Gareth Gates Takes Over Dreamcoat from Lee Mead

As previously tipped (See The Goss, 21 Nov 2008),
Gareth Gates (pictured), who first found fame as the runner-up to Will Young on the first series of ITV’s Pop Idol in 2002, will take over from Lee Mead when he leaves Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the new year (See News, 18 Jul 2008). Gates starts performances at the Adelphi Theatre on 9 February 2009.

Ahead of his West End debut, Gates makes his professional stage debut next month in Cinderella, playing Prince Charming to Joanna Page’s Cinders at the New Wimbledon Theatre from 5 December 2008 to 18 January 2009. Since Pop Idol, Gates has released three albums – the last after being the subject of a documentary, Whatever Happened to Gareth Gates?, two years ago – overcome his severe stammer by training as a speech therapist and, earlier this year, competed on another ITV reality show, Dancing on Ice.

Speaking at a press briefing at the Adelphi theatre today, Gates said: “Joseph is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. I played the part at school when I was eight and it’s amazing to now be playing it in the West End.” He was quick to praise Lee Mead’s “brilliant” turn in the role, adding “he has a great singing voice and I’ll need to be at the top of my game to match him”. He will perform a full eight shows a week, and revealed that his wife is due to give birth to their first child in April, saying he will “wait and see” whether to take paternity leave.

In July, Gates took part in a West End gala concert celebrating 25 years of the British musical writing partnership Stiles & Drewe at Her Majesty’s Theatre, performing a preview of Soho Cinders material. He said at the time: “I’ve always been into the theatre and going to musicals, and often imagined myself being part of an amazing West End production.”

Lee Mead, a reality TV winner himself having got the Joseph job by winning the BBC’s Any Dream Will Do, will give his last performance in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on 10 January 2009, having been in the title role since the production opened on 17 July 2007 (previews from 6 July). Understudy Ricky Rojas will play the role in the four weeks prior to Gates taking over.

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 Really Useful Group production is currently booking at the Adelphi until 18 July 2009.

– by Terri Paddock & Theo Bosanquet