Any Dream Will Do (TV series)
Any Dream Will Do, is a 2007 talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom. It searched for a new, unknown lead to play Joseph in a West End revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Any Dream Will Do
United Kingdom
1
11
BBC Entertainment
30–90mins
31 March –
9 June 2007
The show was hosted by Graham Norton, who announced Lee Mead as the winner of the final public telephone vote on 9 June 2007.
It was the second West-End talent show to be produced by the BBC/Andrew Lloyd Webber, after How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?. Further talent shows in the series have aired, with I'd Do Anything running in 2008 and Over the Rainbow which ran in April/May 2010.
Lloyd Webber, Zoe Tyler & John Barrowman returned as panelists and Graham Norton returned to host the show.
A similar format has been used as well in The Netherlands in 2008, with the show Op zoek naar Joseph (Looking for Joseph) taking an unknown singer and placing the winner in the lead role for the 2009 performances in The Netherlands.[1] On 26 October 2008, Freek Bartels was announced the winner of the show.
After the series[edit]
Winner[edit]
Before the opening night of Joseph at London's Adelphi Theatre, publicity from the TV show had brought in £10 million in advance ticket sales,[19] leading to a five-month extension to the show's run and an extension of Mead's contract until June 2008.[20]
Mead's version of "Any Dream Will Do", along with "Close Every Door" performed by the three finalists, was released as a single to raise money for BBC Children in Need. It reached number two in the UK Singles Chart.
His first public performance after the win was on 1 July 2007 at the Concert for Diana at London's Wembley Stadium, where he sang "Any Dream Will Do" with former Joseph actors Donny Osmond and Jason Donovan.
Mead, along with the winner, Connie Fisher and last five runners-up of the previous Lloyd-Webber reality show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? starred in a one-off Christmas Eve special on BBC One entitled When Joseph Met Maria.[21]
Other finalists[edit]
Fifth-placed Craig Chalmers was cast by Bill Kenwright as Joseph in the touring version of Joseph[22] from 20 August 2007. The tour was due to have its first night in Bromley, London, less than 24 km (about 15 miles) from the Adelphi, where Kenwright was co-producer. In Chalmers' last week before viewers voted him off the programme, Kenwright had told him: "You wowed the audience and please God you are here next week for the semi-final."[23] Chris Barton played Benjamin on the tour and at some matinees Joseph or the Narrator. He then went on to be a Swing in Spring Awakening in both Hammersmith and the Novello Theatre in the West End. Kenwright employed Chris Crosby on his national tour of Half a Sixpence opening on 28 August 2007 at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley.
Keith Jack joined the cast of the touring Joseph production with Chalmers and Barton. He played the Narrator, a part usually played by a woman though originally written for a male voice. His first official performance was on 1 October in Plymouth although he performed a couple of the final shows in High Wycombe on 28 and 29 September. In June 2010, Jack took the Dreamcoat from Chalmers and continued his role till May 2013.
In January 2008 Antony Hansen joined the cast of Kenwright's touring production of Joseph as a brother. During this time Kenwright formed a boy band named Dream On from the contestants on Any Dream Will Do. Hansen and fellow finalists Chalmers, Bradley, Crosby and Barton's debut album became a chart success in its first two weeks. In May 2008, Kenwright cast Hansen as Pharaoh in the national tour of Joseph. In January/February 2009 Hansen played the lead role of Joseph for Kenwright. Hansen joined the West End end cast of Les Misérables in June 2009 in the ensemble and first cover Marius. July 2009 saw Hansen and fellow Any Dream Will Do contestant Craig Chalmers finish recording their second album together with BK Productions – Saturday Night at the Movies.
Lewis Bradley was contracted by Lloyd Webber to play Joseph at the Adelphi Theatre during Mead's holiday absence, and possibly for an additional performance a week. Meanwhile, Ben James-Ellis (Ben Ellis, who adopted the name James-Ellis for Equity purposes) landed the role of Link Larkin in the UK premiere of Hairspray: The Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre from 11 October 2007. Daniel Boys went on to land many roles including performing in the Royal Festival Hall's concert production of Sweeney Todd, Landor Theatre's I Love You Because and the lead role of Princeton in Avenue Q at the Noël Coward Theatre. He also took part in the cabaret If You've Got It Flaunt It at the West End's Trafalgar Studios in September 2007.
Rob McVeigh entered the United Kingdom selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. In a unique Joseph vs. Maria showdown, he lost the heat to his Maria counterpart Simona Armstrong.
Johndeep More went on to appear in Nevermind The Broadway and a pantomime Cinderella (with Crosby).[24]
Craig Chalmers was to appear as Prince Charming in a pantomime, but was sacked when it came to light that he had previously appeared in porn films.[25]
Criticism[edit]
In an interview with The Stage, the then-recently eliminated Daniel Boys questioned Andrew Lloyd Webber's stated aim of casting a Joseph outside the stereotype, "who's a bit of a Justin Timberlake, tiny touch of the Michael Jacksons and a bit of the Jude Laws,"[26] by pointing out that so far all the Josephs that were a bit outside of the traditional mould had been eliminated for exactly that reason.[27]