Reuben (Bible)

Reuben was the oldest son of Jacob and a minor character in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Usually, he’s the brother who sings the number “One More Angel”.

Biography
Reuben first appears during “Jacob And Sons” introducing himself as the eldest of Jacob’s children. He joins his brothers during “Joseph’s Coat” to explain that they feel like Jacob’s favoritism of Joseph is unfair to them. They pretend to like Joseph in front of him, goofing around with him when he enters, but behind his back they sneer at him. When Jacob gives Joseph a rainbow-colored coat, the brothers decide they’ve had enough of Joseph getting special treatment. He then joins the brothers again for “Joseph’s Dreams”, angrily listening to Joseph tell them his dreams predicting he’ll someday rise above them in society through metaphors such as sheaves of corn and stars in the sky. They take the Narrator aside and tell her that Joseph is foolish for thinking he could best all eleven of them, but deep inside they fear that he might end up right. The next day, the brothers plan to kill Joseph, throwing him into a nearby pit. When a group of Ishmalites ride by, the brothers take Joseph out, only to convince the Ishmalites to purchase Joseph as a slave. They then kill off a goat that was in the area, using it’s blood to mess up Joseph’s coat. That afternoon, the brothers go to Jacob and tell him that Joseph passed away. Reuben leads the group in the country song “One More Angel” accompanied by his wife, explaining that Joseph died protecting his brothers and is now watching over them from Heaven. When Jacob leaves, Reuben shouts a victorious exclamation before the brothers and their wives dance in celebration of Joseph now being gone, presumably in Egypt or dead. Jacob often comes back to get Joseph’s coat to see the remnants of the celebration, but Reuben quickly pretends that him and the group are truly sad about Joseph. Jacob leaves for a final time and the brothers and their wives wrap up their dance with an exclamation of “Die!”.

Rueben reappears during Act Two’s song “Those Canaan Days” where the brothers, usually lead by Simeon, lament their poverty and how they got rid of Joseph. The brothers then remember that in Egypt there’s an abundance of food. Hoping to bring some of the food back home, the brothers go off to Egypt. Unbeknownst to them, Joseph has now taken charge of Egypt as the right hand man to the Pharaoh. When they arrive, they try to convince Joseph to allow them to have some food to take home. Joseph, recognizing his brothers, decides to mess with them, accusing them of being spies attempting to infiltrate Egypt. The brothers tell him they’re poverty stricken and starving and Joseph tells them he’s convinced, letting them have sheaves of corn. However, Joseph sneaks behind Benjamin and slips his golden cup into Benjamin’s sack. When the brothers begin to leave, Joseph yells at them to halt and tells them he knows one of them stole his cup. Reuben is quickly shown not to be the culprit as the cup falls out of Benjamin’s sack. Reuben and the brothers plead to Joseph not to arrest Benjamin, but Joseph picks up the cup and slams it down in front of Benjamin. The brothers, now lead by Judah, sing “Benjamin Calypso”, telling Joseph to arrest them instead of Benjamin because they know he’s innocent. The brothers once again fall in front of Joseph and Joseph feels it’s time to tell them his real identity, finally reuniting Jacob’s sons.

Trivia

 * In the 1982 Broadway production, Reuben took the lead on “Those Canaan Days” instead of “One More Angel”.