Lee Mead

Lee Mead

Lee Stephen Mead (born 14 July, 1981, Southend-on-Sea) is a British musical theatre actor, best known for playing the male lead in the 2007 London West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The show's composer/co-producer Andrew Lloyd Webber cast Mead in the role because he won the BBC reality talent show Any Dream Will Do.

Aged eight, Mead "went to see Joseph with his other gran,” his grandmother Lilian Horning, 77, told 11 June's Mirror, adding: "He saw Joseph and pointed to him and said 'That's who I want to be'. Acting and singing is all he ever wanted to do."

In September 2007, Mead won the UK male Rear of the Year competition.

Any Dream Will Do

In 2007, Mead took part in the BBC series Any Dream Will Do, eventually winning the role of Joseph in a West End revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on June 9. From early on, the odds on him winning were fairly short. "People thought Lee was the pro," said Lloyd Webber on the show after host Graham Norton had announced the result. "But he's only been an understudy in the show and he's never performed in front of me or really very many people at all." He added to Mead:"I think it's an amazing achievement that you've done tonight." Guardian TV critic Lucy Mangan wrote in the daily on June 14 that '...beautifully bone-structured Lee, who looked his studio audience in the eye as he sang, hit the top notes without looking as though he wished Joseph's brothers had left him safely down the well before all these key changes started happening'. On the May 26 episode, singer Josh Groban chose Mead as the contestant with whom he would perform a duet of You Raise Me Up live on the results show.

Before viewers’ phone votes were counted in the final, non-voting judge, West End and Broadway impresario and producer – and Tony-nominated director - Bill Kenwright told Mead: "This is my moment of truth...You've worked for me. You've understudied for me (as Pharaoh on a provincial tour of the show). I should have seen back then what everybody’s seen for the last eight weeks. You’re not an understudy. You're a leading man. You're a star. It's taught me a lot, this series. You're going to wake up tomorrow...a West End leading man." Doctor Who, Torchwood and West End star John Barrowman said: “…you can see from the audience here they love watching you. You're definitely the quintessential leading man." And Lloyd Webber said: “You're a fantastic performer...You're phenomenal. You're a great showman. You've got everything there." At a BBC TV party, held 'moments after' Mead's victory was announced, Kenwright and Glasgow-born, Joliet, Illinois-raised Barrowman gave Lloyd Webber's video blog their thoughts on Mead and the final (Kenwright speaks first).

On June 12, Mead - with fellow finalists Lewis Bradley and Keith Jack - released a double A-side single (recorded on June 10) featuring the songs "Any Dream Will Do" (performed by Mead, as winner) and "Close Every Door" (an ensemble piece featuring all three finalists). The proceeds from this single will go to the BBC's annual Children in Need charity appeal. On 17 June the single entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 18 on downloads only. It was released on CD on 18 June 2007. In 24 June, 2007's chart, the single - both physical and downloads - peaked at No. 2, before slipping to No. 5 in 1 July's chart.

The BBC had commissioned an "Any Dream Will Do The Winner's Story" Christmas special, wrote Heat magazine's Jason Arnopp in an interview with Mead.. It was shown on BBC One on 29 December 2007.

Announcing the result, Norton told Mead: "You're now the star of Andrew's show and, officially, the People's Joseph." As winner, Mead gained a six-month contract to lead the revived 1991 London Palladium production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at London's Adelphi Theatre, with previews from 6 July and its first night on 17 July 2007. Booking was so fast that on 3 July 2007 — when the first three months were sold out — the producers extended the show's run and Mead's contract until 7 June 2008. His contract has now been extended to October 2008.

In his first public performance since winning the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on BBC One’s Any Dream Will Do, Mead on, July 1, 2007, sang Any Dream Will Do with movie Joseph Donny Osmond and 1991 West End Joseph Jason Donovan in front of 63,000 people in London’s Wembley Stadium as the UK's Princes William and Harry's 2007 Concert for Diana sought to celebrate their mother's life.

The 'People's Joseph'

‘They call themselves Loppies — short for Lee-Obsessed People,’ wrote The Stage’s Scott Matthewman in the performing arts weekly’s 20 June 2007, edition. ‘I am, of course, talking about fans of Lee Mead, winner of BBC One's Any Dream Will Do and in rehearsals to play the eponymous Joseph in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Lloyd Webber's site posted rehearsal video The show's website posted stills of rehearsals and video of Mead's first meeting with the rest of the cast.

Elsewhere in 20 June 2007's The Stage, Mead told the paper’s Matthew Hemley: “It is really good. It has been a whirlwind since the final on that last Saturday. I did the video for the Any Dream Will Do single the day after and then on the Monday I was straight into rehearsals. Now I am just looking forward to being up there on stage...” Asked why he had entered the TV talent search show, Mead said: “I am a strong believer that you need to take risks in your career and that is what has brought me this far. I thought I really want to play that role, why not go for it?... There were thousands of professionals who auditioned [for the talent search series] - it was open to professionals and amateurs...” He did not see himself taking part in another talent search like Any Dream Will Do, he said: "It’s a once in a lifetime thing." He was getting used to the attention. “...I am not here for the fame - I am here for the show.”

"I noticed Lee from his first [screened] audition (Ronan Keating's When You Say Nothing at All) and thought he was fantastic," the show’s female lead Bombay Dreams star Preeya Kalidas, 27, told Hemley. "Joseph has to have vulnerability about him because you see his journey from a young boy to a man. Lee has those qualities of innocence. The great thing about the television show is that it has brought a new audience to theatre..." And, she told June 18 2007's London Evening Standard: "I think the best man won."

When the box office opened 48 hours after Mead's win, booking for the show’s revival was faster than it had been for The Sound Of Music in 2006, in which Connie Fisher had won the starring role of Maria in the BBC’s first search-for-a-star series, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, the London evening paper added. After Mead's win, tickets for the show's originally-planned six-month run sold so fast that his home town newspaper, The Echo, reported on 30 June that in three weeks all tickets for the first three months were sold out - and the producers had extended the show's run - and Mead's contract - until 7 June 2008.Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group confirmed that on 3 July 2007, adding that Mead, who had already foregone a week of holiday to which he was contractually entitled, would be taking off four weeks in January, March and May 2008.

Mead had told celebrity magazine Now’s 20 June 2007 edition that he thought he could cope with screaming fans: “I'm very level-headed and I think you have to embrace the experience - although not too much, as I've got a girlfriend! It's very flattering, though, and it would mean that I was doing something right.” And celeb mag Heat , which had interviewed and photographed Mead - had posted video of the photo shoot at its website.

Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group had on 27 June 2007 announced that it would donate all receipts from two special performances of the show's revived West End production to the BBC’s Children in Need charity appeal, which would benefit from ticket sales for 16 July’s booked-out preview and the sold-out 16 November performance, the night of the annual Children in Need telethon. Cast members, the group added, would not get the usual first night gifts on 17 July – the money would, instead go to Children in Need.

"I don't know how to say it without sounding cheesy," Mead told Jasper Rees of London's Daily Telegraph a week into rehearsals. "But it is such a magical role...I've always been a bit of a dreamer," he said, "and Joseph is primarily a dreamer as well...I can remember seeing the show aged nine or 10 and looking up to this guy and thinking, 'Wow! And to now be that guy who is going to have kids looking up to me is just the biggest honour'."

Before opening night, the producers had banked more than £10 million (about US $20.4 million) in receipts from ticket sales, BBC One's breakfast show reported on air on 18 July – and the broadsheet Daily Telegraph reported the next day.

Reviews

Critics had not enjoyed their usual flawless evening out on 17 July's opening night. A revolving stage ground to a halt, bringing 'the multi-million pound production to a halt for five minutes, the next day's Daily Mail reported. ‘A furious-looking Andrew Lloyd Webber leapt from his chair...and stropped off back stage.’ The dozen of UK theatre critics, The Guardian 's Michael Billington found the recreation of Steven Pimlott's 1991 Palladium production 'cutesy, camp ...[and] even by the self-parodic standards of a West End first night...a pretty bizarre occasion. The losers of TV's Any Dream Will Do competition were seated together like Joseph's envious brethren. Predatory camera crews roamed the aisles in the interval seeking soundbites'. ‘Joseph virgin’ Rhoda Koenig confessed in the Independent she had enjoyed herself. ‘Mead,' she admitted, 'more than fulfils the requirements, [his] way of filling a pleated loincloth...will appeal to all sexes.’ The Daily Mail 's Quentin Letts, had ‘slowly thawed and by the end...Joseph had won me round. As it will do London.'

‘Lee Mead... certainly makes a stronger star than Jason Donovan, [who]came across as the Goldilocks of Genesis.’, for The Times 's Benedict Nightingale.‘Lee...was a West End star just waiting for a chance to shine...the sight of him in a loincloth almost called for the appearance of the St John Ambulance,’ wrote Alun Palmer in the Mirror. .

‘The charisma of (1992’s) Phillip Schofield or (1991’s) Jason Donovan – whose coat Mead had inherited – passes him by...These limitations do not much reduce the special pleasures of the occasion, wrote The Evening Standard’s rigorous Nicholas de Jongh. The Daily Telegraph’s Charles Spencer admitted ‘to experiencing a sugar rush of pure pleasure...what Lee Mead has in spades is charm, crucial in a role that could easily seem unattractively priggish...'

“Well fit, great butt!” was novelist Tim Lott’s teenage daughter’s verdict on Mead in Joseph, anchor Mark Lawson said on BBC Radio 4’s daily Front Row arts magazine. His daughter "wouldn't be that vulgar", Lott protested. That aside, the show was " very slick, very kitsch – and I really enjoyed it," he added. "It's sold so many tickets...it's critic-proof," said Lawson. At the BBC’s London regional website Mark Shenton felt Mead was picture-perfect. And, ‘with a resonant voice that's reminiscent of a young Michael Ball, he's pitch-perfect, too.' For the BBC Breakfast show's reviewer Mead was "a star". ‘Mead is in excellent form vocally,’ wrote The Stage's Lisa Martland. 'His...Close Every Door, encapsulating both tenderness and defiance', was a highlight for her. ‘Lucky for the producers that...Mead comes up with the goods and appears relaxed and assured doing so.’ It would be, she added, a hit, ‘whatever the critics say’. For the Daily Express’s Paul Callan, Mead's ‘voice is clear, firm and convincing...there were moments when...audience went into sensual overdrive when almost all of his clothes fell away...’

‘In this musical about dreams coming true...Mead, from Essex, a cab driver’s son and winner of the television talent show...takes to the West End stage in nothing but a skimpy loincloth and a smile,’ wrote Christopher Hart in Sunday Times. 'He’s perfect.' [Mead] 'looks angelically innocent, takes being stripped to a loincloth in his stride, and sings "Close Every Door" with dusky mellifluousness’ wrote Kate Bassett in The Independent on Sunday. ‘Tuneful, charismatic and endearing’, he was a ‘faultless Joseph ...at once a torso-flashing pretty boy and serious West End player,’ wrote Barbara Ellen in 22 July’s The Observer.

Discography

Albums

• 2007: Joseph
• 2007: Lee Mead

Singles

• 2007: Any Dream Will Do

External links

• Lee Mead's official site
• Official Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat website
• BBC's Any Dream Will Do series website
• Lee Mead page at his agents, International Theatre & Music Ltd
• Living the Dream - Lee Mead talks to 11 July's Daily Telegraph
• Daily Telegraph Joseph page with video preview (Needs Windows Media Player)
• Official Joseph website's video trailers (Needs Quicktime plug-in.)
• Time Times review in full
• The Stage review in full
• Paul Callan's Daily Express review in full
• Variety 's review in full
• Lee Mead album review on Digital Spy