Lee Mead – The Best of Me at the Vaudeville Theatre, London.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
For a guy who started his singing career as a cruise ship crooner on the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry, Lee Mead has done darn well for himself. The dark curly locks of his younger days as Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and Casualty’s Lofty are long gone but the voice is as potent as ever and he put it to excellent use in Best of Me, the first concert of Westway Sessions’ musical Mondays at the Vaudeville.
In a long set rich in variety, he mixed pop classics with songs from musicals he had starred in (or wanted to) and one of his own compositions ‘Let the River Flow’, all interspersed with stories from an exciting showbiz life that changed dramatically when he leaped from halfway through a one-year contract in the Phantom ensemble to beat 10,000 rivals to the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as his prize for winning the TV talent show Any Dream Will Do. That revival ran for 600 performances and 18 months at the Adelphi, and young Mead was firmly on his way to fame and fortune.
After the success of Joseph, he was bowled over with offers but four good parts were turned down in favour of a three-month stay in New York learning more on the art of acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute because Mead wanted to work on TV and be more versatile. After starring in his first play, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (his first job back in the UK), he hit the jackpot with a five-year stint in Casualty and Holby City. As Lofty in those hospital soaps he did himself and the shows’ ratings a power of good.
There has also been plenty of musical theatre – Wicked, Legally Blonde, The West End Men, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Sister Act – and panto. Coming up is a 23-stop tour of Best of Me followed by a Phantoms tour (with two other ex-Phantom cast) and, still to be confirmed, a first American tour. He is in big demand.
Although now 43, Mead still boyishly makes it appear as if he cannot believe his luck. But it’s much more than that. His is a wholesome talent that makes so many different types of song sound so good. His choice of material is immaculate. Whether it was ‘From Now On’ from The Greatest Showman, ‘The Music of the Night’ from Phantom, ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Misérables, ‘Being Alive’ from Company and ‘All I Care About is Love’ from Chicago, or two from the show that made him, ‘Close Every Door’ and ‘Any Dream Will Do’, which closed each half, he entranced his audience with his personal take on classics that can sound overplayed in the wrong hands.
On the pop front, ‘Stuck in the Moment’, the song U2 lead singer Bono wrote about his friend Michael Hutchence’s suicide in 1997, was most affecting as was the Will Young composition ‘All Time Love’. Marc Cohn’s ‘Walking in Memphis’ was a cracker well worth reviving and he donned leather jacket and shades for ‘Grease’ before taking us back to his 14-year-old self with ‘Sandy’, the number he sang to Sarah, his first date, playing opposite him in the school musical. It must have been a match made in heaven as he even bought her an ice cream.
The range was exceptional. From The Rolling Stones (‘Paint It Black’ opened the show) to George Michael, Sting, Take That, the Bee Gees and Queen, Mead gave them all a freshness that kept them relevant.
His guest Brenda Edwards, a friend from We Will Rock You days, having flown in from a Barbados holiday that morning and appeared on Loose Women at lunchtime, was somehow still bouncing with energy when she came on for ‘A Kind of Magic’ duet and a solo that gave the star a short but welcome break.
Surrounded by his band of five on the small Vaudeville stage, Mead created a tableau of warmth and a love both for his music and his fans, some of whom had come down all the way from Yorkshire. The musicians were so on point they merit a mention: Adam Dennis (MD and keys), Tim Rose (guitar), Dan Francis Owen (bass), George Millard (sax), Jonathan Atkinson (drums) and Simon Jayes (drum tech).
I was surprised Mead didn’t introduce them individually as they worked their socks off for the best part of two and half hours. When I reviewed him in cabaret at The Pheasantry a few years back and was gently critical of a lack of balance in the material and spoken content that could have been better prepared, Mead charmingly wrote back saying he would take my comments on board and work on them.
Most ‘stars’ hate being criticised so getting a thank you note was quite an eye-opener. He’s exactly the loveable guy you see on stage. Once again though the patter failed to match the quality of the voice. Too many repetitions about how wonderful it was to be back at the Vaudeville, back in the West End, too many plugs for his tours, not enough humour. That’s the problem with having such an impressive voice. It’s a hard act to follow.
Jeremy Chapman
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