Chit Chat - Bridlington closes every door to Lee

Published Tuesday 17 July 2007 at 10:40 by Tabard

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opened (again) in the West End this week with newly-discovered (well not really, but let’s pretend) leading man Lee Mead thrust into the limelight.

Now Lee has a fairly sizeable and distinguished stage career under his belt, which I’m sure you know included appearing as Pharaoh in Bill Kenwright’s production of Joseph and understudying the lead in Phantom of the Opera.

What you might not be so aware of is his background in light entertainment. For yes, fresh out of drama school, Lee found some of his first work on a cruise ship (via the back pages of The Stage apparently) and also went on to work in the summer shows at Bridlington Spa Theatre.

Recounting his appearances at the Spa Theatre to the Daily Telegraph, Lee recalled: “It was a 1,500-seater but every performance there must have been about 15 to 20 people, all OAPs… Once there was a dog in the audience.”

The people of Bridlington appear to have (excuse the pun) bridled at the suggestion their theatre might be rather parochial and the local paper - the Bridlington Free Press - has published a story under the headline “Lee’s dig at crowds”, with a rather gawky, unflattering picture of Lee as he looked when he was performing at the Spa. I suggest you all visit their website and take a peak. www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk

Nice shirt by the way.