Singer Joe McElderry to appear as Pharaoh in Joseph tour

The pop star will join the cast from 14th January 2025 at the Sunderland Empire. Other venues on the tour include Manchester Opera House, Bristol Hippodrome, Southend Cliffs Pavilion, Liverpool Empire, Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff, Glasgow King’s Theatre and Milton Keynes Theatre. For the full list of touring venues click here.

The 33-year-old will join Christina Bianco (Forbidden Broadway, The Wizard of Oz) as Narrator and Adam Filipe (Titanic The Musical, Prince of Egypt, Les Misérables) as Joseph. Completing the company are Hugh Cotton as Reuben and Will Haswell as Simeon.

The tour opened at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 3rd December 2024, with Donny Osmond playing Pharaoh in his only UK tour dates until Sunday 29th December.

Since winning The X Factor in 2009 Joe McElderry has gone on to appear in West End and shows across the country, including in The Who’s Tommy and Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as well as a leading role in Club Tropicana: The Musical.

Following several solo tours, including Set Your Soul Alive, Evolution and Northern Light, the singer paid homage to the late George Michael in 2022 with his Freedom tour.

Joseph still going strong… about the show

Released as a concept album in 1969, the stage version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has been performed hundreds of thousands of times including multiple runs in the West End and on Broadway, as well as tours in more than 80 countries worldwide.

Featuring much loved pop and musical theatre classics, including Any Dream Will Do, Close Every Door, There’s One More Angel In Heaven and Go, Go, Go Joseph, the musical follows the Bible’s story of Jacob’s son Joseph and his 11 brothers. 

Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers who are jealous of his ‘coat of many colours’ and ends up imprisoned by an Egyptian noble. While held captive he eventually becomes the Pharaoh’s right hand man.