A similar format has been used as well in the United Kingdom in 2007, with the show Any Dream Will Do taking an unknown singer and placing the winner in the lead role for the 2007 performances in the West End. On 9 June 2007, Lee Mead was announced the winner of this show.
It is speculated[by whom?] that a Canadian edition will be produced in the wake of Mirvish Productions' production of the same musical.
Format
Expert panel
An expert panel provided advice to the contestants throughout the series, and provided comments during the live shows. The panel was made up of:
Pia Douwes, (musical theatre actress who is very successful in Europe)
The final eleven contestants competed in the live studio finals held on Sunday nights over eight weeks. Each week the contestants sang and performed during the live show, receiving comments from the judges following their performance. The public then got a chance to vote for their favourite Joseph, and the two contestants with the fewest votes performed a sing-off in front of Nijholt, who then decided which Joseph to keep in the contest. This was repeated with the top ten, the top nine, the top eight, the top seven, the top six, the top five and the top four.
Nijholt had no say in the final casting decision, when in the concluding edition of the series it was left to the public to choose who should play Joseph out of the final two contenders, Freek Bartels and John Vooijs. After more votes were cast, the winning entrant was revealed as Bartels, who won a contract to play Joseph at the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam.
Finalists
Eleven potential Josephs made it through the auditions process to perform during the live shows.
The live shows saw the finalists eliminated one by one following both individual and group performances. Once eliminated, eliminated Joseph then performed "Arme Jozef(Poor, Poor Joseph)\Sluit alle deuren(Close Every Door)" together with the remaining Josephs as his grand exit song, symbolically handing back his dreamcoat.
Week 1 (September 7, 2008)
Following the first week of competition, Robbert was the first Joseph to be eliminated from the competition. The show performances were:
With only six finalists remaining, the Josephs were announced in sets of three and performed in a trio as well as their individual performances. Amir became the fifth contestant to hear he would not be Joseph. The show performances were:
Pia Douwes: could not choose between Freek and John
Peter Van de Velde: John
Willem Nijholt: Roy
After being announced as the series winner, Freek concluded the series with a performance of "Laat je droom bestaan(Any Dream Will Do)\Geef Mij Mijn Dromenjas(Give Me My Coloured Coat)".
After the series
Freek Bartels, along with the winner of the previous Nijholt reality show Op zoek naar Evita, Brigitte Heitzer, were the stars of a one-off Christmas Day special to air on AVRO, entitled Kerst met Joseph en Evita (Christmas with Joseph and Evita).
