Omigod! Lee Mead is joining the cast of Legally Blonde from mid-June.

The winner of TV talent show Any Dream Will Do will replace original cast member Alex Gaumond in the role of Emmett Forest.

Since winning Any Dream Will Do, Lee Mead has starred in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (from 2007 to 2009) and more recently, as Fiyero in long-running musical Wicked. The announcement comes in a big week for Legally Blonde The Musical: the show won three awards at the Oliviers on Sunday.

It’s also great news for his wife, Denise van Outen, who’s currently playing in the same show. Can anyone give us any other husband and wife couples from West End musical casts? Tell us in the comments below, please!

And I’ve another piece of casting news, this time from the Menier Chocolate Factory. Their new musial, Smash! will now be starring West Wing star Richard Schiff instead of Kerry Shale, who has withdrawn from the show for personal reasons. Schiff joins Laurence Olivier Award winner Tom Conti in Jack Rosenthal’s rarely performed comedy.

In other theatre news this week, British writer Stephen Poliakoff is returning to theatre after 12 years, with a new play at the Almeida Theatre in the autumn. Poliakoff has written more for screen than stage in recent years, but returns with drama My City in September. Other news from the Almeida includes Neil LaBute’s Reasons To Be Pretty, coming to the theatre from November. If you’re a Neil LaBute fan, and you can’t wait for this, check out In A Forest, Dark And Deep currently showing at the Vaudeville.

Finally, last year’s hit production of Yes, Prime Minister is back! You can catch the pun-filled political powerplay at the Apollo Theatre from 6 July until 17 September. British PM Jim Hacker and Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby will be played Richard McCabe and Simon Williams, who are currently starring in the touring production.

On a brighter note: if you were a fan of I’d Do Anything on the BBC, I’ve got news about two of the show’s stars: firstly, gorgeous winner Lee Mead is heading over to the dark (green) side, to play Fiyero in the ever-brilliant Wicked from 10 May.

And secondly, it turns out Daniel Boys‘ run as Princeton in Avenue Q at the Gielgud is “only for now”. He’ll be replaced by Paul Spicer in March. London’s naughtiest musical is also moving to a new home as well as getting a new cast: it’ll be shocking you into fits of sniggers at Wyndham’s Theatre from 19 March.

Other exiting cast news comes from Down Under: Jane Turner, who you’ll know from Kath And Kim is coming to the West End in May. Holding The Man opens at the Trafalgar Studios on 4 May (previews from 23 April), and is about being young and gay in 70s Australia.

Finally, bringing a touch of sunshine to my January, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (one of my favouritest things in the whole of London) have announced their 2010 season. There’s nothing like planning ahead to warm summery evenings in the outdoors with great theatre in a wonderful setting to lift a grey sky. And what treats do they have lined up for us? Well, under the header “Kings and Rogues”, there’s lots of royalty! Macbeth, Henry VIII and Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and an exciting sounding new play called Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton. Plus a revival of the Globe’s acclaimed 2008 production of The Merry Wives of Windsor (which I’m looking forward to as I missed it that year) and another newbie, Bedlam, by Nell Leyshon. (Finally, a female on the list of Globe playwrights!)

I’m off to dream about standing in the fading sunshine with a £5 groundling ticket… Roll on summer!