So, as Lord Lloyd Webber launches his latest hunt for a new West End leading lady (and her dog, if we are to believe the rumours) with Over the Rainbow (yes, The Wizard of Oz will be coming to the West End soon folks…sigh), I am sunk into a further state of depression for my poor professional performer friends, desperately struggling to get their ‘big break’.
I recall the weeks I spent listening to my friend ‘Laura’, and her tales of woe over the fact she got so close during the preliminary stages in the Lord’s last search for a star, I’d Do Anything. Having only bothered with one episode apiece during the Sound of Music and Joseph searches, I decided that maybe I should pay closer attention to this one, as Laura had taken quite a knock over her dismissal, and bias aside, she is an excellent performer.
So, there I was settling down in front of the TV, braced for what was to come…and thank goodness I was braced! I don’t recall ever having seen a more trivial waste of time. It looked interesting enough to start with but it quickly disintegrated into the same tired format that you see with The X Factor, American Idol, etc, etc. It’s sadly the same old story. I end up wondering how one of these girls singing ‘I Need a Hero’ with more vocal gymnastics than the next girl, singing ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’, can show who would be most suitable in the role of Nancy in Oliver!. Needless to say I turned off shortly after…but I do still believe the best remaining girl won.
And now, despite being vocal in his dismissal of such programmes as merely a way of gaining free advertising for the show in question, Kevin Spacey has let it be known that he is in various negotiations with TV producers regarding a similar style show. His aim would be to cast a role in one of the Old Vic’s upcoming slate. Interesting from a man who said the following to the BBC of the search for a Joseph: “(They) are not a commercial operation, and I felt it was crossing the line unfairly.” and when asked if impacted negatively on theatre; “They made £22 million at the box office so I don’t think they’d say it’s impacted (badly) on them, but I do think it’s imbalanced.”
So, it seems that Spacey perhaps was less concerned with the fact that the musicals had been promoted, than he hadn’t got there first. The word is that the negotiations may take some time, as Spacey has already said that cameras cannot enter the rehearsals, so we wait with baited breath.
The good news is, that following on from the acclaimed revival of Inherit the Wind starring Spacey himself, the Old Vic will be bringing us well-cast revivals of Six Degrees of Separation starring Anthony Head and Lesley Manville, as well as 2010′s Bridge Project: The Tempest and As You Like It starring Stephen Dillane, Juliet Rylance and Thomas Sadoski, so there’s plenty to breathe a sigh of relief over.
I am left with the question, what could he call a reality show casting one of these?…the mind boggles!
