Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice criticise schools' 'political' change to Joseph musical

The lyrics ‘Children of Israel’ were altered to read ‘Children of Kindness’ for a New Zealand production of ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (left) and lyricist Tim Rice speaking on stage in 2014

Lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber have protested against a lyric change to their musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which premiered in 1970.

A group of schools in New Zealand had altered a line in the song “Close Every Door”, sung by Joseph behind prison bars, from the original: “Children of Israel are never alone ... for we have been promised a land of our own”. The lyrics were changed to read “Children of kindness” instead, reports The Telegraph.

While speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival, Rice said he had only found out about the change via Twitter, adding: “They were doing the Joseph songs and they changed 'Close Every Door', the last line, 'Children of Israel are never alone', they changed it to 'children of kindness are never alone', which was obviously being politically correct or something.”

"[They] interpreted the song completely wrongly, and what a rotten thing. And I only heard about it because someone tweeted me and said 'did you approve this change?' I said I did not approve it and I hadn't heard about it. It was quite a big thing, it was for all schools in the Wellington area in New Zealand."

"We came down on them like a ton of bricks and they said ... we wanted to make it easier for the children. I thought the point of teaching was to teach children to cope with hard things in life. This was moronic," he continued. "I mean Joseph is an innocent story straight from the Bible and these people in New Zealand thought we were making statements about Israel and Palestine – bonkers."

Lloyd Webber later backed Rice in the dispute, telling The Observer: “Tim is quite right. You cannot reinvent a Bible story. That song is a serious moment and a key point in the show. It is about the connection Joseph suddenly makes with Israel. Tim was paraphrasing the Bible and it should be kept that way.”

The local council has since apologised and said the change will be dropped, adding that a “community coordinator made an error in judgement”. The coordinator for the New Zealand arts festival where the song will be performed in September said: “Action has been taken over the weekend to ensure that the original song words are all reinstated with immediate effect.”