When Lee Mead donned Joseph’s technicolour dreamcoat for the last time in January 2009 after a sell out two-year run of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical, it would have been a fair guess that the star would move straight on to another all-singing, all-dancing West End extravaganza.

While Mead, who won the chance to star as Joseph after triumphing in the BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do, will be returning to the world of heightened emotions and jazz hands in May when he joins the cast of Wicked, in the meantime he has spent the year honing his acting skills at the Lee Strasberg School in New York and Mead is now putting these skills to the test by making his debut in a play.

He is currently touring the country playing the title role in Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde short story, and the show calls in at Richmond Theatre from Monday, with Mead delighted to be trying something new.

“It was a big step choosing my first play and, as its Oscar Wilde, it is a big challenge too,” he says.

“I think my experience in New York is really helping with my acting in this play.

“It was a funny time when Joseph ended – a couple of West End musicals came up and that would have been the natural step, but I felt I wanted to branch out and challenge myself.”

In the play, Mead’s character Lord Arthur, a pillar of Victorian society, is on the verge of marrying his beloved, Sybil, when a clairvoyant tells him that he is destined to commit a murder.

He decides to protect his future wife by choosing a member of his family, or one of his friends, to bump off, with plenty of comic capering starting from there.

Mead, who rec- ently married TV presenter Denise van Outen, says that being part of a cast that features experienced actors, including Gary Wilmot, Kate O’Mara and David Ross, has helped him settle into his role, and he is hoping to use his developing acting skills when he returns to musicals with Wicked.

“This experience will help me when I’m next in a musical and as I go forward with more plays,” he adds.

“It was one of the main reasons that I am doing this play.

“I’d like to look back on my career and say I did a mixture of work.

“If you work in one area all the time you can get really good at it, but it is still important to stretch yourself and set new standards and goals.

“David Ross told me he has done more than 200 plays and so acting alongside people with such experience like him, Kate and Gary is great because you learn so much and it really enhances you as an actor.”

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, Richmond Theatre, February 8-13. To book tickets, visit ambassadortickets.com