Lee Mead
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Lee Mead has won the public vote in the BBC’s casting contest show
Any Dream Will Do. He will the lead role in the upcoming West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
The 25-year-old performer from Southend beat fellow finalists, second placed Keith Jack, 19, a supermarket assistant from Midlothian, and third placed Lewis Bradley, 17, a performing arts student from Middlesborough, to the coveted role. Mead will begin performances in the musical on 17 July at London’s Adelphi Theatre.
Mead attended the Whitehall Performing Arts College and got his first job in 2002, singing and dancing on a cruise ship. He went on to appear in a touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and stood in for the role of Pharoah on two occasions in the West End version of the show. He has understudied major roles in The Phantom of the Opera, Tommy and Miss Saigon, performed on tour in Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party and made appearances in the BBC drama series Murder in Mind and in the video for Geri Halliwell’s “It’s Raining Men.”
Lloyd Webber, who headed the panel of judges for Any Dream Will Do, said that he was "very happy" with the outcome of the vote. He was complimentary about his new Joseph, saying, “He's only been an understudy in a show and has never performed in front of me or really very many people at all. I think it's an amazing achievement.”
Mead told
Any Dream Will Do presenter Graham Norton, "Support has grown every week and I want to thank everyone so much and those that didn't vote, I'm going to go out there and give you a hell of show."