Lee Mead is to put the technicolor of Joseph and the emerald green of Wicked behind him to join the West End’s pinkest show, Legally Blonde The Musical, in June.
The winner of TV talent search Any Dream Will Do will replace original cast member Alex Gaumond in the role of Emmett from mid-June.
The announcement follows hot on the heels of Legally Blonde The Musical’s trio of wins at last Sunday’s Olivier Awards with MasterCard, where it collected the awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Best Supporting Performance in a Musical (for former cast members Sheridan Smith and Jill Halfpenny) and Best New Musical.
Before he rose to fame in the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s televised search for a Joseph, Mead had appeared in The Phantom Of The Opera, Tommy and Miss Saigon. It was the Saturday evening show, though, that threw him into the limelight and led to him starring in the title role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from 2007 to 2009. Most recently, he has been playing Fiyero in long-running Oz-set musical Wicked.
Mead joins a cast that currently includes his wife, stage performer and TV presenter Denise Van Outen, fellow casting show graduates Susan McFadden (Grease Is The Word), Siobhan Dillon and Aoife Mulholland (both How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?), former Hollyoaks star Carley Stenson, and stage and screen regular Peter Davison.
The hit musical, based on a popular Reese Witherspoon film, tells the story of American girl Elle Woods (McFadden), the college homecoming queen who, when she is dumped by her boyfriend for someone serious, puts down her credit cards, hits the books and heads for Harvard Law.
MA