Theatre impresario and Everton FC chairman Bill Kenwright talks to Viv Hardwick about his current shows, such as The Wizard of Oz, and the enduring appeal of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which tours to the Sunderland Empire next week.

You sound out of breath.

I’ve been running up the stairs because I’m late after auditioning people for the re-cast of Love Never Dies. It’s not easy keeping a handle on all the shows. You’re also talking to me at the end of January, the finish of the football transfer window, so it’s pretty 24/7 at the moment. The Wizard of Oz is having it’s first preview this week and that’s possibly the biggest thing I’ve ever done.

Persuading Michael Crawford to come out of retirement to play the Wizard has been quite a coup.

It’s been one of the happiest experiences of my life. I didn’t know Michael Crawford, and when I approached him to do the Wizard it was a long shot. He eventually came back to Andrew (Lloyd Webber) and myself, he’d read the book, and watched the movie over and over again to see what he could bring to the role. He and Tommy Steele are the most consummate musical performers I’ve ever come across. I now get texts from him regarding the game because he’s become an Evertonian, as most people do when they spend much time with me.

Joseph is returning to the Sunderland Empire next week. What is so special about this show?

I was only standing in the aisle at the Palladium last night talking to Arlene Phillips about this.

There’s a lot of people in life who have a lot to thank Andrew Lloyd Webber for, and I’m one of them. Joseph was the one that started if all off for me 30 years ago. I got hold of a 30-minute show and, like topsy, over the years it’s grown into this extraordinary rollercoaster that’s it’s become. Where we play the same theatres year in and year out to the same audiences. There will be very few people at Sunderland who haven’t seen the show two or three times. You see eight-year-olds sitting next to 80-year-olds having the most wonderful time. I never get tired of directing it, seeing it, producing.

Andrew tends to get all the credit but those lyrics by Time Rice, which he wrote at about 19, are spectacularly good. One of the great things about the Wizard of Oz is that I’ve brought the two of them back together. They are writing together again and that was a huge thrill as they stood round the piano. I thought is was one of the great moments in my life.

Can Joseph continue to tour indefinitely?

I remember standing outside the Birmingham Hippodrome with my friend Richard Johnson, who used to run it, and asking if he thought the show had legs. He felt there was another five years… and that was 25 years ago. And that’s all I can tell you.

I can’t imagine my life without it. I don’t think there will ever be another show like it. It plays twice daily, it tours 52 weeks of the year and it plays to packed houses after 30 years.

Will there ever be anything like that again?

A lot of the success of Joseph has come from the production touches you’ve added like the local children’s chorus for each show. Do you remember where that came from?

Probably me. We originally had them walking through the auditorium with candles, but health and safety wouldn’t allow us to do that. We’ve changed many things over the years but in addition to the music and lyrics it’s the story that is great. It is one of the best Bible stories.

Can I put you on the spot about a favourite Joseph?

That’s a difficult one. I can go back 30 years to Jess Conrad, God bless him. I remember him saying over 20 years ago at the Vaudeville Theatre dressing room in the West End ‘boss I’ve got to finish I’m 50 next week and you can’t have a Joseph over 50’.

And he still did two years after that. Lee Mead for instance was a brother for a year and played Pharaoh for a while. When he auditioned on TV I’d never considered him as a Joseph. We were told that Keith Jack, who is doing the role now, had won it as we walked on to the set in the final with 90 seconds to the announcement. Evidently it was really close to the last second. You know that he now says that getting Joseph earlier would probably have been too much for him at that time. To be honest it’s like if you ask me who is my favourite Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers… the answer is, of course, the current one. Got to be the current one because that’s the one I’m working with.

Joseph and Blood Brothers are the bedrock of my company.

* Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Sunderland Empire, Tuesday-Sunday, Tickets: £15.50-£29. Box Office: 0844-847-2499 sunderlandempire.org.uk