Photos: Joseph Lee Mead Meets His Leading Lady

Any Dream Will Do victor Lee Mead and Bombay Dreams star Preeya Kalidas took a break from this week’s rehearsals for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to meet press photographers this morning at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre, where the musical opens on 17 July 2007 (previews from 6 July).

Last weekend, Mead won the title role in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical via public vote on the BBC One television programme Any Dream Will Do (See News, 11 Jun 2007), while Kalidas was cast as the show’s Narrator following more conventional casting methods. Today, Mead admitted that’s he’s not just a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Joseph – he’s also a regular reader of Whatsonstage.com.

“It’s been a roller-coaster ride for me over the past few weeks, but the next challenge for us all is to rehearse the show and give the audience at the Adelphi a great night out,” Mead said today. “I’ve always been passionate about Joseph ever since I saw it as a kid in Southend, but I know I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the public voting for me. I’ve got them to thank, and everyone from Whatsonstage.com who voted. As a theatre lover, I go on the site. So thanks.”

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, will once again be designed by Mark Thompson and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. The cast also features Dean Collinson (as Pharaoh) and Stephen Tate (Jacob/Potiphar/Guru).

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 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”.

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(Photos by Dan Wooller for Whatsonstage.com)