WOS TV: Lee Mead Lives Dream at Joseph Opening

Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead claimed his prize in decisive fashion last night (17 July 2007, previews from 6 July) when he opened in the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre.

In addition to his 11 fellow finalists from the BBC One reality TV casting competition, the star-studded audience who gathered to cheer Mead on included Arlene Phillips, Ben Elton, Carole Caplin, Connie Fisher, David Frost, David Walliams, Denise Van Outen, Elena Roger, John Barrowman, June Sarpong, Katherine Jenkins, Kathy Lette, Martin Shaw, Michelle Gayle, Sarah Brightman, Siobhan Dillon, Zoe Tyler, and former Josephs Jason Donovan, Stephen Gately and Jess Conrad.

The musical’s creators, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, joined Mead, his fellow principals Preeya Kalidas (the Narrator), Dean Collinson (Pharaoh) and Stephen Tate (Jacob/Potiphar/Guru), and the rest of the company on stage for the extended curtain call to enjoy the audience’s standing ovation.

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For Whatsonstage.com TV, we were on hand for arrivals and the curtain call of Joseph at the Adelphi Theatre and the post-show party at the Hippodrome, Leicester Square. Amongst our TV interviewees are Denise Van Outen, John Barrowman, Zoe Tyler, Bill Kenwright, Connie Fisher, David Frost, Kathy Lette, former Josephs Jason Donovan and Jess Conrad, Any Dream Will Do finalists Keith Jack and Craig Chalmers and, last but not least, the West End’s “sexy” new star Lee Mead, who shares his workout secrets…

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, based on the Biblical tale of Joseph and his 11 jealous brothers, started life in 1968 as a 20-minute entertainment for an end-of-term school concert. The popular score includes the songs "Any Dream Will Do", "Close Every Door to Me", “Go, Go, Go Joseph”, “Those Canaan Days”, “Benjamin Calypso” and "One More Angel in Heaven". A new song, “King of My Heart”, has been written by Lloyd Webber and Rice especially for this new production (See News, 16 Jul 2007).

Lloyd Webber dedicated the show, a revival of the record-breaking 1990s production at the London Palladium, to its late director Steven Pimlott, who died in February (See News, 15 Feb 2007). It’s designed by Mark Thompson and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast.

- by Terri Paddock

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