West End Production to Find New Lead by BBC Show

|PIC1|The West End production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will find the lead actor by a television search show, the BBC has announced.

Previous Josephs in the West End have included Jason Donovan and Philip Schofield.

The show, called "Any Dream will Do", will search for a Joseph for the new Andrew Lloyd Webber production.

The search follows Connie Fisher's success as Maria in The Sound of Music after she won a BBC1 show "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?".

Together with Lord Lloyd Webber, an expert panel, and viewers, a girl to play the narrator and a Pharaoh/Elvis will also be found.

Graham Norton, who hosted the previous "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" show, will also host the follow-up show.

Lord Lloyd Webber said: "The success of 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?' this summer was a real boost for musical theatre in Britain and I was particularly thrilled with the reaction from schoolchildren up and down the country.

"I cannot wait to get them involved in Any Dream Will Do and to get back into the studio with Graham.

"Joseph started in schools and I am looking for a great school choir - to play in the West End, we need a smashing girl, a great boy and of course a Pharaoh/Elvis."

BBC1 Controller Peter Fincham said the new show would be "a perfect follow-up" to the televised search for Maria.

"I think this show will have huge appeal for the BBC1 audience," he said.

Lord Lloyd Webber and prolific musical theatre presenter Sir Tim Rice created the musical which portrays the biblical story of Joseph, his 11 brothers and the coat of many colours.

The first version, performed in 1968, was commissioned for a London school and was just 15 minutes long.