Lee Mead has spoken of his pride about appearing in hit West End musical Wicked, a show he admired as a struggling performer.

The Any Dream Will Do winner told the Sunday Mail that he tried to check Wicked out when it first opened in New York and he was performing there as a rookie, but it was all sold out.

Now, he said he is thrilled to be appearing in it himself.

“I think of myself as really lucky as [Wicked] has taken the whole world by storm,” Mead remarked.

However, given that he now performs in eight shows a week, he added that he does have to take an occasional afternoon nap to keep up with the musical and his baby daughter Betsy.

Mead is sure to be glad of his forthcoming five-week holiday and told the newspaper he may spend some of it in Tuscany with his family.

Wicked broke a box-office record in June 2010 when it was revealed that it has grossed £100 million since opening in September 2006.

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More visitors than ever went to West End Live last week

The free theatre festival West End Live attracted a record number of visitors this year, new figures have revealed.

Some 250,000 people flocked to Leicester Square in order to get a taste of some of theatreland’s hottest shows, including Legally Blonde, Wicked, Love Never Dies and Avenue Q.

It is thought that this could tempt people to purchase an extra £2 million worth of theatre tickets in the coming months.

Westminster councillor Robert Davis said: “Without doubt, this has been our biggest and best West End Live. We’ve seen spectacular performances from some of the nation’s favourite shows.”

According to WhatsonStage.com, the festival was so popular that people were queuing at 04:00 BST on Saturday (June 19th 2010) to make sure they managed to catch their top musicals and plays.

Last month, Legally Blonde star Sheridan Smith told the London Evening Standard she thinks West End Live provides a nice taster for people who are unsure which shows they want to see.

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{Via UK Theatre Tickets}

Jackie Burns to Join Wicked Tour as Elphaba July 8 in Houston Texas

Jackie Burns as Elphaba on the Wicked National tour

The company of the first North American tour of Wicked welcomes Jackie Burns as Elphaba on Thursday, July 8 in Houston, TX.

Burns was most recently seen in the original cast of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Hair, where she was part of the ‘Black Boys’ trio and understudied and performed the role of Sheila. Off-Broadway she was part of the original company of Rock of Ages and the award-winning Unlock’d for NYMF.

Burns joins a cast that includes Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda, Randy Danson as Madame Morrible and Richard Kline as The Wizard.

The company also features Richard H. Blake (Fiyero), Justin Brill (Boq), Tom Flynn (Dr. Dillamond), Brynn O’Malley (Nessarose) and Mariand Torres (Standby for Elphaba) with Terra Lynn Arrington, Antonette Balestreri, Al Blackstone, Aaron De Jesus, Emily Ferranti, Dominic Giudici, Courtney D. Jones, Spencer Jones, Renee Lawless-Orsini, Philip Dean Lightstone, Kourtni Lind, Marissa Lupp, Sterling Masters, Kevin McMahon, Jeremy McQueen, Christopher Russo, Adam Sanford, Carla Stickler, Brandon Tyler, Shanna VanDerwerker, Bud Weber, Betsy Werbel, Lauren Ashley Zakrin and Jared Zirilli.

The Houston engagement of Wicked is currently running through July 25 at the Sarofim Hall Hobby Center. Tickets are available online.

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Wicked, running at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts through July 25, boasts incredible production values, some blockbuster songs and two superstar leads in Donna Vivino’s Elphaba and Chandra Lee Schwartz’s Glinda.

The show has now traveled three times to Houston in the seven years since the Broadway debut, and it runs like a well-oiled machine. According to production stage manager Peter Van Dyke, the traveling production regularly earns more than the New York show, which garners more than $1.5 million per week.

From the dragon grumbling menacingly overhead to Glinda’s bubble lift, the wizard’s public face and the chaotic scene in the rain, this is a show with so many moving parts it would be impressive on a purely technical level if the audience wasn’t busy being thoroughly transported inside its world of magic.

Vivino has the jaw-dropping voice and the bone structure to pull off Elphaba’s green, but in pure stage presence she’s surpassed by Schwartz, who plays Glinda with a healthy helping of Elle Woods, practically skipping across the stage and giggling through the first act, most notably pausing to worship her shoe collection during “Popular.”

The only real hiccup in the production on Thursday night was when large portions of the audience seemed unprepared for the beginning of the second act. With Wicked, there are always certain sticking points for critics — the second act doesn’t live up musically to the first, some dance scenes are a bit overwrought, etc.

Whether seeing Wicked for the first or 10th time, this production is a joy to experience. Buy Wicked Sarofim Hall – Hobby Center Tickets.