Post by Tanith Messenger on Aug 21, 2010 17:49:05 GMT
Dream ticket.
After being runner-up in the TV contest to find a Joseph to wear the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Keith Jack has finally landed the starring role. He tells Steve Pratt about how his dream came true
IT would be so easy to say Keith Jack is proof that dreams do come true. Three years after being runner-up in BBC1’s Any Dream Will Do talent show to find a leading man for a revival of the musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the 22-year-old has finally pulled on the multi-coloured outfit and stepped out on stage in the star role.
He’s heading the cast of the current tour of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical – and loving every minute of it.
He lost out to Lee Mead in the final of the show, but the former supermarket worker hasn’t been idle in the years since, even if his first job after the TV show involved watching someone else play Joseph every night.
He was the Narrator in the tour featuring Craig Chalmers, who finished behind him in fifth place, as Joseph. You might have expected him to stand in the wings every night hoping for Chalmers to lose his voice so he could take over. But no, that wasn’t how he saw it.
“Funnily enough, the Narrator is actually a bigger singing role than Joseph,” he says. “Back then I was probably more suited to doing Narrator because I was lot younger. It’s good I’ve been able to see both sides of the show.”
Then there was thirdplaced Middlesbrough performer Lewis Bradley, who provided holiday cover for winner Lee Mead in the London production.
If Jack was envious, he didn’t show it, playing the Narrator for ten months.
Now he’s swapped the yellow coat he wore as a TV contestant for that much-coveted multicoloured one on tour. He’s doing ten shows a week, which means his schedule is a punishing one. Eating lots of fruit and veg to stay healthy, drinking lots of water and taking lots of rest to protect his voice, and regular visits to the gym are part of his routine.
Working out is a necessity because Joseph spends time wearing nothing but a loincloth. Yes, he admits, stripping off was daunting to start with. “I did the gym for two months – hardcore, six days a week, twice a day.”
He was on his second tour in Plymouth when we spoke and his enthusiasm hadn’t been dented as he’s “really, really enjoying it”, he says.
“Because it’s a different part to what I’ve played in Joseph before and the part I wanted to go for in the first place. So I’m really happy to be able to go back and play it.”
You could be forgiven for t h i n k i n g that he’d abandoned any hope of b e i n g Joseph. “I gave up when I didn’t win the show,” he says. “I thought that was going to be my last chance. It’s very lucky to be given this opportunity.”
“There have been a lot of times in the last three years when Joseph hasn’t been part of my life, but wherever you are people ask you to sing Any Dream Will Do. And I’ve kept in contact with all the boys.”
His Joseph TV audition lives on, as the BBC has sold the series around the world. “Maybe they’ll change the end of the show and I’ll win,”
he says, revealing that the show is being screened in the US, South Africa, Australia New Zealand, the Czech Republic and China.
Any Dream Will Do wasn’t his first attempt at a TV talent show. He auditioned for The X Factor at 16 “because I had this dream – I always wanted to do musical theatre. Nothing came up in that area so I went in for The X Factor but was knocked out before the judges’ rounds,” he recalls.
‘THEN, when Joseph came up, my sister said, ‘why don’t you go for that?’.”
He was 19 and his youthful looks were held against him. Some felt he looked too young to play Joseph,.
Now 22, he’s filled the past three years with the Narrator, releasing two albums, doing concerts and pantomime. He appeared in a new musical premiered at the Edinburgh Festival and recently recorded the soundtrack of an animated film. But he remains realistic about the pressures and downside of the business he’s chosen.
Those who complained that a TV show was the way to audition new talent at the expense of those who’ve trained for years have been proved wrong by the quality of the Joseph hopefuls and those who followed in similar shows.
Jack is well aware of the critics.
“There are a lot of different ways you can get into this business. Because we were on a TV programme people frowned on that. But there are other people playing leading roles who haven’t trained and they don’t frown on them.”
He’s careful about his choices. He could, for instance, have gone into a “pop star reality TV thing” but opted instead for the lead in a new musical being premiered in Edinburgh.
“It was, like, no money, but wanted to prove I can do musical theatre. It wasn’t about the money, but furthering my career,”
he says. “It’s about going out and being me, not just him on that TV programme.”
THE OTHER JOSEPHS
LEE MEAD: The winner starred in the London production, toured in a play and married Denise Van Outen (one of the TV show’s judges).
LEWIS BRADLEY: The Middlesbrough performer covered for Mead in the West End and currently has a leading role in the musical Wicked, in London.
BEN JAMES-ELLIS: The fourth-placed Joseph, from Scarborough, was in the London production of Hairspray, did pantomime in Hull and is back in the West End in Dreamboats And Petticoats.
CRAIG CHALMERS: Spent three years touring as Joseph.
DANIEL BOYS: Was in the London production of Avenue Q.
SEAMUS CULLEN: Played Che in the tour of another Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, Evita.
CHRIS BARTON: Played Benjamin in the Joseph tour.
ANTONY HANSEN: Was a brother, Pharaoh and eventually Joseph on tour. Now in the West End, in Les Miserables.
■ Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is at Darlington Civic Theatre from October 12 to 17 (tickets 01325-486555 and online at darlingtonarts.co.uk) and York Grand Opera House from November 2 to 7 (tickets 0844-8472322 and online at grandoperahouseyork.org.uk)
©www.thenorthernecho.co.uk 2010
©Newsquest Media Group/A Gannett Company
After being runner-up in the TV contest to find a Joseph to wear the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Keith Jack has finally landed the starring role. He tells Steve Pratt about how his dream came true
IT would be so easy to say Keith Jack is proof that dreams do come true. Three years after being runner-up in BBC1’s Any Dream Will Do talent show to find a leading man for a revival of the musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the 22-year-old has finally pulled on the multi-coloured outfit and stepped out on stage in the star role.
He’s heading the cast of the current tour of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical – and loving every minute of it.
He lost out to Lee Mead in the final of the show, but the former supermarket worker hasn’t been idle in the years since, even if his first job after the TV show involved watching someone else play Joseph every night.
He was the Narrator in the tour featuring Craig Chalmers, who finished behind him in fifth place, as Joseph. You might have expected him to stand in the wings every night hoping for Chalmers to lose his voice so he could take over. But no, that wasn’t how he saw it.
“Funnily enough, the Narrator is actually a bigger singing role than Joseph,” he says. “Back then I was probably more suited to doing Narrator because I was lot younger. It’s good I’ve been able to see both sides of the show.”
Then there was thirdplaced Middlesbrough performer Lewis Bradley, who provided holiday cover for winner Lee Mead in the London production.
If Jack was envious, he didn’t show it, playing the Narrator for ten months.
Now he’s swapped the yellow coat he wore as a TV contestant for that much-coveted multicoloured one on tour. He’s doing ten shows a week, which means his schedule is a punishing one. Eating lots of fruit and veg to stay healthy, drinking lots of water and taking lots of rest to protect his voice, and regular visits to the gym are part of his routine.
Working out is a necessity because Joseph spends time wearing nothing but a loincloth. Yes, he admits, stripping off was daunting to start with. “I did the gym for two months – hardcore, six days a week, twice a day.”
He was on his second tour in Plymouth when we spoke and his enthusiasm hadn’t been dented as he’s “really, really enjoying it”, he says.
“Because it’s a different part to what I’ve played in Joseph before and the part I wanted to go for in the first place. So I’m really happy to be able to go back and play it.”
You could be forgiven for t h i n k i n g that he’d abandoned any hope of b e i n g Joseph. “I gave up when I didn’t win the show,” he says. “I thought that was going to be my last chance. It’s very lucky to be given this opportunity.”
“There have been a lot of times in the last three years when Joseph hasn’t been part of my life, but wherever you are people ask you to sing Any Dream Will Do. And I’ve kept in contact with all the boys.”
His Joseph TV audition lives on, as the BBC has sold the series around the world. “Maybe they’ll change the end of the show and I’ll win,”
he says, revealing that the show is being screened in the US, South Africa, Australia New Zealand, the Czech Republic and China.
Any Dream Will Do wasn’t his first attempt at a TV talent show. He auditioned for The X Factor at 16 “because I had this dream – I always wanted to do musical theatre. Nothing came up in that area so I went in for The X Factor but was knocked out before the judges’ rounds,” he recalls.
‘THEN, when Joseph came up, my sister said, ‘why don’t you go for that?’.”
He was 19 and his youthful looks were held against him. Some felt he looked too young to play Joseph,.
Now 22, he’s filled the past three years with the Narrator, releasing two albums, doing concerts and pantomime. He appeared in a new musical premiered at the Edinburgh Festival and recently recorded the soundtrack of an animated film. But he remains realistic about the pressures and downside of the business he’s chosen.
Those who complained that a TV show was the way to audition new talent at the expense of those who’ve trained for years have been proved wrong by the quality of the Joseph hopefuls and those who followed in similar shows.
Jack is well aware of the critics.
“There are a lot of different ways you can get into this business. Because we were on a TV programme people frowned on that. But there are other people playing leading roles who haven’t trained and they don’t frown on them.”
He’s careful about his choices. He could, for instance, have gone into a “pop star reality TV thing” but opted instead for the lead in a new musical being premiered in Edinburgh.
“It was, like, no money, but wanted to prove I can do musical theatre. It wasn’t about the money, but furthering my career,”
he says. “It’s about going out and being me, not just him on that TV programme.”
THE OTHER JOSEPHS
LEE MEAD: The winner starred in the London production, toured in a play and married Denise Van Outen (one of the TV show’s judges).
LEWIS BRADLEY: The Middlesbrough performer covered for Mead in the West End and currently has a leading role in the musical Wicked, in London.
BEN JAMES-ELLIS: The fourth-placed Joseph, from Scarborough, was in the London production of Hairspray, did pantomime in Hull and is back in the West End in Dreamboats And Petticoats.
CRAIG CHALMERS: Spent three years touring as Joseph.
DANIEL BOYS: Was in the London production of Avenue Q.
SEAMUS CULLEN: Played Che in the tour of another Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, Evita.
CHRIS BARTON: Played Benjamin in the Joseph tour.
ANTONY HANSEN: Was a brother, Pharaoh and eventually Joseph on tour. Now in the West End, in Les Miserables.
■ Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is at Darlington Civic Theatre from October 12 to 17 (tickets 01325-486555 and online at darlingtonarts.co.uk) and York Grand Opera House from November 2 to 7 (tickets 0844-8472322 and online at grandoperahouseyork.org.uk)
©www.thenorthernecho.co.uk 2010
©Newsquest Media Group/A Gannett Company
