Reality TV Dreamboat (and New Dad) Lee Mead on His Wicked West End Role

At 28, Lee Mead has achieved the sort of breakout fame that comes rarely to those on the UK musical scene. Three years ago, he was chosen through the BBC reality TV casting show Any Dream Will Do to play the title role in the latest West End incarnation of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (surely the most celebrated musical ever to star a loincloth). After 600 performances, he moved on to study acting in New York, have a go at Oscar Wilde’s Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime on the road in England and, most crucially, to marry TV presenter and West End performer Denise Van Outen (Song and Dance), seven years his senior. They welcomed a baby daughter, Betsy, on May 1. The curly-haired Mead is now back on the West End through February 2011 as Fiyero, the object of Glinda and Elphaba’s affection in the megahit Wicked. This time, unlike the male-oriented Joseph, it’s the show’s heroine that goes whizzing toward the roof.

Congratulations on joining the Wicked universe. Are you enjoying playing Fiyero?
It feels great. I’m the male lead and there’s lots for me to do, but I don’t have to drive the whole show [as was the case with Joseph]. It’s nice to have a role that isn’t as demanding, especially just being a father.

So the timing was right?
It’s been perfect, actually. I was touring just before Wicked, and before that I’d been on the road in an Oscar Wilde play for four months, so it’s nice to come home to north London each night and just be a dad.

Where is baby Betsy now?
She’s next door with her nanny and my mum helping out. It takes time to adjust [to parenthood], because you go from looking after yourself to caring entirely for someone else. But I feel very lucky.

You’ve now been part of two major musical theater phenomena, Joseph and Wicked.
And both shows are iconic in their own way and have taken the whole world by storm. It’s part of my world domination, really [laughs]. What’s been nice with this is that they waited until I came in to do a full cast change with notes. Joe [Mantello, director] came in with the team once I had joined the cast.

You must be especially sympathetic to Rachel Tucker as Elphaba, since you spent so much time rising up to the ceiling of the Adelphi Theatre at the finale of Joseph.
[Laughs] In fact, Rachel and I were just joking about that a few weeks ago. I remember the first time I had to go up on that tiny platform. All I could think was, don’t look down!

You’ve gone from the adulation that is so much a part of Joseph to a show about the very notion of being popular.
I think men go through those issues, as well. It’s just that guys tend not to speak about that as much. With Fiyero, it’s about him coming in and being part of this triangle with Glinda and Elphaba. In some ways, it’s harder to write a back story for a musical than for a play, but with this show, there’s real thought behind every scene. The journey each character takes and the transitions are so well done. That’s why it’s such a success.

Is there much room to shape the role of Fiyero?
Anyone who takes on a role puts their own stamp on it, sure. Ollie [Tompsett] played the part for three and a half years and you have to respect that, but for me, I look at the book and then play the part in a way that connects with who I am. Fiyero is carefree and fun, but I wanted him to have some substance. And because this is a musical, that happens mainly through song. Some people have said that I’m less playful and frivolous in the part, and I suppose that’s good—Fiyero does have this other side that has some depth.

It’s so interesting that you recently took the time to attend drama school—but in New York, not in London.
Yes. I guess it’s strange that I went abroad to study at the Lee Strasberg Institute as opposed to RADA or wherever [in London], but it was amazing to be studying Shaw and Pinter and Woody Allen and living in Little Italy, which was very commercial and very busy. It was a big risk finishing Joseph and going from the high of that to studying abroad, but I’d felt for a few years that I wanted to break into TV and film work, and I knew that this could only help. I needed to show people that I could go forward and stretch myself.

The relative anonymity must have been nice.
It was quite funny: The first two months of the course, nobody knew who I was; it was amazing to be able to jump on the subway and get off at Union Square. It was only during the last couple of weeks that somebody said, “I saw you on YouTube doing Joseph,” and the students started playing pranks and things [laughs]. It was a big step, because I had just got married, and five days later I was flying to New York. Denise flew out every two weeks or so, so it was a personal challenge, as well.

Did you see Wicked on Broadway?
No, I tried three times, but it was sold out completely. So it was funny to fly back and then be cast in the show.

What’s your take on the reality TV phenomenon when it comes to theater? It’s moved to a whole new level [in England] even since you were cast in Joseph.
I agree in some ways with those who say that it’s all got to be too much. Certain of these shows—not all— are terrible, and there can be too many of them. But if you think of it not so much as a TV show per se but as something devoted to finding a West End lead, then it is pretty exciting. I’m really proud of the whole Joseph experience; it was a phenomenal two years.

And it allowed you to make some albums.
I’ve done two and am working on a third. I love working in theater, but I couldn’t make it a full-time job. I listen to music all the time, everything from Kings of Leon to classic FM, and I really like people like Elvis and Freddie Mercury. Some people might be embarrassed to admit that’s their taste, but those guys really help, not just in terms of lyrics but also melodies and music.

It sounds like you have numerous options when it comes to singing Betsy a lullaby.
At the moment, it tends to be “Any Dream Will Do.”