LEE MEAD LIVE FROM LONDON (London Palladium/Stream Theatre)*****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/season/168

Available until: Livestreams on Friday 16^th, Saturday 17^th and Sunday 18^th July at 7.30pm.

It’s hard to believe Lee Mead is forty (though he was still thirty-nine when he recorded this). He looks so much younger. But he does have lots of experience as a performer and that is very obvious in this incredible concert.

Mr Mead has done a couple of concerts in small venues during lockdown. He sang concerts in his car and at the Crazy Coqs in London. The London Palladium is a lot bigger which means Mr Mead is able to perform with an orchestra which has a string section, a piano, guitar, drums and maybe some other instruments too – it is a very full sound. The concert also uses different lighting colours and effects to suit the different songs and this is really lovely.

The size of the venue and the orchestra might make things different for some singers, but Mr Mead fills the Palladium easily. His voice is strong and powerful and even when he’s singing pianissimo, he can easily be heard.

Mr Mead is best-known for performing in musicals, especially Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (he played the title role after winning Andrew Lloyd Webber’s TV competition Any Dream Will Do in 2007), but he is a very versatile singer and this concert really shows that.

He opens the concert with the Rolling Stones classic Paint it Black. It’s a very dramatic performance and he has the vocal power, the stage presence and obviously the singing talent to make it brilliant. Other artists Mr Mead covers in this concert include U2, The Beach Boys and Adele. If there is anything Mr Mead can’t sing, I’ve never heard him try to sing it. Either he really can sing anything or he knows where his limitations are. Either way, this is the sign of a great artist.

Mr Mead brings his acting background to his pop music, filling each song with emotion and telling stories through the music, but he never seems to be playing in a character in these songs – it’s like he’s telling us his stories. He is a very generous performer, sharing so much of himself with his audience.

But it’s musical theatre which Mr Mead is best-known for and musical theatre fans who are watching will not have been disappointed. Mr Mead revisits many of his previous roles. He is still a youthful and carefree Fiyero in Wicked! and a passionate Chris in Miss Saigon (I think this musical is very underrated, it’s a brilliant adaption of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly with a much nicer hero). He also sings a song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a lovely, tender lullaby. I can’t say it nearly sent me to sleep because that would sound really rude, but it is very relaxing and I could imagine falling asleep to it if it was a couple of hours later.

Mr Mead also sang songs from musicals which I don’t think he has appeared in, but if the West End is planning on any new productions of The Greatest Showman, Jesus Christ Superstar or Chicago, Mr Mead would be a passionate P.T. Barnum, a powerful and vocally very impressive Jesus or a suave Billy Flynn.

And of course, fans who wanted to hear something from Joseph did not go home disappointed. At all.

As well as being a concert, this is a birthday celebration and there are some really brilliant guests. Kerry Ellis is spectacular, Marisha Wallace is warm and full of energy, Dalton Harris is really impressive and Steve Balsamo shows his considerable talents as a singer and a songwriter and also has some great banter with Mr Mead. They also perform the beautiful song they co-wrote with Adam Dennis.

In between the songs, Mr Mead chats to his audience. He is very natural, very friendly and very sincere and it is lovely to hear all his stories and memories from the first forty years of his life. I’m sure the next forty years will be really wonderful too. I’m definitely looking forward to them. It is also really heartwarming to hear about his family. It sounds like the whole Mead family is really lovely and lots of them have special songs dedicated to them.

I should give you one warning. About halfway through, Mr Mead says “See you in the second half”, but there is no interval in the livestream, it just carries straight on, there isn’t time to make a cup of tea or anything and you can’t pause or rewind.

It’s a really lovely concert and even online, it has a great atmosphere. The livestream I watched was on Mr Mead’s actual birthday. I hope he had a really wonderful day. I’m sure all his fans did.