Mapping the Stars: where are they now?
We all know what happens to the winners of such find-the-next-West-End-star reality television programmes as Any Dream Will Do, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and I’d Do Anything… they grace the stage with the sweet-sounding singing and delightful dancing for months and months and months… Lee ‘Joseph’ Mead is still getting knickers of amazing colours (and sizes) thrown at him at the Adelphi Theatre, Connie ‘Maria’ Fisher enjoyed a year and a half at the London Palladium before moving on to other projects, and the nation is holding its breath for Jodie ‘Nancy’ Prenger to take us back to Dickensian London in OLIVER!.
But what happens to the losers? Oooh, no, that sounds too harsh – let’s call ‘em ‘close runners-up’. Where are they now? Well, I’m happy to say a lot of them are doing very well (he says smoothly, as if he has Sex and the City-style cocktail nights with them all on a regular basis)…
Rachel Tucker
Who narrowly missed being cast as Nancy, has just landed herself her first West End leading lady role. The Belfast-born brunette bombshell (not easy to say after a few SATC-style cocktails) takes over the part of the sassy rebel ‘Meat’ in Queen and Ben Elton’s hit musical WE WILL ROCK YOU from Monday 22nd September. She told me (okay, so she told everyone else, too): “It is a dream part. WE WILL ROCK YOU is one of my favourite shows. I first saw it when I was a student at the Royal Academy [name-dropper], and loved it. I am beside myself with excitement. I just can’t believe it.” Well, believe it, baby, ‘cos I’m gonna be there on the front row with a pair of highly aerodynamic Y-fronts at the ready… As the great Freddie Mercury once sung: “I am a sex machine ready to reload, like an atom bomb, about to oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, explode.”
Ben James-Ellis
The Joseph semi-finalist, has hit the big time, too. He now has to don more hairspray than my nonagenarian grandmother to keep his hair in place for, yes, you guessed it - HAIRSPRAY… and what a role to land! The musical comedy has won more awards than I’ve had skinny lattés – winning Best Musical at the Olivier Awards 2008, the Critics Circle Awards 2008, the What’s On Stage Theatregoers Choice Awards 2008 and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2007… how very greedy.
Daniel Boys
Lee Mead’s other fellow contestant Daniel Boys is doing pretty damn well, too. And I’m over the moon for him. In fact, I’m happy to admit that I like Boys. The ‘close runner-up’ on Any Dream Will Do can be seen nightly with his hand up the backside of a puppet in AVENUE Q. Well, someone’s gotta do it. If I had been a doctor like my mother wanted instead of a theatre guru, I would no doubt have been doing similar things to real people. Alas, these things are not to be dwelled upon…
Nor, indeed, is the whereabouts of the other ‘close runners-up’ to be dwelled upon… Only kidding, there are just too many of ‘em to mention here. If you know where they are now, drop me a line. You understand, of course, that I’m not encouraging stalking… but, as Oscar Wilde once said: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at [read ‘stalking’]the stars.”
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Ha Ha — David here from the Rachel Tucker Fan Blog — OK you might have ‘borrowed’ the accompanying photo from our blog, but your article had me in stitches. Thanks for that!