s the first time

A crash of drums, a flash of light
My golden coat, flew out of sight
The colors faded into darkness
I was left alone

Death, and his departure back to that purgatory/liminal space/abyss.

May I return (may I return), to the beginning (ah-ah-ah)
The light is dimming (ah-ah) and the dream is too
The world and I (the world and I), we are still waiting (ah-ah-ah)
Still hesitating (ah-ah)
Any dream will do

He wants to go back and take on a new life (dream), and any new life will do (why? Don’t know, perhaps the idea is any existence is better than this or leads to the truth/reality and one must live all these lives to get there).

I know this has very little to do with the story of Christ or Judaism, but it was just a partial intution. Also Hinduism/Buddhism/general Eastern philosophy was very prominent in the 60s so maybe ALW got some inspiration from that. Who knows.