One of the great curiosities of the Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat success story is the short-lived prequel show which survived a few months into the original West End run at the Albery Theatre in 1973 before being cut, never to be seen again. Jacob’s Journey told the story of Jacob right up until the events of the Dreamcoat section. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote a series of songs for the piece, but David Land and Robert Stigwood (the producers) were less enthused about Tim’s light hearted script. They opted to bring in celebrated writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson who had created Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe & Son, huge television comedy hits. Thus although featuring a number of songs by Tim and Andrew, Jacob’s Journey also had quite a bit of spoken dialogue as Jacob’s complex story was unravelled for a West End audience. The production opened on 9th February 1973 at the Albery Theatre, having played both the Young Vic and the Roundhouse in previous months for short runs. At these earlier try-outs, the first half had been the performing of Medieval Mystery plays but now Joseph officially had a bespoke prequel, thus Jacob’s Journey opened in the West End as the first act to the main event.
Both Tim and Andrew have always said this prequel story never really worked, which was why they were quite happy to jettison the whole of the first half and expand Joseph still further ('Pharaoh’s Story', 'Those Caanan Days' and 'Benjamin Calypso' were written to help flesh out the meagre running time of the 40 minute show). Thus in late June 1973, Jacob’s Journey took its final bow as Joseph and his coat of many colours finally took centre stage having been expanded for the final time. Not that this decision mattered much, as the entire production closed in September as box office receipts dwindled.
One of the songs from Jacob’s Journey made it into the expanded Joseph for a while. ‘I Don’t Think I’m Wanted Back At Home’ became a song for Joseph directly after the ‘Joseph’s Dreams’ section of the show. Reportedly Andrew never liked this number and after a while it was quietly dropped from Joseph, but was still being performed right up until the late 1980s in Bill Kenwright’s UK touring version. Until Andrew found out (ho hum!). The melody had already been used in the very first (unproduced) Rice / Lloyd Webber musical in the late 1960s The Likes Of Us when it had been called ‘You Won’t Care About Him Anymore’, and then later a song cut from the original 1975 Ayckbourn / Lloyd Webber Jeeves production, this time as ‘Never Again’.
A song for Rachel, Jacob’s favourite wife, entitled ‘And Did He Notice Me’ had first been recorded in 1968 with another Rice lyric attached and released as ‘Believe Me I Will’ by the great French crooner Sacha Distel.
The song ‘Seven Years’ (seemingly a favourite with the composers) got a new lease of life as a single for the original stage Joseph, Gary Bond, in 1973. Again with new Rice lyrics. ‘Disillusion Me’ (backed with ‘Any Dream Will Do’) came and went pretty much un-noticed by the record buying public.
The theatre brochure reproduced many of the lyrics written for Jacob’s Journey and can be seen here.
Little more is
remembered of Jacob’s Journey by all those involved. It lasted just short of six months. Perhaps one day this curiosity in the canon
of Rice and Lloyd Webber will be revisited,
if only to preserve for posterity the journey not only by Jacob but of
Joseph, the school cantata which went on
to become one of the most popular
musicals ever written. So endeth the lesson.
Nice to see this show remembered. I actually played Jacob at the time, and there somewhere might exist my recording of 'I Don't Think I'm Wanted Back at Home'. It was never released.
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