Wicked: 15th Anniversary | Celebrating the incredible men who have played Fiyero!

Wicked has established itself as one of the biggest and best West End shows, originally opening on Broadway in 2003 it headed over here and opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 2006. Today we're celebrating 15 years of the show, and after the slight 'pause' the show has taken, it's come back better than ever and what a good time to celebrate its Birthday! In this piece, we look back at all the wickedly talented Women who have played Glinda in the UK. From the London production to the tours! Which one was your favourite?!

Wicked in London

Adam Garcia 

September 7 2006 - July 14 2007

Oliver Tompsett 

July 16 2017 - March 27 2010

Lewis Bradley 

March 29 2010 - May 8 2010 

Lee Mead 

May 10 2010 - February 5 2011

Where are they now? Any Dream Will Do!

Following on from How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, the reality TV to find the newest star of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium, Andrew Loyd Webber followed it up with Any Dream Will Do. This series searched for the newest star of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. With Graham Norton returning as the host as well as John Barrowman and Zoe Tyler also returning as judges, they were joined by Denise Van Often and Bill Kenwright. Some of the series to follow were I'd Do Anything (The Search for Nancy) and Over the Rainbow (The search for Dorothy). Rival TV shows to these BBC produced series also came up in Superstar (The search for Jesus), Grease is the Word (The search for Danny and Sandy) and Fame: The musical (the search for Nick and Serena). If you are a theatre geek like me, you'll remember these TV shows! And if you don't, you'll certainly know some of the contestants. So, where are they now?

Lee Mead

After winning the show Lee went on to play the role of Joseph from the West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre. Since leaving the show his theatre credits include the title role in the Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (UK Tour); Fiyero in Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre); Emmett in Legally Blonde (Savoy Theatre); lead vocalist in West End Men (Tour and Vaudeville Theatre) Prince Charming in Cinderella (London Palladium), Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK Tour) Billy Flynn in Chicago (UK Tour) and The Prince in Snow White (New Wimbledon Theatre). He went on to be a regular character on Casualty, leaving in December 2019. As well as that, he has performed extensively since the show as a solo artist and has released numerous albums, his last in 2018 entitled 'Lee Mead - 10 Years'. 

Lee's Twitter | Lee's Instagram

Keith Jack

Losing out to Lee Mead, Keith still got to star as Joseph, he went on to play the role for three years on the UK touring production of the show, having also played the Narrator previously in the same production. His other credits include Charlie in Only the Brave (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); Alastair in the UK premiere of Sincerely Mr Toad (Pleasance Theatre); Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore (UK Tour); Sparky in Forever Plaid (St. James Theatre), toured the UK with Joe McElderry in Saturday Night at the Movies. Nick in Fame (UK Tour & Troubadour Theatre Wembley), Ally in Sunshine on Leith & Freddie Fellows in Noises Off (Pitlochry Festival Theatre) and the title role in Aladdin (The Sands Centre). Keith has released two albums, His debut was called This Time and went straight into the Top 40 and his most recent album An Evening at the Musicals was released in 2010. 

Keith's Twitter | Keith's Instagram 

West End Men: Theatre Review

West End Men is a concert filled with Musical Theatre classics as well as some surprises, Currently playing at the Vaudeville Theatre until the 22nd June having previously toured last year. The show features West End talent such as David Thaxton, Glenn Carter (until 8th June), Lee Mead, Matt Willis and Stephen Rahman-Hughes (from 10th June) with special guests Kerry Ellis (until 15th June) and Carley Stenson (from 17th June). I’m glad that they’ve featured some of the more modern musical theatre talent rather than the ‘Michael Ball’ type people, they’re really updating what people think about West End leading men. Admittedly, these aren't the names I’d come up with if I was putting together this concert but they are all incredibly talented and really show why they are leading men within this show. 

The set list is interesting, for example I really liked the opening number. They mashed together Pure Imagination, Being Alive, Love Changes Everything and Music of the Night; a very odd choice of songs to put together but it was a really nice, relaxed introduction to the show. Another highlight was the West Side Story medley which opened the second act, I really liked that they paid homage to this but they went for the obvious choices of musical theatre songs like things from South Pacific, Chess and Les Miserables. Don’t get me wrong, these are great but you’d think with this more modern feel to the show they’d go for contemporary musicals as well. I would have loved to have seen some surprise musical theatre numbers in there like something from Newsies or Next to Normal or something along those lines! They were far to safe with the set list. 

Legally Blonde the Musical: Theatre Review

Legally Blonde first opened on Broadway in 2007 with a US Tour starting in 2008, It then made its way over to the West End in 2009 with a cast which included Sheridan Smith and Duncan James. The show tells the story of Elle Woods who follows her love to Harvard law school where she is put through her passes by Emmett Forest and eventually takes on a murder case and wins her man, though it wasn't the one she intentionally chased to Harvard. On the 21^stJuly I went to see the show at the Savoy Theatre.I saw the show in June of last year with the Original London cast with the addition of Richard Fleeshman, since then the cast has been through multiple cast changes.
I was very impressed with the production when saw it last year, it exceeded all my expectations and I loved it.
However I feel like I was watching a different show, the sound system seemed very quiet and of poor quality while the energy levels from the majority of the cast seemed very low.