‘Everyone should have the opportunity’: Alan Doggett and the modern British musical

Abstract

Alan John Doggett (1936–1978), conductor, composer and choir master, has usually been unfairly treated as a mere footnote in the careers of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. This article examines his close involvement with them in the period 1967–1969 in particular, as well as his continuing, if less close, involvement in the following years. It is argued that Doggett played a crucial role in the development and evolution of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the work which launched Lloyd Webber and Rice’s careers, and that he was effectively a third member of the team prior to the international success of Jesus Christ Superstar. Doggett wrote his own musical, Jason and the Golden Fleece (1973), in a similar style to Joseph, though its purpose was significantly different – the difference is elucidated with reference to the contemporary theoretical concepts of Jacques Attali.