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Any Dream’s Lewis Fills in for Lee Mead in JosephDate: 10 January 2008
Any Dream Will Do second runner-up Lewis Bradley (pictured) will get his chance to don that brightly hued garb in the West End after all (See The Goss, 30 Jul 2007). The 18-year-old has signed up to fill in for Any Dream winner and Whatsonstage.com Award nominee Lee Mead in the title role of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (click here to vote!) during Mead’s upcoming four weeks of holiday from the production at the Adelphi Theatre.
Bradley’s first fortnight stint commences next Monday 14 January 2008 and continues until 26 January. He’s then on again from 10 to 15 March and 5 to 10 May 2008. Further ahead, Mead is also on holiday from 28 July to 5 August 2008, but a replacement for those dates has yet to be confirmed.
Bradley isn’t the only other Any Dream Will Do finalist to enjoy their own time in the limelight. In the West End, Ben James-Ellis has been Whatsonstage.com Award-nominated for his role as Link Larkin in this year’s Broadway transfer of Hairspray and Daniel Boys last month joined the cast of Avenue Q. In addition, both Craig Chalmers and Chris Barton are currently starring in the tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, playing Joseph and youngest brother Benjamin, respectively.
In addition to Bradley’s stint, Jenna Lee James has taken over as the Narrator from Preeya Kalidas, another Whatsonstage.com Award nominee. James does not perform Wednesday matinees, when the role of the Narrator is taken by Fiona Reyes.
Joseph started life in 1968 as a 20-minute entertainment for an end-of-term school concert. By the time it received its Broadway premiere in 1982, it had been expanded into a full two-hour show. With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, Joseph’s 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".
The new staging of the record-breaking 1990s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium, which was directed by the late Steven Pimlott, is designed by Mark Thompson and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. The musical opened on 17 July 2007 (previews from 6 July) at the Adelphi, where it’s currently booking through to 18 October 2008.
In addition to Mead’s nomination for Best Actor in a Musical and Kalidas’ for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is in the running in this year’s Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Dean Collinson as Pharaoh) and Best Musical Revival (click here to vote!).
- by Terri Paddock
