Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat gay
Sometimes, stories and images are so familiar to us, that we completely flop to see their significance. The story of Joseph and his coat is familiar to us all from childhood Bible stories &#; and even more familiar as Lloyd-Webber&#;s Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Ignore the main story for now, and just focus on that coat of many colours.
In the modern world, colour is everywhere, so much so that we hardy notice it unless it is used particularly good, or until it is unexpectedly absent. It was not always so. In the Biblical world, clothing was mostly drab: dyes of all kinds were costly , brightly coloured cloth of any gentle was an expensive luxury. It is not surprising that Joseph&#;s brothers would have been jealous of the special favour shown by their father, and wished to sell him into slavery.
But there could be more to the story than first appears: this was not just a coloured coat, but a very specific type &#; a coat of many colours, in stripes. Just such a coat was typically worn by a specific organization of people &#; a distinctly queer group.
Consider this extract from &#;Coming Out Spiritually&#;, in which he draws on Conner, &#;Blossom of Bone&#;:
Close Every Door
Way, way assist many centuries ago, not long after The Bible began
It's part of the Book of Genesis BUT WITH SINGING.
Really, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (abbreviated as JosephDreamcoat, Dreamcoat, J&tATD, etc. etc.) is simply that: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Breakthrough Hit, his first musical to be performed, with lyrics by his frequent collaborator Tim Rice, and based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. It first performed in the form of a choir arrangement in , before making it to the stage in
As a side note, this was the musical by which Donny Osmond, playing the titular Joseph, surpassed George Rose to take the World Record for Most Appearances as a Unpartnered Character in a Stage Production. Rose previously held the record for playing Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance over times on stage; Osmond surpassed this highlight, and eventually would move on to play Joseph in over presentations of the show, including a filmed version. Osmand finally hung up the coat and decided he was too old to engage Joseph after the show, and as of is instead playing Pharaoh in a U.K. touring show of Joseph.
Was
Joseph and the Transgender Dreamcoat?
LGBTQ activists within the Church have long produced stories deliberately twisting the sexual orientation of biblical characters to fit their revisionist campaign. I thought I’d heard them all: David and Jonathan, Daniel and the palace master, and even Ruth and Naomi. But I hadn’t yet heard of a gender diverse character in the Bible. Have you?
So I was struck by a blog post published by the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), a major pro-LGBTQ coalition active in the Together Methodist Church. A “genderqueer” RMN blogger presents an altered story of Joseph and the coat of many colors (as pictured above). In this new-fangled interpretation, Joseph’s coat is not a colorful robe, but a “princess dress,” possibly making him gender diverse. The blogger, Mac Buff, contends:
[W]e no longer understand the precise meaning of the word usually translated “coat of many colors,” but the only other time it’s used is to describe the clothing of a king’s virginal daughter. A princess dress.
Which opens the possibility that Joseph could have been, instead of an arrogant little twerp spoiled by his father, a trans kid just trying to survive in the family.
Re
Reason #1: The utter absence of a hetero-romantic plot, almost unheard-of in musical theater.
It's a Mod version of the picaresque adventures of Joseph (from the Bible), favorite of his father, given a Coat of Many Colors.
His brothers, jealous, set out to kill him, but have a change of heart and sell him to slave traders instead. He ends up in Egypt -- depicted as a glittery Las Vegas -- as a slave to sleazy merchant Potiphar.
Potiphar's wife tries unsuccessfully to seduce him -- "I don't believe in free love," he yells in s slang. Or maybe he doesn't particularly care for girls.
Falsely accused of attempted rape, Joseph is thrown in prison, where he begins interpreting other prisoners' weird dreams, thus drawing the attention of the Pharaoh (an Elvis-like pop star). Pharaoh makes Joseph his right-hand guy. The brothers arrive, and Joseph toys with them a bit before reconciling.
Reason #2: Pharaoh likes Joseph -- a lot. Big gay subtext.
Reason #3: Joseph spends mos
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