Any Dream Will Do final - Lee Mead wins, Keith Jack goes back to the supermarket

Well, we’re finally here. After months of watching effeminate young men lisp their way through the auditions, Joseph school and then the live shows, we’re down to the last two Joseph hopefuls, Lee Mead and Keith Jack. Lee was an obvious stand out from the early shows, but Keith has been a surprise. He got a lot of criticism in the early shows and didn’t look like a contender, but you’ve got to give him props for getting to the final.

The two finalists had to choose to repeat what they considered their best performances from the previous live shows. Keith Jack chose Elvis Presley’s Always On My Mind. You know, Keith wasn’t the best looking Joseph of the twelve finalists, but he’s a damn fine singer and always sings in key.

Lee Mead chose the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black which was an odd choice as Lee is always fighting his tendency to be moody and intense. He couldn’ve chosen a lighter number.

Both their moms were in the audience and Graham Norton made us all cringe by asking them to do a pitch for their sons. Keith’s mom was in the audience, wearing a ridiculous multicoloured coat and reminded us how Keith had been working in a supermarket a few weeks ago. Lee’s mom just said that whatever makes Lee happy is fine with her. Um, I guess that bit wasn’t rehearsed. Jason Donovan was also in the audience but he wouldn’t be drawn on his favourite. Well, you just wouldn’t, would you? Not when they’re standing in front of you. Well, I would, but they don’t invite me on for some reason.

All ten eliminated finalists came back to sing a final group number, The Boys Are Back In Town. Didn’t Ben, Anthony and Rob look good? It was good to see my three favourite hunks back again. I do hope Ben Ellis gets some work out of this, I’d like to see him again.

Keith and Lee then had to sing Jesus Christ, Superstar for their last song. What can you say? They were both terrific of course. I wish the series had used more songs from musicals. C’mon, a show like this is bound to attract an audience that enjoys show tunes so it was a shame that we had to suffer through so many pop or rock songs. I don’t think the Josephs were thrilled about it either.

Before announcing the winner, Graham Norton presented a montage of the past few weeks with all the tears and there sure were a lot of those! Andrew Lloyd Webber said that they hadn’t been expecting as many tears as the previous year when they were finding a Maria for The Sound of Music, but he said that the boys had cried even more than the Marias had. Lord Webber has been bitching and moaning about the namby pamby boys over the weeks, but he can hardly talk. He’s not exactly butch himself.

Right, so let’s get to the good stuff. Graham stood between Lee and Keith, who both looked so nervous that they’d wet themselves, and announced that Lee Mead was the winner. Poor Keith! He didn’t look too bothered though and just looked happy to be there in the final. Lee managed to crack a smile for the first time in weeks and ended the show in his new Joseph multicolour coat and sang Any Dream Will Do. At the very end, Ben and Rob lifted Lee up. Ah, those boys!

Well, that’s it. Yet another compulsive reality TV show over. There was talk of Lord Webber doing a search for Jesus Christ, Superstar, either here in the UK or in the US, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. He’s teasing us.

I do enjoy this format of show though and they could do so many. Oh, just imagine a search for Mama Rose for Gypsy. They could call it Coming Up Roses. Even if Lord Webber doesn’t do another one, there’s bound to be another producer who sees money in them musical theatre hills. The publicity for the theatre production has been huge and ticket sales have been very healthy. Ka-ching!