What an Amazing 'Dreamcoat' from Chiswick School
Anthonia Chalmers sees grandson in musical she performed in 50 years ago
Pharoah in this production is all in white with scarlet-trimmed flares
January 25, 2026
On Thursday 18 December, it was a pre-Christmas joy to watch Chiswick School’s Drama and Performing Arts’ production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and to see my grandson play Pharoah in a show that I had taken part in half a century ago.
Between April 1974 and July 1977, I lived and worked in Johannesburg. At the time for someone like me, South Africa (SA) was a land of opportunity. Working for the pharmaceutical industry by day, I could take part in amateur dramatics by night with ‘amateur’ leading to ‘professional’ status and possession of a South African Theatre Union Card (SATU) - actually not widely useful as UK Equity members were boycotting appearances in SA and not entertaining UK appearances by SATU members!
PACT (Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal) staged Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Joburg in 1974. The production went on to Pretoria, to Durban and to Cape Town. My day job and a couple of weeks of holiday allowed me to take part in the first three venues and to view the show in Cape Town. What was my role? One of the chorus of blue gown-clad swinging nuns! This was rather a departure from the original production of the work – written by Tim Rice and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber for the all-boys preparatory school for St Paul’s, Colet Court, then in Hammersmith, before both sectors of the school moved over the river into Barnes.
Such was the success of the show in SA, Tim Rice came out and took on the role of Pharoah for a few performances. I think I still have the programme with his signature, not to mention the original T-shirt (see below).
The show T shirt from the original SA production Pharoah 2025 – gone a bit yellow in 51 years!
Chiswick Performing Arts does not spend a lot of money on scenery or costuming, nor does it need to. Cast members wear their own casual clothes but pretty much all of one type and in a blend of similar neutral colours. Hence Joseph stands out when he dons the short sparkling golden jacket with multicoloured lining. Potifar indicates his status with a long, coloured gown and a wife in a short cocktail dress and high heels. Pharoah is all in white with scarlet-trimmed flares. In this production, the narrator blended in with the chorus who would sometimes parade down the ‘catwalk’ and move round the audience, one or two of them holding woolly sheep!
Sensibly, Joseph used a mike for a solo number. His voice, and Potiphar’s have not yet broken whereas Pharoah’s largely has. Chiswick School’s drama group lost a lot of talented sixth formers in the summer so it is delightful to see a substantial intake of newcomers boosting the exuberant company which includes some budding stars.
These youngsters are so lucky to have the time and dedication of Tommy Robinson and Georgia Knight in putting on not one production per year nor one production per term, but several. I am astounded by their achievements. Members of the PTA turn out in force to welcome the large audiences that Tommy and Georgia’s productions attract; to sell tickets for a fiver, and serve wine and canned beers and spirits, soft drinks and a variety of crisps at very reasonable prices. The audience sits comfortably at decorated tables and within a very short time of the performance ending, committee and audience have jointly cleared up the hall.
In Joburg, the long-standing Pharoah, Alvon Collison, wanted to move from his flat in Hillbrow. I was looking for accommodation as I had been living in an aparthotel. I was able to take over his flat rental (Hillbrow then was a buzzing cosmopolitan area, very different from what it is today) and live 21 storeys high. I was friendly with Farah, one of Potiphar’s hareem. She was currently dating an Englishman from Acton working out in SA. He was bringing a tennis club friend along one evening and she invited me as the blind date. Well, we jelled, and went on to have two sons, the younger of whom produced Chiswick School’s current Pharoah!
1974: Richard Loring, Narrator; the late Bruce Millar, Joseph; the late Alvon Collison, Pharoah
Anthonia Chalmers
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