Joseph of Old and Romance, or, Which Character Writers Have Focused on the Most

Amazingly enough, Webber did NOT include a romance in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat.

Plenty of other people have. 

Joseph and his potential wife have provided many "between the lines" readings. In some romantic versions, he marries Aseneth, the daughter of Potipher (Genesis refers to Joseph marrying "Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On"). Other versions have Joseph marry Potipher's wife--the woman who tried to seduce him--after her husband dies and she is reduced to beggary. 

There has always been humor in the tale.

Still other versions provide Gothic-like details after Potipher's wife drinks a magic potion; it takes over her mind (hence the attempt at seduction). Snakes show up at one point.

What is fascinating in all cases is that Potipher's wife receives so much attention. Even when (or if) the tale is being used to show the wantonness of a bad woman, she becomes a character in her own right and gets more "screen time" than anybody else. And a number of writers have perceived her sympathetically, a character who is battling desires and emotions she can't conquer. In early modern Europe, she became a kind of argument between libertines, anti-libertines (hugely influenced by reviving Stoicism), and those who took more nuanced views towards human desire. 

Contrite Judah

The Bible story itself is less concerned with the virginity/non-virgininity state of the hero and more with the social ramifications of adultery. Joseph resists because lying with his master's wife would be dishonorable. Consider that Judah's tale (stuck in the middle of Joseph's tale) is about a man who didn't see to the security of his daughter-in-law. His failure is condemned and the daughter-in-law who tricked him into sleeping with her is let off the hook. Fast-forward to David: Nathan's biggest problem with David is that David misused his position.

Post-ancient world, adultery becomes not (only) a violation of a social contract but a matter for the individual soul. The change of perspective elicited a great many questions and opinions. The result was a focus on the person who struggles with that issue: the wife--not Joseph.